WPGlotty versus WPML
Looking for a WPML alternative?
WPML is the plugin most agencies have used at some point, and the one most of them have a story about. The two things people come looking for an alternative to are the credits and the plan that turns out not to be enough. WPGlotty is a WordPress translation plugin with neither.
Where they differ
The differences that decide it.
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01
Credits are a currency with an exchange rate
WPML sells translation credits: ninety thousand on the CMS plan, a hundred and eighty thousand on Agency. A word costs one credit through Microsoft, two through Google or DeepL, and four through their own engine. Per language. So the same page translated into four languages costs four times over, and the price of a word depends on which engine you chose.
WPGlotty has no currency. Your provider charges you for what you used, in euros, on an invoice you can read. Nothing is converted into anything, and the number in front of you is the number.
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02
The cheap plan is not the plugin
Multilingual Blog is €39 a year and does not include the Advanced Translation Editor, String Translation, WooCommerce support, page builder support, or a single translation credit. A real site reaches that ceiling on the first afternoon, and the answer is the €99 plan.
WPGlotty has one feature list. The smallest licence has the editor, the string screen, WooCommerce, every page builder, the SEO output and all 108 languages, because there is nothing else to sell you.
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03
It reads the page, not the database
WPML works through WordPress content types, which is why its setup asks so many questions and why anything it has not been taught about goes untranslated. Page builders, custom fields and half-finished integrations are what fill its support forum.
WPGlotty reads the finished page exactly as a visitor gets it. If it is on the screen it is in the queue, so builder output, menus, widgets, image descriptions and SEO fields come along with no configuration at all.
Side by side
WPGlotty and WPML, line by line.
| What | WPGlotty | WPML |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the translating | Claude, DeepL or OpenAI, on your own account | Google, DeepL, Microsoft or WPML, paid in credits |
| What a translated word costs | Whatever your provider charges you. We add nothing on top | 1 to 4 credits per word per language, by engine |
| Words a year | No limit from us. You set your own monthly ceiling | 90,000 or 180,000 credits, so fewer words than that |
| Languages | 108, on every plan | Unlimited |
| Sites per licence | 1 · 5 · unlimited by plan | 1 · 3 · unlimited production sites by plan |
| Price | €36 to €180 a year | €39 · €99 · €199 a year |
| Features held back for a higher plan | Nothing. Every feature on every licence | The editor, string translation, WooCommerce, page builders and menus all need the CMS plan |
| Where translations are stored | In your own database and your own language files | In your own WordPress database |
| If you stop paying | They keep being served, in every language, for as long as the site exists | Existing translations keep being served |
| Edit a translation on the page | Click any sentence on your own site and rewrite it | In the Advanced Translation Editor, on the CMS plan |
| SEO output | hreflang, translated slugs and sitemaps, included | Included on the CMS plan |
Figures for WPML from wpml.org/purchase, checked on 3 September 2026. If something here has gone out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.
What changes
What you get the day you move.
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No more credit arithmetic
Nothing to convert, nothing to top up, no engine that costs four times another. Your provider charges you in euros for what you used and that is the whole calculation.
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Every feature on the smallest licence
The editor, the string screen, WooCommerce, every page builder, menus, the SEO output and all 108 languages. There is no CMS plan to reach, because there is nothing held back.
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A setup that takes minutes, not an afternoon
No content types to configure and no translation management to think about. It reads the finished page, so whatever is on the screen is in the queue.
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Page builders that just work
Elementor, Divi, Breakdance, Bricks and the rest come out translated without an integration, because the output is what gets read rather than the database behind it.
Before you move
What people ask.
- How do credits compare to paying a provider directly?
- Count your words, multiply by your languages, then by the credit rate for your engine, and compare that with the same word count at your provider list price. On any site with real content the direct route wins, and it wins by more the more you translate, because credits are bought in blocks and provider tokens are bought by the word.
- Do my WPML translations come across?
- No. They live in WPML tables in a shape only WPML reads. Retranslating the site is the practical route and takes one run.
- Does WPGlotty do WooCommerce?
- Yes, on every licence, including the smallest. Products, variations, attributes and checkout strings are on the page, so they are translated like everything else.
See the difference on your own site.
Install it on a staging copy, translate one language, and read the result. Five minutes and a euro of provider credit is the whole cost of finding out, and the translations you make are written into your own database from the first sentence.