Compare Multilingual Plugins

Four plugins, one table: what each one costs, how each stores translations, and what you get without paying.

The four side by side

WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress are the plugins most people weigh PerfLocale against. This table puts all four in one view. The PerfLocale column is checked against the plugin source for version 1.0.1; the other three columns repeat what our detailed pages already document, and nothing more.

Feature	PerfLocale	WPML	Polylang	TranslatePress
Price and licence
Price	Free	From €39/year (Multilingual Blog); CMS €99, Agency €199	Free core; Pro from €99/year	Free core; Personal €99, Business €199, Developer €349 per year
Licence model	GPL-2.0+ throughout; no paid tier, no paid addons	Commercial subscription; the code is GPL-2.0+	Core open source; Pro is proprietary	Core open source; Pro addons are proprietary
What costs extra	Nothing — every feature ships in the free plugin	The plugin itself; WooCommerce, Translation Management and String Translation are bundled from the CMS tier up	WooCommerce (a separate €99/year addon), ACF, XLIFF export and DeepL are Pro	More than one secondary language, SEO Pack, DeepL, custom fields, GeoIP detection and Translator Accounts
How translation works
Where translations are stored	A separate WordPress post per language, linked in the plugin’s own `perflocale_translation_groups` and `perflocale_translation_links` tables	A separate post per language	A separate post per language	One post; translations stored separately
String translation	Scanner, plus file mode (generated `.l10n.php`) or database mode, with CLDR plural rules and gettext contexts	Bundled from the CMS tier up	In the free version; XLIFF and PO export are Pro	Frontend editor, for strings visible on the page
Machine-translation providers	DeepL, Google, Microsoft, LibreTranslate, a custom agency endpoint, and the WordPress 7.0 AI Client	DeepL, Google, Microsoft (credits-based)	DeepL (Pro only)	Google Translate; DeepL is Pro
URLs, SEO and WooCommerce
URL and routing modes	Subdirectory, subdomain, per-domain and query parameter	Subdirectory, subdomain, per-domain	Subdirectory, subdomain, per-domain	Subdirectory on free; subdomain and per-domain on Business+ via an addon
hreflang output	HTML head and XML sitemap alternates out of the box, plus an HTTP `Link` header when Hreflang Placement is set to HTTP Header or Both under PerfLocale → Settings → SEO	HTML head and sitemap	HTML head only	Head and sitemap via the SEO Pack addon (Personal+); no HTTP `Link` header
WooCommerce	Included: products, variations, attributes and categories, inventory sync, multi-currency (you supply the rate source) and order emails in the customer’s language	Bundled from the CMS tier up	Polylang for WooCommerce, a separate €99/year addon	In the free core, through the visual editor; product slugs need SEO Pack (Personal+)
Platform and developer surface
Hooks, REST and WP-CLI	200+ hooks, a full-CRUD REST API under `perflocale/v1`, and a `wp perflocale` command set	Its own API and hooks; REST and WP-CLI are limited	`pll_` functions and a documented filter set; `wp pll` in Pro 3.8+	`trp_` filters and actions; no dedicated translation REST API and no WP-CLI
Migration importers	WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress, from PerfLocale → Settings → Export & Import or `wp perflocale migrate`	—	—	—
Multisite	✓ (languages and translations per subsite)	✓	✓	✓
Minimum WordPress and PHP	WordPress 6.4, PHP 8.1	—	—	—

The competitor columns describe each plugin’s free version unless the cell says otherwise, and they repeat only what our own detailed pages already document — a dash means that page makes no claim either way, not that the feature is missing. Prices are the vendors’ published list prices and change without our noticing; check before you buy. Full detail, including migration steps, is on the three detailed pages: PerfLocale vs WPML, PerfLocale vs Polylang and PerfLocale vs TranslatePress.

Where the others are stronger

WPML bundles a translation memory, a glossary, and an assignment-and-deadline workflow. PerfLocale has none of those — a Translator role ships, but there is no assignment or status pipeline — so if that is how your team translates, WPML is the better fit. TranslatePress lets editors translate by clicking text on the live site, and adds an automatic translation memory and a publish-when-ready gate. Polylang keeps things deliberately simple: you translate in the standard WordPress editor, which works well on a smaller site.

These are alternatives, not companions. PerfLocale detects WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress at boot and stops with an admin notice rather than fighting over the same hooks, so deactivate the old plugin first, then activate PerfLocale and run the importer. The importers read the old plugin’s database tables rather than its runtime, and they never modify or delete anything it owns, so your source data is untouched and a partial run can be re-run.

Detailed comparisons

Each page goes row by row through features, architecture, licensing and the migration path.