Both have a free version, both are highly rated, and both have been in the WordPress repository for years. But they solve the same problem from opposite sides: TranslatePress translates what you see; Polylang organizes what there is.
That phrase seems like a pun and is literally the technical difference between the two.
The short answer
TranslatePress puts your website in front of you exactly as the visitor sees it and you translate by clicking on any text: the title, the theme button, the cookie notice, the text of a plugin. Everything displayed on screen is translatable.
Polylang creates a copy of each content per language within the WordPress dashboard and links them. It's tidier and lighter, but it only reaches what is content: texts coming from the theme or other plugins are left out.
Comparison, with today's data
| TranslatePress | Polylang | |
|---|---|---|
| Active installations | 400.000 | 800.000 |
| Rating | 4.7 out of 5 with 1,657 votes | 4.7 out of 5 with 2,991 votes |
| Free version | Yes, with an extra language | Yes, with unlimited languages |
| Where you translate | On the web, live | In the dashboard, entry by entry |
| Theme and plugin texts | Yes, it reaches them | Not directly |
| Starting price | 99 € per year (1 site) | 99 € per year (1 site) |
| Next plan | 199 € per year (3 sites) | 198 € per year |
| Renewal | List price | 50% discount |
| Automatic translation | Included, with word allowance per plan | DeepL with your own API key |
| Architecture | Own string table | Native WordPress taxonomy |
How it translates with each one
TranslatePress: point and type
You open the editor, see your page, click on any text, and write the translation in a side panel. What you see is what is saved.
The good consequence is that nothing escapes you. The "Add to cart" button, the form error message, the footer, the text a plugin inserted a year ago and nobody remembers where it's configured: everything is translated the same, because everything is printed on the same screen.
The bad consequence is that you translate page by page, viewing each one. With twenty pages, it's pleasant. With three hundred blog posts, it's a job.
Polylang: duplicate and link
You create the post in Spanish and then its twin in English, and Polylang links them. The dashboard shows you a column per language with flags and you see at a glance what's missing.
The good consequence is that each language is a real WordPress post, with its editor, its SEO, and its history. You can write different content in each language, which is sometimes exactly what you want.
The bad consequence is that texts that are not content remain untranslated: the theme, the plugins, the widgets with fixed text. For that, you need Loco Translate or the theme's own language files, that is, another tool and another workflow.
Automatic translation: the practical difference
TranslatePress it brings it inside with a word bag according to the plan (50,000 words in the entry plan, 200,000 in the next one). It's convenient: you don't open an account anywhere and you translate from the same editor.
Polylang Pro it connects with DeepL, but you have to register your own API key. That means one more account and one more invoice, in exchange for paying the real price of the engine without surcharge.
And like with almost all of them: automatically translating is not translating the entire site at once. In both cases, you launch the translation of what you are seeing or what you select.
Performance
Polylang is lighter. By using the native taxonomy, WordPress does what it already knows how to do. TranslatePress maintains its own table of translated strings that it queries when rendering each page; it works well, but on sites with a lot of text and many languages, it's an extra layer.
Neither of them is going to be the reason your website loads slowly. Images and hosting are before.
SEO
Both do the fundamental well: a unique URL per language and correct hreflang tags. Both translate the URL slugs only in the paid version, and that matters more than it seems: a website in English with addresses in Spanish performs worse in its market.
So, which one do I choose?
- Choose TranslatePress if your website has many texts that are not posts: a theme with a lot of layout, forms, a store with notices and buttons everywhere. And if you find it more natural to translate by viewing the page.
- Choose Polylang if your website is mostly content, if you want each language to have its own hand-written text, or if you care that the database remains WordPress standard.
- Both have a free version. Before paying for any, install them on a test copy and translate the same page with each one. Half an hour saves you a wrong license.
If what you want is not to translate yourself
Both start from the premise that a person sits down to translate, with more or less help from a machine. If your problem is volume —you have one hundred or three hundred pieces and you want them in another language now—, neither of them is designed for that.
WP-Translate approaches it the other way around: translates the entire site at once and marks each piece as pending review, so you can later correct what really matters (the pricing page, product sheets) and leave the rest working in the meantime. It includes several AI engines, saves translations in your database with its URL and hreflang, and is one-time payment instead of an annual subscription: 89 €, 169 € or 289 € depending on the number of sites.
It has free version, just like the two above, so you can compare without paying.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Polylang and TranslatePress at the same time?
No. Both manage languages and URLs, and they conflict. You have to choose one.
Is the free version of TranslatePress suitable for production?
Yes, but it only allows one language besides the original. If you need two or more, the free version quickly falls short.
And Polylang's free version?
It's more generous with languages (it doesn't limit them), but it fails to translate URL slugs and fails to duplicate content between languages, which are two things you end up wanting.
Which is easier for someone without technical knowledge?
TranslatePress, by far. Viewing the page and clicking on the text is more intuitive than understanding Polylang's linked content system.