Polylang is a free language switcher plugin for multilingual sites that functions similar to TranslatePress, aWPML, and Weglot. You’ll continue to create posts and pages in your natural language while the language packs will alter them to the required dialect. It lets you opt for whether you want translations to take place for specific posts, or you can set it as automatic.

It supports all standard WordPress widgets and custom posts, while it’s also compatible with RSS feeds. If you’re concerned with SEO, the plugin will also copy over the tags, categories, and metadata to cover you for search engine rankings. You can also add a language switcher widget on your pages for your audience to use.

Automatic language switching

Many websites offer services worldwide so that they can cover a great audience. They also attempt to rank on search engines in different languages so that traffic can increase the views per entity. Polylang provides multilingual support so that you don’t need to hire a team of translators to transform each post and page. 

As soon as you’ve completed an article or page, you can select in which languages you want them to appear. It also takes different URL extensions for various countries into consideration when you publish.

Let your readers change languages

While you hold the reigns with which languages your content appears in, your readers also have some choice in the matter if you let them. Polylang lets you add a widget in a side menu or on the page so that they can quickly toggle to a different language at any time. It gives them more flexibility in how they would like to read the articles.

Add-on packs and support

Besides these standard features, you can also install add-on packs that work with Polylang, such as professional translation services. However, some of these are only available if you sign up for the Pro version. You’ll also have limited support in the free edition.

Speak to your global audience

Polylang excels in providing website content in several languages, granting you a more global audience. You’ll need to know what you’re doing if you want to stick to the free version, as assistance is mostly only offered in the Pro edition. There are basic services available, but they should suffice for small sites.