Polylang

Polylang icon
Polylang is the preeminent WordPress plugin for creating a multilingual site with ease. It offers fast and intuitive creation of bilingual and multilingual Web pages and is compatible with all popular themes and plugins.
What We Think:
94%
Very highly recommended!

Polylang: A Comprehensive Review

Polylang is a revolutionary WordPress plugin that allows aspiring webmasters to create a multilingual website that includes content in their desired language. With versions running all the way back to WordPress 2.7, Polylang has become the go-to plugin for multilingual content production for webmasters worldwide. If you’re looking to create a website with more than one language, Polylang is the perfect tool for you.

Polylang: Breakdown

The Polylang languages admin panel

The Polylang plugin is one of the most powerhouse options for easily creating multilingual WordPress websites and content. The plugin is a lightweight translation plugin that’s compatible with all major versions of WordPress from 2.7 to 5.2. Polylang allows users to create and manage translations for pages, posts, comments, tags, categories, media, and custom post types that are all managed in the same WordPress administration panel that you are accustomed to. You can easily filter posts, pages, and media of the same language; and the plugin also allows content writers to translate slugs, which helps to create URLs that are also in the respective languages. Plus, Polylang is also translation ready, meaning you don’t need to create a full translation every single time.

The plugin also comes with many more features to make translation easier, such as the ability to set a language as the default for visitors that have yet to make a selection, allows you to translate your widgets and navigation menus, and comes with powerful integration with other plugins. The latest version of the Polylang plugin supports over 28 languages, and allows webmasters to control the language that is used for emails. The plugin also includes robust support for RTL scripts, and allows for easier translation of themes for a more professional look. Polylang also comes integrated with major translation services like Microsoft Translator and the Google Translate API for further customization and automation of the language selection process.

Pros of Using Polylang

Simplicity of Language Management: Using Polylang makes it easy to select and manage language settings on your WordPress website. It's easy to organize, maintain, and plan for different language options for your visitors. The dashboard interface is intuitive and makes it simple for both novice and expert users to manage the languages used on the site.

Translate Site Content Easily: Using Polylang, you can quickly and easily translate all types of content available on a WordPress site – from posts and pages to widgets, custom post types, menus and even URLs. This plugin offers an efficient way to manage the different language versions of your content, and makes it easy to switch between languages for quick editing tasks and updates.

Powerful Shortcodes & Widgets: Polylang is designed to make it easy to add the necessary language options to your WordPress pages and posts. With powerful shortcodes and widgets, you can customize the way language options are displayed and quickly add them to any area of your WordPress site. This makes Polylang a great choice for multi-lingual sites where users need access to quick language switching options.

Integration with Other Plugins: When it comes to integrating other WordPress plugins with Polylang, this plugin offers a number of options. It is compatible with WooCommerce, making it easy to create multi-lingual stores and products. It is also integrated with WPML, making it easier to manage and switch between languages for post and page content.

Excellent Customer Support: The Polylang team is highly responsive and helpful when it comes to addressing customer questions and support issues. They provide plenty of documentation and FAQs to help users understand the more complex features of the plugin, and their customer support staff is available to answer any queries you may have.

Cons of Using Polylang

Technical Limitations: The Polylang plugin offers a range of features and tools, but as with any plugin or software, it has its limitations. Users will be restricted to the settings and capabilities of the plugin, which may not be suitable for more complex projects. Furthermore, the plugin may not always provide compatibility with all themes and plugins, and this can result in issues with functionality and compatibility.

Potential Security Risks: When installing any plugin, there is always a potential for security and compatibility issues. It is important that users keep their plugins up to date in order to keep away potentials risks and vulnerabilities. If users fail to stay up to date, their site can be open to a variety of issues that can cause data loss and potential malicious activity.

Potential Performance Issues: The use of any plugin can potentially cause slowdowns on a website and such is the case with the Polylang plugin. This is especially true when there are a lot of languages and strings being used throughout a website, which can consume more power. Additionally, the plugin works more efficiently when there is a properly optimized environment with an adequate amount of resources.

Complex Setup: Setting up Polylang can be confusing due to its various options and settings. There are also a lot of strings involved that have to be set up correctly, and this can be a daunting task for novice users. The plugin also requires an understanding of common web development principles, such as coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Potential Licensing Fees: It’s important to keep in mind that Polylang is a freemium plugin, meaning that users must purchase a license for more advanced features and tools. Depending on the needs of the user and the size of their project, the price may be too much for some users and they should evaluate other options.

94% Very highly recommended!

In conclusion

From translation ready feature sets to friendly language settings, the Polylang WordPress Plugin is a must-have for any aspiring webmaster looking to build a multilingual website or blog. The plugin comes with more than enough features to give you complete control of the language selection process, and can be easily configured in sync with other plugins and services like Microsoft Translator and the Google Translate API. Plus, Polylang is completely free to download and use, and is compatible with all major versions of WordPress from 2.7 to 5.2. So if you’re looking to easily diversify the language of your website or blog, look no further than the Polylang WordPress plugin.

Plugin Specifications
  • Version: 3.5.3
  • Last Updated: 7 months ago
  • Installs: 700,000+
  • WP Version: 5.9+
  • Tested Until: 6.4.2
  • PHP Version: 7.0 or higher
Use Case Examples
  • Creating a Multilingual Forum
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    Polylang is ideal for creating a multilingual forum. You can use categories to separate threads into different languages, use tags to mark which language a post is written in, and set forums to only allow for posts in certain languages. Multilingual forums are perfect for international organizations, companies with offices around the world, or simply for users who communicate in different languages. The Polylang plugin makes it easy to create and manage multilingual forums.
  • Adding Language Switcher
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  • Translating Pages and Posts
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  • Managing Multilingual Content
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  • Contributing Translations
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Tags
  • bilingual
  • language
  • multilingual
  • translate
  • translation