Loco Translate vs WPML SEO
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 | WPML SEO v2.2.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 1M+ | — |
| Last updated | September 30, 2026 | — |
| Editions | Loco Translate | WPML SEO |
| 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 | Adds language-aware sitemaps for Yoast SEO and Rank Math; Translates SEO slugs and primary categories per language; Keeps social meta consistent across translations |
| 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 | Needs WPML core, which is a separate commercial product; Translated redirects need Yoast SEO Premium |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | — |
| Features (Translation plugins checklist) | ||
| Machine translation | Yes | No |
| Visual editor | Yes | No |
| SEO-friendly URLs | No | Yes |
| WooCommerce | No | No |
| 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-aware XML sitemaps for Yoast SEO, Rank Math multilingual sitemap support, Translated SEO slugs, Primary category per language, Translated social meta, Language-aware redirects (Yoast SEO Premium) ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Plugins | — | Yoast SEO, Rank Math SEO, WPML core ($) |
| Other | OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepL, WordPress.org translations (GlotPress) | — |
| Requires WordPress | 6.6 | — |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1.2 | 6.8 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | translate.wordpress.org, api.openai.com, generativelanguage.googleapis.com, openrouter.ai | — |