You’ve launched your WordPress site for your home country. Growth is good. But you want to continue this growth by translating your website into multiple languages to reach new countries and markets.
You can hire a professional, but this only costs money, money you don’t have. You’re on a budget right?
The better option is to use online platforms, plugins, and apps. They’ll help you translate your website for a fraction of the cost. But, there’s one problem: Which ones do you choose among the many options available?
We’ll simplify that decision by comparing two possible solutions: Bablic and WPML. By analyzing both solutions and comparing them against one another, we’ll reveal which solution is better for your WordPress site.
Let’s jump into it.
Bablic
Established in 2011, Bablic is changing the face of website localization. The platform offers a simple, intuitive solution. Website owners can translate their entire site by pasting 1 line of code.
You don’t need prior coding or programming knowledge, and users can manage the website localization process themselves through a visual editor.
The visual editor lets you make on-page and in-text edits to pages, menus, tabs, and widgets. You can right-click any element of your site and edit it, including text, images, and CSS.
You also have the option of machine and human translation to start and, the platform connects you with professional translation services.
You may think that these extra features will cause bloat. But this isn’t the case thanks to optimized CDN and advanced caching local storage.
The platform offers built-in international SEO features to optimize your site for any country you want to rank for. 4 different packages are available: Basic, Plus, Premium, and Ultimate. Price differs according to page views, number of languages, and the number of machine words.
Basic
The price is $24/month (billed annually). You receive 2 additional languages, 150,000 page views/month, and 50,000 machine words.
Plus
The price is $66/month (billed annually). You receive 7 extra languages, 500,000 page views/month, and 200,000 machine words.
Pro
The price is $249/month (billed annually). You receive unlimited extra languages, 2,000,000 page views/month, and 600,000 machine words.
WPML
WPML is a WordPress Multilingual Plugin. In fact, it’s a suite of plugins, developed by OnTheGoSystems. The well-established company has been around since 2007, and as the name suggests, it’s compatible with most WordPress themes.
WPML provides a complete package with the ability to translate pages, posts, taxonomy menus, the text in themes and much, much more.
They also have some SEO features and provide full support for any issues. They guarantee to respond to queries within 12 hours.
WPML supports 40 languages, and you can also add your own ( e.g., Mexican Spanish) via their translation editor.
This plugin caters to different needs through the various packages they offer. A once-off-cost and yearly renewal fee apply. We explain the packages below:
Multilingual Blog
Starting at $29 once-off, with an annual renewal cost of $15, this package is ideal if you have a blog and want to translate content yourself. But, it’s NOT suitable for e-commerce.
Multilingual CMS
Multilingual CMS is ideal for those running websites for clients. The package includes all the features of the Multilingual Blog and more. You can manually translate your site and turn WordPress users into translators. You also have the ability to translate widgets and custom fields. You have multilingual e-commerce support, CMS Navigations, sticky links, and much, much more.
You also have the ability to translate widgets and custom fields. You have multilingual e-commerce support, CMS Navigations, sticky links, and much, much more.
Multilingual CMS Lifetime
For $195 once off you get all the features in the Multilingual CMS plan for a lifetime. There are no renewal fees.
While WPML packs a punch, there’s a new rising star when it comes to multilingual website translation.
The Showdown
Both are reliable options for your WordPress site, but there can only be one winner.
Let’s see where both platforms excel:
- Both offer different packages for your needs.
- Both offer multilingual SEO options which are imperative for online success.
- Both provide quality support. Admittedly, WPML has been around for longer, so they have a larger support network.
But, in reading reviews, there were talks of the company delivering poor support in some cases. Generally, though, the support is solid.
Now, how are these platforms different?
Price: WPML is cheaper than Bablic, but the reduced cost is a reflection of limitations concerning features, languages, and convenience.
Features
Bablic offers human, professional, and machine translations while WPML only lets you translate content, yourself. Bablic packs more of a punch with the ability to make on-page edits through their visual editor. It’s intuitive, it’s simple, and you don’t need prior coding knowledge.
Languages
Bablic offers more languages (over 100 vs. 40) which is helpful, especially if you want to grow on a global scale.
Convenience
With Bablic you don’t have to create extra pages and menus, which saves you a lot of time. You merely enter your URL on their homepage and choose from machine and human translation to start.
Bablic also offers the following, which WPML cannot provide such as:
- Automated translation
- The ability to manually edit the translations and invite collaborators.
- The ability to change page styling on your site to match your new language. This includes fonts, margins, colors and so on.
- Automatically displays the correct language for a user thanks to browser language detection.
- A Glossary
- Translation of a pages meta content for improved SEO.
- Ability to make live edits via the visual editor.
The Verdict + Conclusion
WPML is well established, has an extensive support network, and is better priced.
But, Bablic ticks more boxes.
The platform offers machine and human translation. It offers more language options, and you don’t have to create those extra pages, which saves time.
But, more importantly, it provides the visual editor which is a leap forward in website localization. With a simple, intuitive interface you can translate your site on the page and make extra styling changes. And, it all starts by only pasting a line of code. As simple as that!
So, are you ready to start using Bablic? With a free 14-day trial you have nothing to lose.