Loco Translate vs Polylang
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Loco Translate v2.8.9 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details | Polylang v3.9.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.7/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 1M+ | 900,000+ |
| Last updated | September 30, 2026 | October 21, 2026 |
| Editions | Loco Translate | Polylang · Polylang Pro ($) |
| Pros | In-admin PO editor, no desktop translation tools needed; Extracts strings and builds POT templates from source code; Compiles MO and JSON files without gettext installed; Machine translation through your own API keys | Unlimited languages with WordPress language packs; Language switcher widget and block; Language-specific URLs and multilingual sitemaps |
| Cons | Machine translation needs keys from DeepL, OpenAI, Gemini or OpenRouter; Translates interface strings only, not site content; Not a multilingual content plugin; no translated URLs | Translation is manual in the free version; Machine translation and translated slugs need Pro; WooCommerce support is a separate add-on |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | 1 |
| Features (Translation plugins checklist) | ||
| Machine translation | Yes | Paid |
| Visual editor | Yes | — |
| SEO-friendly URLs | No | Yes |
| WooCommerce | No | No |
| Languages limit | — | unlimited |
| Free version | Yes | Yes |
| More features | ||
| Other features | In-admin PO editor, String extraction to POT templates, Native MO compilation, JSON (Jed) file export for script translations, Protected languages directory, WP-CLI commands for extract, fetch and sync, Fetch official translations from translate.wordpress.org | Language switcher widget and block, Multilingual sitemaps, Language-specific URLs, Translated slugs (preview, Pro) ($), Shared slugs (preview, Pro) ($), DeepL machine translation (preview, Pro) ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Storage | — | WP Offload Media Lite |
| Plugins | — | Yoast SEO, Jetpack |
| Other | OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepL, WordPress.org translations (GlotPress) | polylang.pro licence server ($) |
| Requires WordPress | 6.6 | 6.8 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1.2 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | translate.wordpress.org, api.openai.com, generativelanguage.googleapis.com, openrouter.ai | polylang.pro |
| Blocks | — | 2 |