Weglot vs WPML (and TranslatePress, Polylang): comparison and switching on WordPress without losing rankings

Weglot vs WPML is first and foremost a choice between two models: a translation platform that runs outside WordPress and keeps your translations with it, or a plugin that keeps your translations in your own WordPress database. TranslatePress and Polylang belong to the second camp, but each works in its own way. Weglot is quicker to set up and translates everything automatically; the plugins give you ownership, control over URLs and a licence instead of a price per word. In this article we compare the four fairly and then show step by step how to move from Weglot to a plugin on WordPress without losing your rankings.

If you are also considering other platforms or SaaS tools, read our broader comparison of Weglot alternatives. The general plan for any translation tool and any CMS is in our guide on how to leave a translation tool without losing SEO.

How do Weglot, WPML, TranslatePress and Polylang differ?

Sources, checked on 7 October 2026: Weglot pricing, Weglot features, Weglot on cancelling, WPML plans, WPML URL formats, TranslatePress pricing, TranslatePress settings, Polylang pricing and Polylang URLs. The amounts per plan are in our article on Weglot pricing.

Weglot: fast and fully automatic, but rented

You install Weglot in an afternoon. According to the features page, your translations are “stored by Weglot, accessible through your Weglot Dashboard, and not in your CMS”. That is the strength and the weakness at the same time: you do not have to build anything in WordPress, but you own nothing. What Weglot does well for SEO and where the translation quality falls short is in our Weglot review.

WPML: the most complete, with the steepest learning curve

WPML creates a separate version of every page, post and product per language, with string translation for themes, menus and forms. It works with most page builders and with WooCommerce in the plans from Multilingual CMS upwards. According to WPML’s documentation, you choose per site whether languages sit in directories, on their own domain or subdomain or as a parameter, and you can also put your main language in a directory. That makes WPML the most flexible choice for rebuilding an existing Weglot URL structure exactly.

TranslatePress: closest to the way Weglot works

TranslatePress translates the page as it is displayed, with a visual editor on the page itself. If you are used to Weglot’s visual editor, you will quickly feel at home. The difference: the translations live in your WordPress database, and according to the pricing page they keep working when your licence expires. Languages sit in one directory per language; you set the language slug in the URL yourself.

Polylang: light and free to start

Polylang, like WPML, creates separate translated posts per language. The free plugin on wordpress.org is enough for many sites; Polylang Pro adds translated slugs and XLIFF import and export. According to Polylang’s documentation, you can hide the language code of your main language, so your existing Dutch URLs stay unchanged.

Which one should you pick when leaving Weglot?

A practical rule of thumb from our projects:

• Online shop, many languages or a complex page builder: WPML, because it covers WooCommerce, strings and page builders most broadly.
• You want to work the way you did in Weglot: TranslatePress, because the visual editor and the string model are most like what you know.
• Simple site, small budget, technical team: Polylang, because the free version covers a lot and the plugin stays light.

One warning: pick the plugin based on your URL structure in Weglot. If Weglot ran on subdomains (fr.example.com) and you want to keep them, plugins without subdomain support are out, or you plan a deliberate move to directories with 301s.

Switching from Weglot to a WordPress plugin in eight steps

This is the order we follow ourselves. The principle comes from Google’s guidelines for a site move with URL changes: map every old URL, keep it or redirect it permanently, and keep hreflang and canonicals correct.

1. Inventory every translated URL

Crawl your site per language and export the indexed URLs per language from Search Console. Note the structure: subdirectory (/fr/) or subdomain, translated slugs or not, and which pages bring in traffic and leads in each language. This list is your checklist for the whole switch.

2. Export your translations from Weglot

Weglot exports translations as CSV or XLIFF per language pair, according to the Weglot Academy. According to the pricing page, export is included in the plans from Advanced. You get translation pairs (original sentence and translation), not WordPress pages. Keep the export, even if you decide to have the most important pages rewritten.

3. Install the plugin on a staging environment

Build the new language versions on a copy of your site, not on the live site. As long as Weglot runs live, it serves your translated directories; a second translation plugin on the same site clashes with it.

4. Rebuild the languages with the same URL structure

Set exactly the same language codes in the plugin as in Weglot (/fr/, /en/) and the same place for your main language (usually without a directory). If you had translated slugs in Weglot, create the same slugs in the plugin. Every URL that stays the same is a URL you do not have to redirect.

5. Put the translations into the plugin

Create the translated version of each page, using the Weglot export as the source. With WPML and Polylang these are separate translated pages, with TranslatePress translated strings. Do not forget the parts outside the pages: menus, forms, buttons, footer, SEO titles and meta descriptions per language, and alt text. This is also the moment to have the pages that bring in leads checked by a native speaker.

6. Put a 301 on every URL that changes

Compare the URL list from step 1 with the new site. Every old URL that no longer exists gets a permanent server-side redirect to the new version in the same language. Google recommends permanent server-side redirects and JavaScript redirects only when nothing else is possible. If you moved from subdomains to directories, redirect every subdomain URL and also update the DNS records that pointed to Weglot.

7. Check hreflang, canonicals and the sitemap

Every language version must list itself and all other versions in hreflang; if two pages do not point to each other, Google ignores the tags, as the documentation on localized versions explains. Give every page a canonical to itself in its own language, not to the Dutch version. Test after going live with our hreflang checker, which also shows whether any Weglot traces are still active. How the tags work is in our explainer on hreflang.

8. Switch over, remove Weglot and measure

Put the new site live, deactivate and remove the Weglot plugin and any Weglot scripts or language switchers in your theme, and submit your new sitemap in Search Console. Follow indexing and positions per language for several weeks; Google warns of temporary fluctuations during recrawling. Only then do you cancel your Weglot subscription, with your export safely stored. How cancelling works exactly is in our guide on exporting your Weglot translations.

When are you better off staying on Weglot?

A switch is not always worth it. If you have a small site with one extra language, do not need translated URLs and have no plans for more languages, the smallest Weglot plan is cheaper than the work of a migration. And if you have no technical help to manage a plugin, Weglot can be the calmest choice. The maths tips when your site grows, opens a third language or you want to own your translations: we work that out in what Weglot really costs.

Frequently asked questions about Weglot vs WPML

Have the switch done for you

Want to move from Weglot to WPML, TranslatePress or Polylang without putting your rankings at risk? With our translation tool migration we rebuild every language version in WordPress, with the same URLs or a complete redirect plan, and check hreflang and canonicals before and after the switch.

See the translation tool migration