WPML
WPML review. It’s a pity there’s no free version, but it’s a premium-worthy multilingual plugin!
It is the most popular multilingual plugin for WordPress. There were many competitors as well. Trying to surpass this plugin’s dominance… There used to be many complaints that using this plugin would slow down the site. So, I also tried using other multilingual plugins in the past… However, now it has become much faster and, being an older plugin, it has many features. Especially, the performance of the editor is very good. As I will explain later, for those who want to use WordPress as a blog rather than a shopping site and are looking for a multilingual plugin, it has virtually become the only choice. This is a review of WPML.
Table of Contents
- WPML review. It’s a pity there’s no free version, but it’s a premium-worthy multilingual plugin!
- WPML, being the oldest multilingual plugin, is compatible with almost all WordPress plugins!
- WPML has a very good built-in editor!
- WPML is a plugin that does not have a free version. Instead, limited to paid services, its cost-effectiveness is not bad.
- If you want to operate a multilingual “blog” on WordPress, it’s practically the only choice.
- WPML conclusion
WPML, being the oldest multilingual plugin, is compatible with almost all WordPress plugins!
You might think this is a given, but our WordPress contains many errors.
In fact, translation plugins themselves don’t have a lot of basic functionality. Supporting multilingual translation and multilingual SEO is the core and almost the entirety of their functionality. Of course, supporting multilingual SEO is a crucial function that most multilingual plugins provide, but both well-known plugins like Polylang and Translatepress require their paid versions for multilingual SEO support. It’s unfortunate that users have to pay for this valuable feature, but they need to make a living…
The functional advantage of WPML is that it’s one of the oldest multilingual plugins and widely recognized, so it rarely conflicts with themes or other plugins, which is a significant benefit. Many plugins tout not conflicting with WPML as a notable advantage. Surprisingly, because of WordPress being open-source, there are many cases where plugins conflict with each other, causing issues with the appearance of blogs.
I also used another translation plugin before, and when I deactivated that plugin, something like [tr] was attached to the beginning and end of all my posts, so I had to manually delete them one by one, which was quite a hassle. Looking back, I realize that stability is quite important during those times.
WPML has a very good built-in editor!
In the past, it was somewhat ordinary, but now it feels like using a professional translation program.
In fact, this was partly why I used a plugin called translatepress in the past, many multilingual plugins essentially operate in a way similar to creating a post in another language. They create multiple versions of the same post in different languages, displaying the appropriate one based on the language. Therefore, in the past, there wasn’t a separate editor. Translatepress, at least, allowed for translating directly on the web interface using a Front-End method, making it somewhat different from simply creating a new post.
Now, WPML has released its own editor called the advanced editor. And its quality is quite good. First of all, instead of a continuous stream of previously written posts, it is divided into sentences, allowing translation of each part. Therefore, you can translate directly and immediately. Also, bold text and links are handled as blocks, and it’s possible to translate the text itself, avoiding cases where code appears as in translatepress.
Moreover, for link parts, if you enter like ‘https’ in the text search section, the links appear, allowing for editing links differently depending on the language, which is also beneficial. It’s also advantageous because you can adjust the links differently depending on the language when you modify those links.
Let me add a bit to the previous paragraph. It’s hard to express verbally… my expression is lacking yet… When I used Translatepress before, it translated reasonably well, but in parts with links, instead of English, it displayed code…, making translation very cumbersome, and I couldn’t be sure if my translation was correct. Additionally, it supports Google automatic translation, but I couldn’t be sure if the translation was accurate. Ultimately, this plugin should also be used for things like shopping malls, and it wasn’t quite suitable for bloggers.
WPML is a plugin that does not have a free version. Instead, limited to paid services, its cost-effectiveness is not bad.
Plugins that offer more advanced services are very expensive. Is WPML actually a better choice?
WPML used to sell a lifetime version in the past, but a few years ago, they discontinued lifetime licenses and became a fully paid plugin. They consider offering a free version initially and then switching to a paid version as a kind of marketing strategy, so they argue that it’s actually expensive in a way like this. Certainly, looking at the price alone, the version that includes automatic translation and other features costs $99 annually, while the basic version costs $39 per year, making it relatively cheap compared to other expensive translation plugins.
Personally, a better point is that if I renew automatically based on the $99 I paid, it decreases to about $74, so it’s definitely cheaper than other options. To properly use Weglot on my blog, I would need to pay nearly $150 annually, translatepress costs €99 per year, and Polylang pro is also around $100.
Relatively speaking, it may be cheaper, but objectively, it’s not that cheap. For example, a key difference between the $39 and $99 plans is the automatic translation feature, which uses services like Google Translate API (supports Google, Microsoft, Deepl – all three support Korean translation quality is not particularly good… especially Deepl doesn’t yet support Korean at that time), incurring additional fees. In comparison, Translatepress allows users to set up their own Google API fees.
Google Translate API can be used to some extent for free, but when I ran automatic translation on my site, sudden fees of tens of thousands of won appeared. However, WPML uses its own credits for automatic translation usage, and additional payments are also made through WPML credits for automatic translation.
This method of using its own credits may seem favorable, but honestly, the cost-effectiveness is not great. The free version provides 2000 credits per month, with Microsoft Translator using 1 credit per character, Google Translate using 2 credits, and Deepl using 3 credits. Google Translate is the most reliable and is set as the default translator, but even then, it amounts to only about a thousand characters. It’s not even enough for a single properly written blog post…
Even with paying $99, they provide tens of thousands of credits, but those are quickly used up. Just to give you an idea, when I wrote this, I had about 450 blog posts, and even after using up the initial tens of thousands of credits provided, I needed an additional 640,000 credits… They even offer separate credit payments, showing how expensive it can get.
However, I’m not sure if I should find comfort in this, but Google Translate doesn’t perform that well. Sometimes there are decent sentences, but honestly, for Korean, Naver Papago seems to be the best. So, if you think positively that you won’t use it anyway, you might feel a bit relieved when using it. Alternatively, it might be good for translations into languages other than just Korean and English.
I haven’t tried it yet, but if there are primary language, translation language 1, and translation language 2, it’s said to automatically translate not only from the primary language but also from translation language 1 to translation language 2. Therefore, if you think positively about its functionality, it might be even better.
If you want to operate a multilingual “blog” on WordPress, it’s practically the only choice.
If you intend to write multiple posts rather than just simple pages, this plugin becomes even more valuable.
Given the editor’s excellent performance as described in a somewhat TMI level of detail earlier, those running a blog essentially have no other viable option. Other aspects aside, it’s because of this link part… However, WordPress typically operates more page-focused rather than post-focused like for e-commerce, so in that case, using other multilingual plugins shouldn’t be a major issue. In this regard, Polylang, widely used as a free version multilingual plugin, could be a better option as it is free.
Nevertheless, for those looking to professionally operate a multilingual WordPress site or blog, choosing WPML without hesitation is certainly not a bad choice. Personally, even though my visitor count is low these days, I think WordPress has a very small user base in Korea (I read somewhere that Korean users are only 0.8%…) Despite posting one article a day, visitor numbers haven’t increased at all, so I’m considering expanding globally. My English skills are lacking, so translating takes me a bit longer, but I hope for good results someday…
WPML conclusion
Good point
- The Advanced Editor is very, very good.
- As it is old, it is compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins.
- It offers good value for money compared to other multilingual plugins.
Bad point
- Objectively, it is still expensive. Especially when using automatic translation…
- It’s a bit disappointing that there’s no free version.
