Loco Translate vs xili-language
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 | xili-language v2.21.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 3.9/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 1M+ | 600+ |
| Last updated | September 30, 2026 | April 2, 2025 |
| Editions | Loco Translate | xili-language |
| 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 | Free, GPLv2, no paid edition in the code; Language per post and page, with the theme .mo file switched to match; Language prefix in permalinks; Language list, recent posts and categories widgets |
| 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 | Readme says it is not compatible with PHP 8 or later; Translations are edited outside the plugin (poEdit or xili-dictionary); Needs a translation-ready theme |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | 1 |
| 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 assigned to each post and page, Theme .mo file switched by post language, Language prefix in permalinks, Navigation menus per language, Author rules settings page |
| Integrations | ||
| Plugins | — | bbPress, Polylang |
| Other | OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepL, WordPress.org translations (GlotPress) | translate.wordpress.org |
| Requires WordPress | 6.6 | 4.3.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4.2 |
| Tested up to | 7.1.2 | 4.9 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | translate.wordpress.org, api.openai.com, generativelanguage.googleapis.com, openrouter.ai | translate.wordpress.org |
| Shortcodes | — | 4 |