WPML Review 2023

This video is good to be all about translating
the front end of your website hi my name is

Adam from WPCrafter.com I make WordPress videos
for non-techies and if you enjoy the content

in this video I like to encourage you to click
on that subscribe button and there’s a little

bell up to the right if you click on that
YouTube will send you notifications when I

upload new videos so this world of ours is
becoming a much smaller place obviously in

the Internet’s really connecting us all and
really good direction of things with the Internet

is we really have to do a better job of translating
our website is becoming more and more an important

thing to have a translation for other languages
on your website and so that’s what I want

to talk about in this video now there’s lots
of different solutions this particular video

or more specifically going to look at W PML
and were going to go through installing it

in trying to use it for a specific reason
and here’s a WP ML’s website right here now

there are multiple solutions for translating
the front end of your website but the reason

I’m looking at WP ML today is because they
are doing some things that I really like you

know on this channel I talk a lot about page
builders for WordPress I really believe that’s

the future of WordPress and building sites
using visa page builders and I really think

it’s forward thinking of W PML because they
have made it very easy to translate content

into other languages that you built using
a page builder and it works perfectly with

Elementor and Beaver Builder to the most popular
page building plug-ins and to the ones that

I talked about as well however it also works
perfectly fine with Divi and some of the other

page builders that use shortcodes now the
competition for translating it’s not so huge

there are several other plug-ins available
another one is called Polly Lange and if you

so my video last year about translating WordPress
I talked about that plug-in and I also compared

it to W PML but that was before WP ML had
this page builder integration up and running

and you you know there’s a lot of things to
compare when you’re comparing solutions you

could compare the price you compare the features
you compare compare the entry price so with

Polly Lange it’s free to get going and but
the minute you start to need anything other

than the basics it’s going to be a lot more
expensive than WP ML let me just try to look

at some of the different options you have
right now so W PML it’s a purely paid solution

they have three different ways of purchasing
that urinal up the middle way or this other

way off here to the right so the first option
is just 30 bucks but it doesn’t include everything

that you’re probably gonna want you’re going
to want to get the 79 package now the only

difference between the package that’s $79
and the one that’s 195 is the $79 package

you just get one year of updates and support
where you get a lifetime license for this

195 it’s actually a very good deal if you
need to translate your website or if you are

a web developer and you need to translate
websites for your customers and that is actually

a really nice benefit of W PML because once
you have it installed on the website there

is it’s really easy to purchase translations
so if you have a client that needs a translation

you can easily use your lifetime license the
W PML purchase a translation and then charge

them more of course because you are the expert
but that is your main difference between these

two packages right here and there’s others
so so there’s probably laying right here now

Polly Lange is three but the minute you need
something it’s ‘8099 for just the one website

and then it starts going up from there are
so a 25 site licenses ‘80500 and I don’t

actually know if that’s per year or what I
don’t really see it distinguished here so

maybe it is not per year in that’s a lifetime
I’m not oh actually right here this extension

is subject to a yearly license fee so for
25 sites it’s ‘80500 per year then there

might be a discount or something like that
so the minute you get into that paid territory

you see that W PML is from a purely price
perspective a better route to go no you can

see right here this specific extension is
for probably laying just for it to work with

WooCommerce where when you purchase W PML
it’s gonna work perfectly fine with WooCommerce

and page builders like I was talking about
here’s another one in this is actually kind

of an eye-opener it’s called weed lot and
it is said it’s translations as a service

everything is becoming an online service so
they said hey let’s make translations in online

service I think was we got this would probably
be the easiest to implement but it’s probably

good to be the most expensive to implement
as well it’s kind of a translation as a service

if we look at the pricing it has a totally
different pricing model right here it’s a

monthly subscription based upon how many words
and how many languages you want so if you

want more than two languages it’s going to
be ‘8020 per month and there’s little discount

if you go yearly hundred ‘8090 per year so
these things start to get really expensive

really quick and there’s also a limitation
on page views and there’s also a thought what

if we got didn’t Dara ran out of money and
had to close down the service what happens

to your translation at that point I know a
lot of things are going subscription as a

service I don’t think that translations is
something that in my mind I’m ready yet to

pay for as a service one thing though that
week lot does that the others that W PML doesn’t

two and Polly Lange doesn’t do it has machine
translation so what happens with Polly Lang

and W PML when you want to go in and create
a translation you have to have someone enter

in the all the different languages into it
wherewith we got they have machine translation

however machine translation is very poor from
I don’t actually speak other languages but

and whenever someone has tried to use machine
translation to say something to me in English

it’s always been a disaster and I’ve heard
nothing good about machine translation maybe

they have a better system in place but I can
imagine them having a better system than what

is already out there for machine trends relations
so anyways let’s take a look back at W PML

so this 79 195 package comes with the main
plug-in and all leave these different add

on plug-ins that it comes with for your specific
situation so you’re on their website and you

go to documentation right here it says add
on plug-ins and you can scroll down and you

can see what add-ons it actually comes with
and it kinda gives you an idea of everything

that you’re going to be able to do with W
PM L now I will say one of my criticisms of

W PML is it’s not really easy to go here and
realize what you need for your situation I

think they have a weakness in communicating
things clearly and I think that’s partially

because they might be more used to communicating
with developers versus and users and so that

is one of my criticisms here because I’ve
already logged in and downloaded some things

and I wasn’t downloading everything that I
needed and I got these warnings that I needed

to install something else so there are some
bumps in the get up and going process with

WP ML for sure so when you log in and go to
the downloads area here I am right here you

can see this right here is the main plug-in
and here is a variety of other plug-ins that

you can add to it to ask but extend what it
can do now there’s pros and cons of this now

with translations in the way they’re doing
things I think the con is everything is not

clear what you need one of the pros is if
they if they separate out all the functions

of the plug into just what you need your can
have a lighter website perhaps your and have

a faster website than it would be if they
just forced it all down your throat so the

add-on model is a very good thing so what
I needed to do is I installed the main plug-in

which is right here and then I thought all
I needed was the page builder add on that

adds Beaver Builder and Elementor integration
however when I went to activate this it warned

me that I also needed this right here so I
had to download and add that as well ultimately

it’s not a big deal but I wish things would
be a little more clear on what I actually

needed or it would automatically do it for
me I would really like to see that but here’s

the thing WordPress is changing at such a
rapid pace and there’s all these different

things you might want to integrate into your
website and what’s nice about WP ML’s there

on top of it so right here you can see differences
in gravity forms this is the actual contact

form solution I’m using on my website it’s
they probably one of the largest user bases

as well for a paid forms plug-in and there’s
full integration with translations here with

this add-on here’s another thing right here
or there is integration for advanced custom

fields I’m actually using this as well I made
a bunch of videos on advanced custom fields

about two weeks ago with the launch of Beaver
Themer which is becoming a tool that people

are now able to use and integrate into the
pages on their websites so anyways and of

course we got WooCommerce right here which
is huge right now and media there’s all these

different things so there’s some things here
that you know it could just be made a visually

better and a little more clear so I would
know exactly what I needed to down load and

install I’m not saying this is a reason not
to go with W PML I think it’s W PML is really

the direction to go if you need a rock solid
translation solution for your website and

you need to have it be reliable W PML is definitely
what you would want okay so enough of this

talking I actually haven’t use this new page
builder integration and it’s actually been

a while since I’ve used WP ML so were to go
through a installation of it together and

see how it works together so I warn you I’m
going to make some mistakes but that’s okay

I’m gonna leave them in I’m not can edit them
out so what I have done in order to save some

time is I’ve gone ahead already and installed
the three plug-ins for WP ML so I installed

this one right here which is the main one
and then when I installed this the page builder

add-on it said that I needed the string translation
which is fine I went ahead and added that

and what happens after you added you would
get these notices that you have to go through

this configuration process with WP ML now
I actually love it when a plug-in that has

sort of a configuration or walk-through process
I like how WooCommerce does and I like how

LifterLMS doesn’t I kind of like that so I
can know what to do next after I click on

activate so let’s go ahead and go through
this together I’m in a go ahead and click

on configure WP ML and here we are in the
setup process so right here it is just saying

what languages your content currently in and
so it already knows our maybe it’s guessing

that it’s English because I have the back
end of WordPress in English let’s go ahead

and click on next and this is obviously probably
where I’m going to choose which a language

that I want to translate my site into and
here are all of those options right here now

you probably would want to go crazy with this
you’re only now want the languages that you’re

willing to translate or hire someone to translate
for you so him to go ahead and let’s go ahead

and speak German I am German by the way if
you have noticed a ready for my last name

go ahead and click on it next and let’s see
where it’s going to take me up at the little

spinning bit it looks like it’s going to just
set everything up and here we are and were

at the languages switcher now this is something
if were actually on the W PML website I’m

see if they have it here’s where they have
their languages which are on this website

right here in the footer but there is lots
of different options I’m sure here of where

we can actually put that switch are so right
here just given me the option to order my

languages I’m obviously gonna leave it in
this order but it looks like we could just

drag and drop our languages into the order
that we want to leave it into the English

and then the German option and then here’s
a option of what to do if there is a language

without a translation I’m gonna leave this
by the default but as I said there’s a little

question here I can click on and it will give
me some additional information about it obviously

if I’m been to install translations plug in
is because I’m going to actually add a translation

the next is some of the switcher options we’ve
got the menu language switcher or to actually

have it in a widget or a footer or something
like that so let’s see what happens here actually

don’t I haven’t looked at the front end of
this website in a while and it looks like

this is grayed out and I wonder why this is
how I see why I don’t actually have a menu

declared in this website that’s fine I’ll
have to go back into the setting later and

then here is a widget language switcher so
let’s go ahead and click on it and add it

so let’s choose our widget area here to go
ahead and I guess with this theme it’s giving

me a an option to put a widget in the header
I’ll go ahead and choose that why not and

let’s leave it like that and see you get the
option if you want to be a drop-down kind

of like the horizontal list and that would
be just listing them out like this and I actually

like having the flag so when I click on this
box here to have a flag and there’s other

options right here that you can choose to
enable or disable right here I’ll just leave

it like that I don’t need a widget title or
anything like that is nice that you can have

different color schemes because this would
really contrast the print to haps with your

design so let’s see what happens when I choose
gray oh that’s actually your background there,

just leave it clear all colors like that and
leave it as that so let’s go ahead and click

on save and now we’ve got that in the header
however that’s done via widget it’s not actually

done just to be right next to a menu so we
might need to tweak tweak this a little bit

also put a check this box here to throw that
down in the footer area why not and then right

here it gives me an option to actually show
the links to the translations in an actual

blog post so if someone’s on my blog they
they come through through maybe Google or

something like that they’ll be an option I’m
not can it enable that so let’s go ahead and

click on next and it looks like this will
probably take me to a registration process

I’m in a go ahead and find my key and paste
that in and then come right back now actually

I wanted to show you this process I just figured
out it just took a second to figure it out

the way this works is you have to copy your
URL and then you log into your account area

you click on add new site and you paste your
URL in its can generate a site key some to

go ahead and copy this into my clipboard and
then I will go here and I will just paste

it right in there and then click on register
and this is how it’s actually gonna work and

then I should let’s see now let’s click on
finish okay and then we should be done with

this entire process and we can see what we
have left to do so this is actually nice it

now revealed all the menu options here on
the left and I actually like this it’s basically

saying you have Elementor on your website
the page builder and I’m sure if I had Beaver

Builder it would say the same thing you have
Beaver Builder on your website you need to

install a component in order to get the translations
to work right with this particular page builder

and it gives me the install option there some
to go ahead and click on install and it actually

took me right here to add or just check this
box to download and install this add-on so

I guess that whole criticism I had maybe five
minutes ago about how things aren’t super

clear and that it would be easier if you can
automatically install them in the plug-in

well here it is actually so I’m not can edit
that part out because is a fair criticisms

anyways, go ahead and click on check and let’s
activate after download and my click on the

download button some assuming it’s now downloading
and installing this translation management

so I bet if I if I installed the core plug-in
and I didn’t put in the page builder plug-in

I bet you it would have mentioned your using
Elementor you need these several plug-ins

in order to get it to work right so now it
looks like we have it installed and we are

ready to go so first let’s take a look at
the front end of the website I remember what

I was using this plug-in for this example
website for before okay looks like have GeneratePress

on it and here is that widget area right here
and I probably haven’t declared a menu per

se this actually kinda fine but we can actually
put this wherever we want to put it and let’s

see if it put in the footer over to put in
the footer I don’t actually like how it did

that I think maybe a foot or which it would’ve
been better option for me but I like that

the option to automatically put that in there
is there for me especially for people that

might not be super power users of WordPress
it’s nice to have an easier option in there

but for this I would probably want it may
be in a menu we can actually play around with

that right now and just take a moment so I
would go to appearance and then menus like

this and will see what menus we have it was
saying that it didn’t notice that I had a

menu and yes it doesn’t look like I have a
menu right now okay looks like I’m getting

a message here with that new add-on I plugged
in I’ll get to that in a moment so let’s go

ahead and call this menu one let’s clean this
let’s trim some of these options down so we

don’t have such a large menu and let’s see
let me get rid of this and will go like that

and I’ll click on create menu and then will
want to assign this menu and then will want

to see what it looks like integrating it with
W PML summit go ahead and choose the primary

menu right there and so now W PML should see
this menu area right here let’s see what happens

when we try to integrate it together something
to go back into WP ML and this would probably

be in the settings but I don’t seen settings
options let’s see what happens when I just

click on W PML right here and there we go
we have some of these options back for us

and here it is okay so see me this was great
out before the menu language switch or some

to go ahead and click on it to make the last
menu item I’m going to choose my menu like

that and I see it like that we can do that
I want to add a flag it looks like it’s going

to add it as like a drop down option like
this which is actually totally fine for me

and we can change some other items on the
go ahead and click on save I don’t know how

this is actually a look on the black background
I guess we’ll find out right now doesn’t didn’t

give me an option to save anything but that’s
all right let’s go in and do a refresh and

see if we also have the option here actually
I like this a lot I like this mood looks perfect

actually and I like this more than right here
in the top right like this I I like that a

lot so I’m sure if we move the menu here it
would just look perfect is probably inheriting

the font color from the rest of the menu I
really like how seamless that is and I probably

make it just say English and not have the
option here in the bracket that was an option

when I was choosing the menu so so far I’m
really liking the ease of integrating this

with this website right here so let’s see
what these warnings are right here or these

notices so right here I need to click on this
so that W PML will find all the strings of

information for me to translate some and go
ahead and click on scan now and it took me

to this screen right here and basically what
this is saying is if your themes and plug-ins

already have a translation for it we will
use that and you can edit certain things from

it it’ll be kind of like a fall back now the
option right here saying don’t use any of

the theme or plug-in translations at all I
will create my own in this option right here’s

to same leave the whole thing alone altogether
so I’m just gonna leave this as default and

I’m a go ahead and click on save and you can
see when you scroll down these are the different

things that it found the different themes
and it found the translations or whatever

translations some go ahead and look at this
other notice right here and it’s is one more

step of free can translate Elementor I’m sure
if it was Beaver Builder I had they would

give me the same notice for Beaver Builder
I need to enable this translation editor to

translate the different strings in the page
okay so spring is basically just a block of

text or sentence or word whatever in your
page builder you have separate from all the

different blocks of headlines and in paragraphs
and all that is just a different string so

okay looks like it’s doing some scanning and
stuff like that this is fine so let’s go ahead

and see what it’s like I’m in a set up a new
page in Elementor I’m just getting use one

of the templates and then I went to show you
with the experience of translating the page

is actually like Cisco two pages and then
I’m as I’ve got a much pages here but I don’t

know what I’ve done with any of them so go
ahead and click on add new and let’s call

this page W PML okay so I’m using Elementor
and I’m using GeneratePress with GeneratePress

I want to tell it that I’m using can use a
page builder for this page I need to click

on content no sidebars right here I need to
click on the full width and I think I need

to click right here to disable the title on
a scroll up right here click on publish now

what I want to do is I want to load in one
of the templates for Elementor summit click

on edit with Elementor just a load in one
of the templates so here it is right now and

I think it’s going to go to add a template
right here and then I’m in a choose one and

this is what I’m actually going to choose
it’s the homepage interior this is one of

their Elementor’s Pro templates if you’re
not familiar with Elementor have a ton of

content on it some and go ahead and click
on insert and what this does is it just downloads

and inserts everything into the site right
here and so these are the strings right this

word right here is a string this block of
text is a string this two words right here

the way it is is a string all of these words
here are strings that you would want to have

translated so what I want to do is I’m just
going to go ahead and save it and then go

back to the dashboard so that we can go through
and see what it’s like to actually translate

what is on it so you click on exit go back
to dashboard and it takes me back here so

what we need to do probably is right here
where it says translate and there’s a little

plus I think we just need to go ahead and
click on that plus and it’s going to start

walking us through what we need to do and
this is right now going to demonstrate the

beauty and ease of W PML when using a page
builder so instead of doing all kinds of wonky

things what it did is it scanned the Elementor
page and I found all the strings of information

remember welcome this paragraph interior designer
all these different strings of information

and it breaks them all down into separate
areas here where I can just put the translated

word off to the right and it has this nice
thing here where will tell me how complete

it is in and stuff like that to track everything
so for the page title I put W PML I would

put the translated page title here in the
same goes for everything here’s where I put

the translation for welcome here is where
I would enter in the translation for that

paragraph of text and here’s where it says
interior design this is where I would put

that in and so on and so forth this is all
there is to translating a page that you created

using a page builder in the same exact thing
the same exact screen would happen if you’re

using Beaver Builder it is very seamless and
easy and I really like that they built this

and it works this way now if you’re using
poly laying what it does is it creates a duplicate

version of the page and then you have to go
back into the page builder and then you have

to go and you have to in the page builder
interface you have to change every word this

just makes so much more sense and might I
add it’s also easier if you’ve hired a translator

say on up work or something like that and
you give them access to login and put that

translation and it’s easy for them to come
here and just put in the translated word versus

having to go into your page builder they’re
knocking to know what the heck the page builder

is or how to use it most likely because our
translators are not WordPress developers they

can just come here and just put in whatever
the translated words are and right here it’s

going to give you a tally of how complete
this translation is so I don’t know how to

speak German I’m German I don’t not as the
Germans are not to be able to translate this

page and fortunately but anyways you just
go ahead and pop it in there and then click

save or save and close and that will get you
out of this interface that we were just in

so literally it’s just a matter of creating
your pages then going back here and then clicking

on that little plus for each language that
you want to translate this particular page

into and I really like how it does it outside
of the page builder experience and it just

lists everything out like that we finally
dismiss this notice here it’s getting a little

annoying’s okay so then we need to probably
translate some things like site titles menu

items and stuff like that and I’m going off
the cuff here so let’s go ahead and take a

look at my menu and let’s see if there’s an
option there with menus to change the translation

actually here it is right here I guess I would
make a alternative menu and I would assign

it to the alternative language and then when
someone switches language it would use that

alternative menu so actually we also have
this option here it says translations German

and then we have a plus let’s see what happens
when I click on the plus there it is it’s

given me the option to build out that same
menu but this time in the German language

and link the translation up to this particular
menu so I guess I would just give it a name

and then click on create menu put menu one
German let you see what happens I’ll go ahead

and click on create menu and let’s see if
it gives me my options here so oddly enough

it doesn’t give me my options here for the
pages and you know why that is because I haven’t

created any translations for the pages I’m
sure if I had a translation it would be listed

here as pages that I could add to the German
menu that’s a pretty easy so now let’s take

a look at some of the setting panels here
and then we’ll wrap this video up but I hope

you see how actually easy it is to translate
your website when you’re using a comprehensive

tool like WP ML so here is those initial settings
options that we had when I first set everything

up this is when I set up that widget in the
header actually let me remove that because

I did not like it it was the option right
here I like it right there instead and it

inherits the style I really like that ox I
actually also didn’t really like the footer

that much but I’ll leave it so let’s look
at translation management right here now what

I believe this is is and I might be on the
wrong ascending in the menu here I know that

W PML also has a sister service so that you
can hire a translator to and then you can

order a translation of your website in any
language that you want so I guess right here

is where you do it in this translation management
you can have it count the words that need

to be translated and everything you can click
on here you could probably find translators

right here actually what’s nice about this
is it looks like it integrates with multiple

translation service websites so right here
I can localize I think that’s the one owned

by W PML right here yes the makers of WP amount
so that might be the one to go with and you

can scroll down you can see all of these different
services that it integrates with while I actually

didn’t realize how many options they gave
you this actually really powerful because

if your web developer or you’re just someone
that means the translation up and running

this is a really easy way to just have an
expert translate your website for you and

you just pay whatever it is per word I like
that and then I guess you can order your translation

it’ll be here in your translation jobs and
you can link it all right back up very easily

into your website I think that’s pretty pretty
seamless and awesome here is where you can

localize your themes and plug-ins this is
changing some of the words that appear from

within your theme and within your plug-ins
to have an alternate language and then there

is also an option here for support so here’s
the plug-ins aside and scroll down far enough

so I left give on this site for a reason that’s
the donation plug-in and you can see it’s

fully translated while this is awesome look
hopefully translated all of these plug-ins

that I already have on here are okay so we’ve
got that we’ve got a link to support we have

a link to our translations packages I wonder
if that is just the different plug-ins let’s

see packages I’m not positive the purpose
of the packages stream translation and then

taxonomy translation which are Trent taxonomy
translation is this are your categories and

tags on your website so say you have blog
posts in different categories you can translate

those they’re called taxonomies you can translate
those as well so anyways this is been kind

of a overview of WP ML and how it stacks up
today again some of the other translation

options and I really like just a sum it all
up I really like what they’re doing to stay

on top of the direction of where WordPress
is going so WordPress’s going to page builders

okay most people are building their sites
with page builders it’s a red hot market and

I really like that W PML is saying where is
WordPress going and how can we integrate with

it how can we make it easier for people that
are building websites today to translate their

website and I really like the ease of ordering
a translation when you have to when you want

to add a different language to your website
I bet that would get pretty expensive if your

main website is a blog and you’re constantly
adding content nape could probably get very

expensive very quick this is probably why
you won’t see a translation on my personal

websites I will be leaving it in English just
from a pure economics perspective so I do

have links to everything in the description
the video description down below I have a

link to W PML I also have a link to Elementor
down below I do have bonus package with Elementor

you’re interested in that and up both of those
if you did click on those links and made a

purchase it goes to support the channel to
support me in making all this content for

you now if you are using a translation ask
tool for your website I love to hear what

about what you’re using down below in the
comments section or if you use WP ML in the

past I will very curse of what your experience
was using W PML I will say I don’t think W

PML is perfect I think it’s it’s phenomenal
it’s the best there is I don’t think it’s

perfect I think some things from a user perspective
could be made a little easier I think some

of their messaging on the actual website could
be more clear to someone going there to know

exactly what they need in and stuff like that
but some of the pluses with them is they been

in the translation business longer than anyone
else they have deep deep documentation I didn’t

show you this year but they have a very deep
series of documents there so it’s gonna be

really easy to get up and running really quick
using W PML to translate your website like

I said I love the fact that it’s gonna work
with WooCommerce it’s going to work with any

page builder I like the way the translations
work with the page builders is a fantastic

plug and if I needed a translation solution
today there there’d be no doubt that I’d use

W PML to translate my website