What is Polylang used for?

Polylang is a multilingual plugin for WordPress, with a free core, paid add-ons and support for translating posts, pages, menus and WooCommerce products. It is a good fit for small business sites needing a simple language switcher and WooCommerce shops selling internationally.

Yes. Polylang has a free plan, and paid plans start at €99 per year.

Is Polylang open source?

No. Polylang is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Localization category, open-source options include Intlayer, LibreTranslate and Weblate.

Can I self-host Polylang?

Yes. Although Polylang is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers.

What are some alternatives to Polylang?

Polylang competes with WPML, TranslatePress and Weglot.

Polylang: features, pricing and alternatives

About Polylang

Polylang is a WordPress plugin for building multilingual sites. It lets site owners translate content including posts, pages and media files, categories and tags, custom post types, widgets, navigation menus, products and URLs, using manual or machine translation.

Setup follows an installation wizard where you add languages and a language switcher, and translation takes place inside the WordPress admin with an interface designed to follow WordPress conventions. Polylang for WooCommerce translates products, pages, categories, emails, tags and attributes in the WooCommerce interface and keeps stock and prices synchronized across translations. The vendor stresses performance, saying it adds no extra database tables or shortcodes.

The product line includes Polylang Pro, Polylang for WooCommerce and a Business Pack, sold with a pricing page. It runs on your own WordPress site rather than as a hosted service, and the vendor also publishes support pages, a list of integrations and a blog.

Key features

Translation of posts, pages and media
Manual and machine translation
Setup wizard and language switcher
WooCommerce product translation add-on
Stock and price sync across translations
No extra database tables

Good fit for

→Small business sites needing a simple language switcher
→WooCommerce shops selling internationally

Tags: wordpress; multilingual; translation-plugin; woocommerce; localization; cms; plugin

Polylang: questions and answers

What is Polylang used for?: Polylang is a multilingual plugin for WordPress, with a free core, paid add-ons and support for translating posts, pages, menus and WooCommerce products. It is a good fit for small business sites needing a simple language switcher and WooCommerce shops selling internationally.
Is Polylang free?: Yes. Polylang has a free plan, and paid plans start at €99 per year.
Is Polylang open source?: No. Polylang is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Localization category, open-source options include Intlayer, LibreTranslate and Weblate.
Can I self-host Polylang?: Yes. Although Polylang is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers.
What are some alternatives to Polylang?: Polylang competes with WPML, TranslatePress and Weglot.