Cross Border Growth

GTranslate vs Weglot for WordPress

Julien Duhaubois — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:43:16 GMT

GTranslate and Weglot are two of the most widely used translation plugins for WordPress, and on the surface they promise the same thing: a multilingual site, no code, live in an afternoon. Look a little closer and they're built on different economics — one charges for features and leaves your word count alone, the other charges by how much you translate and into how many languages. This is a neutral, side-by-side read of GTranslate vs Weglot for WordPress: how each one works, what they cost as you grow, how they handle SEO, and a simple way to tell which fits your site.

Everything below is drawn from each vendor's public pricing and documentation and from independent reviews, dated where it matters. Figures were checked in June 2026; pricing pages change, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's site before you buy. The aim isn't to crown a winner — both are good at the job they're built for — but to make the trade-off legible so you can choose on fit.

In this guide

GTranslate vs Weglot at a glance
How each plugin works on WordPress
What they cost as your site grows
SEO, indexing and who owns your translations
So which should you choose?
When the goal is selling, not just translating
Frequently asked questions

GTranslate vs Weglot at a glance

Both are no-code, hosted (SaaS) translation plugins with large WordPress user bases and machine translation at their core. The differences that decide most cases are the pricing model, how each treats word volume, and what comes included on the lower plans.

	GTranslate	Weglot
Translation engine	Google neural machine translation; manual editing on paid plans	First-layer machine translation from DeepL, Microsoft, Yandex or Google by language pair; visual editor and access to professional translators
Pricing model	Flat monthly tiers; unlimited words and page views on every plan	Subscription priced by translated words × number of languages
Free option	Free-forever plan: unlimited words, but no search-engine indexing and no editing	Free plan: up to 2,000 words in one language, then a paid plan
Paid entry price	From $9.99/mo (billed monthly)	From €15/mo (≈ $17), billed annually
SEO / indexing	Server-side and indexable on paid plans; the free plan is not indexed	Server-side, indexable, with dedicated URLs and hreflang — included from the entry paid tier
Where translations live	On GTranslate's servers	On Weglot's servers
Often the better fit for	High-volume or fast-growing content on a contained budget	Editing control and translation quality on a defined set of languages

How each plugin works on WordPress

Both install without touching your theme and add a front-end language switcher, so the day-one experience is similar. What differs is what happens underneath.

GTranslate installs from the WordPress.org directory — the "Translate WordPress with GTranslate" plugin has a large installed base and a high user rating — and renders your site through Google's neural machine translation into 100-plus languages. The free plan adds a language selector and machine translations with no cap on words or page views, but those pages aren't search-indexed and you can't edit the output. Paid plans add manual editing, search-engine indexing, translated URL slugs (from the Business tier) and the option to host languages on custom subdomains or domains (the Enterprise tier).

Weglot connects your site to its service, detects your content automatically, and lays down a first machine-translation pass — drawing from DeepL, Microsoft, Yandex or Google depending on the language pair — which you then refine in a visual editor that shows changes on a live preview of your page, or hand to professional translators booked through the dashboard. Multilingual SEO is set up for you: each language gets dedicated URLs and hreflang tags so the translated pages can be indexed and rank.

What they cost as your site grows

This is where the two genuinely diverge, and it's the single most useful thing to understand before you choose.

GTranslate charges for features, not volume. Every plan — including the free one — carries unlimited words and page views, so a large blog or a deep catalogue doesn't push the bill up. What you pay more for is capability: paid tiers run from $9.99/mo (a configurable "Custom" plan) through $19.99 (all languages, with indexing and editing), $29.99 (adds translated URLs) and $39.99 (adds language hosting on custom domains). Billing is monthly or annual, with annual saving roughly two months.

Weglot charges for volume. The subscription scales with the total number of translated words across your site and the number of languages you translate into, and the word allowance is a fixed total rather than a monthly refill. Plans start at €15/mo and the language caps step up unevenly, so adding one more language or growing your content can move you to the next tier regardless of the other dimension. Prices are in euros, so the dollar figure moves with the exchange rate.

The difference that decides most cases

GTranslate's bill doesn't track your word count. Words and page views are unlimited on every plan, so content volume is rarely what sets your price — features are.
Weglot's bill does track your word count and language count. The plan you land on is set by how much you translate and into how many languages, with a fixed (non-renewing) word ceiling per tier.
So the rule of thumb is volume-led. A content-heavy site often fits GTranslate's flat model; a contained site that values editing and translation quality often fits Weglot's.

SEO, indexing and who owns your translations

On their paid plans, both plugins serve translated pages that search engines can crawl and index — real URLs per language with hreflang — which is what lets those pages rank rather than sitting behind a browser-only switch. The one documented exception is GTranslate's free plan, which isn't indexed and is meant for visitors switching language by hand; anyone who needs multilingual SEO will be on a paid GTranslate tier or on Weglot.

There's a second point worth knowing because it's structural, not a flaw in either tool: both are hosted services, so your translations live on the vendor's servers rather than in your own WordPress database. If you stop subscribing, the translated pages stop serving. That's the trade-off of the hosted model and it applies to both equally; plugins that store translations in your database (for example WPML or TranslatePress) make a different trade in the opposite direction. And because both work by translating the HTML that reaches the browser, content that never renders to a public page — WooCommerce transactional emails like order and shipping notifications, for instance — sits outside what either one translates.

The honest question isn't which plugin is better. It's whether your bill should scale with your feature list or with your word count.

— Choosing on fit, not on winner

So which should you choose?

Read it off your own site rather than off a ranking.

Choose GTranslate if volume and budget lead. A large or fast-growing site — a busy blog, a deep WooCommerce catalogue — where a per-word model would climb quickly, and you're comfortable with Google machine translation and lighter editing. Unlimited words on every plan is the draw.
Choose Weglot if editing and quality lead. A contained set of languages where you want a visual post-editing workflow, a choice of machine-translation engines, the option of professional translators, and clean SEO indexing included from the entry paid tier.
Sanity-check both on your real numbers. Estimate your full translated word count and your final language list, then price each tool against those. The cheaper option flips depending on how much content you have and how many languages you need — there's no single answer.

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When the goal is selling, not just translating

One thing both plugins share: their job is translation — making the WordPress site readable in another language. If the underlying goal is selling into a new market rather than only translating, that's a wider set of needs than a translation plugin covers, including localized SEO that ranks in-country, prices in local currency, duties and taxes at checkout, and local payment methods. That's a different category of tool — platforms such as Glopal, which has worked in cross-border e-commerce localization since 2007, sit there rather than alongside GTranslate and Weglot. If you're weighing the full picture, our rundown of the best Weglot alternatives for e-commerce lays the options out side by side.

Frequently asked questions

Is GTranslate or Weglot better for WordPress?

Neither is better outright; they fit different sites. GTranslate suits high-volume or fast-growing content on a contained budget, because words and page views are unlimited on every plan. Weglot suits a defined set of languages where you want a visual editing workflow, a choice of translation engines and clean SEO indexing from the entry paid tier.

Which is cheaper, GTranslate or Weglot?

It depends on your word count and language list. GTranslate's paid plans start at $9.99/mo with unlimited words; Weglot starts at about €15/mo but its price scales with translated words and the number of languages. A content-heavy site is usually cheaper on GTranslate; a small, contained site can be comparable on either.

Does GTranslate or Weglot have a free plan?

Both do, but they differ. GTranslate's free-forever plan offers unlimited machine translation with no word cap, but no search-engine indexing and no editing. Weglot's free plan covers up to 2,000 words in one language, after which you move to a paid plan.

Are GTranslate and Weglot good for SEO on WordPress?

On their paid plans, both serve translated pages that search engines can index — dedicated URLs per language with hreflang tags — so those pages can rank. The exception is GTranslate's free plan, which is not indexed and is intended for manual language switching only.

Do I own my translations with GTranslate or Weglot?

With both, translations are hosted on the vendor's servers rather than stored in your WordPress database, so the translated pages stop serving if you cancel. Plugins like WPML and TranslatePress store translations in your own database instead, which is a different trade-off.

Can GTranslate and Weglot translate a WooCommerce store?

Both translate the front-end WooCommerce content that renders to a visitor's browser — product pages, collections, cart and checkout text. Content that never renders to a public page, such as transactional order or shipping emails, falls outside what either plugin translates, because both work on the HTML that reaches the browser.

Choosing a tool

See how the alternatives compare

A side-by-side of the tools that translate a site — and the platforms built for the whole cross-border journey.

Compare Weglot alternatives

Weglot alternatives for Shopify

Julien Duhaubois — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:40:45 GMT

If Weglot's bill has crept up every time you added a language, you're not the only Shopify merchant looking for a Weglot alternative. Weglot is a capable app — fast to set up, no code, with search-friendly translated pages — but its price climbs with both your word count and your language list, and growing catalogues tend to outrun the plan they started on. The good news is that Shopify has a deep bench of translation apps, several of them strong, and the right one depends less on price than on how your store is built and where it's headed.

This is a plain, current comparison of the best Weglot alternatives for Shopify in 2026 — what each app does well, what users flag, what it costs, and who it suits — followed by a short framework for matching one to your store. The aim isn't to crown a winner; it's to help you ask the right questions and read the answers honestly.

In this guide

Why merchants look past Weglot
The best Weglot alternatives, compared
The apps in depth
Six questions to ask before you switch
When a translation app isn't the whole answer
Frequently asked questions

Why merchants look past Weglot

Weglot earns its reputation: it installs without a developer, its multilingual SEO is server-side and indexable, and its support is well regarded. For a store that needs a couple of languages live quickly with clean, rankable pages, it does the job.

The reason it shows up so often in "alternative" searches is its pricing model, not its quality. Weglot charges on two axes at once — the total translated words across your site and the number of languages — and the word allowance is a fixed ceiling rather than a monthly refill. Add a language or translate your full catalogue, blog and policies, and you can move up a tier faster than expected; the plan also auto-upgrades when you hit a limit. For a small site that stays small, the cost stays low. For a growing catalogue across several markets, merchants often start shopping around. None of that makes Weglot a poor app — it makes it worth checking whether a different pricing model fits your store better. If pricing is the specific sticking point, our breakdown of Weglot's pricing as you add languages goes deeper.

The best Weglot alternatives for Shopify, compared

Six alternatives worth a serious look, with Weglot kept in the table as the baseline you're measuring against. "SEO model" is the distinction that matters most for organic traffic: server-side, indexed translations get their own URLs and hreflang tags so they can rank, while a client-side widget translates in the browser and generally won't.

How we compared

Ratings, review counts and prices below are taken from each app's own Shopify App Store listing and vendor pricing page, captured June 2026. Third-party "best app" blogs often quote higher numbers than the App Store shows, so we used the listings themselves. These figures move — always check the current listing before you subscribe.

App	Starting price	Languages	SEO model	Best for
Weglot (baseline)	Free; paid from €15/mo (in euros)	110+; capped 1–20 by plan	Server-side, indexed	Fast no-code launch with clean, rankable pages
Shopify Translate & Adapt	Free	2 auto-translated free; manual unlimited	Native to Shopify Markets, indexed	Starting on 1–2 markets and keeping your translations
Langify	$17.50/mo (no free plan)	Up to ~20	Indexed, hreflang; Shopify-native	Hands-on manual control at a flat, predictable price
Transcy	Free; paid from $11.90/mo	110+	Indexed via Markets	Translation and currency conversion in one app
GTranslate	Free; paid from $9.99/mo	100+	Widget on free; server-side on paid	The lowest-cost route to broad machine translation
LangShop	Free; paid from ~$10/mo	240+	Indexed; Markets, subfolders/domains	Widest language and currency reach; human-translation option
T Lab	Free; paid from $9.99/mo	130+	Indexed; Markets integration	Flexible mix of manual, bulk and AI workflows

The apps in depth

Each profile below pairs what merchants consistently praise with what they flag, drawn from public Shopify App Store reviews and listings as of June 2026.

Shopify Translate & Adapt

Shopify's own free app, rated around 4.5 stars across roughly 1,400 reviews. It auto-translates two languages free using Google Translate, lets you add unlimited manual translations, and stores everything inside Shopify — so your work stays with the store even if you change apps later. It's the natural first step for most merchants.

What users flag: only two languages are auto-translated, automatic translation is capped by an annual character limit, and the app can miss fields such as metafields and menus, which means some manual auditing. Best for testing one or two markets at no cost, with tight Shopify Markets integration.

Langify

One of the oldest Shopify translation apps (since 2014), holding around 4.6 stars. It's deeply Shopify-native, with a flat $17.50/month price that many reviewers single out as refreshingly predictable, plus optional auto-translation word packs. Reviewers praise its stability and support.

What users flag: there's no permanent free plan, no built-in currency conversion (it leans on Shopify Markets for that), and a minority report performance or translation-persistence issues on large stores. Best for merchants who want hands-on manual control and a fixed monthly cost rather than usage-based billing.

Transcy

A feature-rich app (around 4.4 stars across roughly 2,500 reviews) that bundles translation and currency conversion together, with geolocation auto-detection, 110+ languages and unlimited words on paid plans. Merchants like having language and currency handled in one place, and support is generally well rated.

What users flag: there are public reviews citing unexpected plan changes and billing surprises, and the free plan covers only one language. Best for stores that want translation and a currency switcher from a single app, with strong automation.

GTranslate

The budget pick, at around 4.7 stars. Its free, forever plan offers machine translation across all languages with no word cap — though on the free tier that's a client-side widget, which generally isn't indexed for SEO. Paid plans from $9.99/month add neural translation, translated URLs and indexed multilingual SEO.

What users flag: the free tier won't help you rank, some reviewers report SEO inconsistencies after backend changes, and its reputation is more mixed outside the Shopify ecosystem. Best for merchants who need broad, cheap translation fast and will move to a paid tier if search visibility matters.

LangShop

A powerhouse for reach (around 4.6 stars), supporting 240+ languages and 80+ currencies — among the widest coverage on the store. It combines machine translation (DeepL, Google, ChatGPT) with the option to order human translation, and works comfortably with Shopify Markets, subfolders and market-specific domains.

What users flag: the breadth brings interface complexity that can feel heavy for a simple store, and costs rise across its higher tiers. Best for merchants targeting many locales, or who need human-verified or right-to-left language support.

T Lab

A flexible all-rounder from Sherpas Design (around 4.6 stars) that lets you translate manually, in bulk via CSV, or automatically through its Autopilot AI across 130+ languages, using DeepL, Google or ChatGPT. Reviewers highlight that flexibility and the support team.

What users flag: the range of options carries a learning curve before it clicks. Best for merchants who want one app that covers manual edits and AI automation rather than choosing between them.

Weglot, for reference

The baseline you're comparing against (around 4.5 stars, and one of the most-installed translation apps on Shopify). Its strengths are genuine: no-code setup, indexable server-side SEO and dependable support. The recurring critique in reviews is cost — the word-by-language model and fixed word ceiling can escalate as catalogues and languages grow. Best when speed-to-launch and clean SEO matter more than predictable cost at scale.

The right alternative isn't the cheapest app on the list — it's the one whose pricing model and language path match how your store will actually grow.

— On choosing a translation app

Six questions to ask before you switch

The fastest way to narrow the field is to answer these about your own store first, then read each app's listing against your answers.

How many languages will I need in 12 months? Language caps drive cost more often than word counts do. Decide your full roadmap up front, because the jump from "a few languages" to "many" is where pricing tiers tend to step.
What's my real translatable word count? Count the whole site — products, collections, menus, policies, blog — not just the pages you have in mind. Usage-based apps reward an accurate estimate; flat-price apps shield you from it.
Do I need indexed SEO, or is a visitor-facing widget enough? If you want translated pages to rank, you need server-side, indexed translations with their own URLs and hreflang. A browser-side widget is fine for comprehension but won't earn organic traffic.
How important is native Shopify Markets integration? Apps built around Markets keep your translations in Shopify and sync cleanly with your market settings. Standalone tools can offer more features but sit further from your store's core.
Auto-translation only, or do I need human review and glossary control? If brand voice and accuracy matter on key pages, prioritise apps with glossaries, manual editing or a human-translation option — and budget review for those pages specifically.
What's the pricing model — flat, per-word, or word-by-language? A flat monthly fee is predictable; usage- or language-based pricing scales with success. Neither is wrong, but knowing which you're signing up for prevents the mid-year surprise that sends people looking for an alternative in the first place.

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When a translation app isn't the whole answer

One question sits underneath the other six: is translation actually the whole job, or just the visible part of it? A translation app prices the words. Selling into a new market also means showing prices in local currency, handling duties and taxes at checkout, offering payment methods people recognise, and ranking in-country — and those aren't things a translation app is built to do.

For many Shopify stores, a good translation app is genuinely most of what they need, and one of the seven above will fit. If you're planning a serious cross-border push, it's worth seeing how the main Weglot alternatives compare before you commit to a tool, so the app you choose slots into the bigger picture rather than boxing you in. Either way, start with your languages, your word count and your SEO needs — the right choice tends to answer itself once those are on the table.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best Weglot alternative for Shopify?

There isn't a single best Weglot alternative for Shopify — it depends on your store. Shopify Translate & Adapt is the best free starting point and keeps your translations inside Shopify. Langify suits hands-on control at a flat price. Transcy bundles translation with currency conversion. GTranslate is the cheapest route to broad machine translation. LangShop offers the widest language and currency coverage. T Lab is the most flexible across manual and AI workflows.

Is there a free Weglot alternative for Shopify?

Yes. Shopify Translate & Adapt is free and auto-translates two languages with unlimited manual translation. GTranslate, Transcy, LangShop and T Lab all offer free plans too, though each limits languages, features or indexing on the free tier. Langify is the main app here with no permanent free plan.

Does Shopify have its own translation app?

Yes. Shopify Translate & Adapt is Shopify's own free app. It integrates directly with Shopify Markets, auto-translates up to two languages using Google Translate, allows unlimited manual translations, and stores your translations in Shopify so they remain yours if you switch apps.

Which Shopify translation apps are best for SEO?

For organic traffic you want server-side, indexed translations with their own URLs and hreflang tags. Weglot, Langify, LangShop, T Lab and GTranslate's paid plans all support indexed multilingual SEO. GTranslate's free widget translates in the browser and generally isn't indexed, so it's not the right choice if ranking in other languages matters.

Why is Weglot considered expensive on Shopify?

Weglot prices on two variables at once — total translated words and number of languages — and the word allowance is a fixed ceiling, not a monthly refill. As you add languages or translate a larger catalogue, you can move up a tier, and plans auto-upgrade when you hit a limit. It stays cheap for small sites but climbs for growing, multi-language stores.

Do these translation apps work with Shopify Markets?

Most do. Shopify Translate & Adapt is built into Markets; Langify, Transcy, LangShop and T Lab all integrate with it to manage languages and content by region. Native Markets integration generally means cleaner syncing and translations that stay inside Shopify.

Can I keep my translations if I switch translation apps?

It depends where they're stored. Apps that save translations inside Shopify — such as Shopify Translate & Adapt — let you keep them when you change apps. Tools that store translations on their own platform may not, so check whether export or Shopify-native storage is offered before you migrate.

Website Translation vs Localization: What Stores Need

Julien Duhaubois — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:15:26 GMT

Ask what separates website translation from localization and you'll get the same answer almost everywhere: translation handles the words, localization adapts the experience. It's true — and it's also where most explanations stop, one step too early for anyone trying to actually sell in a new market. For an online store, the more useful question isn't what the two terms mean. It's how far down the path you need to go before a shopper in another country can find you, trust you, and buy.

This is a plain guide to the difference between translation and localization — the comparison most pages give you, and then the part they leave out. Because for e-commerce there's a third step beyond both, and knowing where your store sits on that spectrum is what decides how much you actually need to spend.

In this guide

Translation vs localization: the short answer
What localization actually covers
Where the definition stops short for e-commerce
Translation, localization and the cross-border operation
Which one does your store actually need?
Frequently asked questions

Translation vs localization: the short answer

Start with the consensus, because it's right as far as it goes. Translation converts text from one language into another while keeping the meaning intact. Localization goes further: it adapts the whole experience — tone, idioms, imagery, date and number formats, the currency a price is shown in — so a page reads as though it was made for the local market rather than imported into it. Translation is about being understood. Localization is about feeling native. You can translate without localizing, but you can't localize without translating.

	Translation	Localization
Goal	Accuracy — the meaning carries across	Resonance — the experience fits the market
Scope	Words and sentences	Tone, imagery, formats, currency display, layout
Best for	Manuals, legal text, internal docs, support content	Marketing pages, product content, anything customer-facing
The reader thinks	"I understand this"	"This was made for me"

The short version

Translation converts the words. One language to another, meaning preserved.
Localization adapts the experience. Language plus everything around it that makes a page feel local.
Translation is part of localization, not an alternative to it. And for a store, neither is the whole job — which is the part the next sections are about.

What localization actually covers

Done properly, localization is a long run of small judgements. Is 04/05 in April or May? Which units, which address format, which direction does the text run? Do the colours and the imagery show a shopper the local audience recognises? And — most of all — has the language been adapted rather than just converted, because that is where machine translation on its own tends to slip.

A sports brand once had its "bodybuilding accessories" rendered into French as gymnastique — the word for gymnastics, the wrong sport entirely. The sentence was grammatically perfect. It was simply wrong for the reader, in a way only someone who knew the market and the product would have caught. That gap, between technically correct and actually right, is the whole reason localization exists. The right word there was musculation; no dictionary would have flagged the difference.

Where the definition stops short for e-commerce

Here is where almost every explanation of translation versus localization quietly stops: at culture. Idioms, imagery, tone, formats. All real, all necessary — and all still upstream of the moment money changes hands. For an online store, a page can be flawlessly localized in that cultural sense and still fail to sell, because selling across a border depends on a set of things a translation layer never touches.

The demand is well established: surveys of global shoppers have long found that the large majority prefer to buy in their own language, and a sizeable share simply won't buy from a site that isn't localized at all (CSA Research, "Can't Read, Won't Buy"). But being readable is the floor, not the finish line. Four things sit beyond the cultural layer, and each is a place a sale is won or lost.

What translation and culture-only localization leave out

In-country SEO. A localized page that doesn't rank is a page nobody reads. Ranking in a new market means localized URLs, hreflang, and content built around how people actually search there — not a translated copy of your home-market SEO.
Currency and pricing. Not only showing the local currency, but pricing sensibly for the market rather than converting a number and hoping.
Duties and taxes. Shown clearly before checkout, so the final total isn't a surprise that sends the cart to the abandoned pile.
Payments and checkout. The payment methods local shoppers already trust, in a checkout flow that feels familiar — the last and most fragile step of the whole journey.

❖

A page can be perfectly translated, fully localized, and still not sell — because selling across a border is the job that starts after the words are right.

— On where localization ends and selling begins

Translation, localization and the cross-border operation

It's clearer as three steps than two, and each one contains the one before it. Translation gets the words across. Localization wraps those words in an experience that feels local. The third step runs the actual sale in-market — and it's a different kind of product, not a bigger version of the first two.

	Translation	Localization	Cross-border operation
What it does	Converts the words	Adapts the experience to the culture	Runs the whole sale in-market
Covers	Language	+ tone, imagery, formats, currency display	+ in-country SEO, pricing, duties & taxes, payments, checkout
Answers	"Can they read it?"	"Does it feel local?"	"Can they find it, trust it, and buy it?"
Best for	Documents, support, internal content	Marketing and product pages	A store actually selling abroad

Most tools live in one of the first two columns, and for plenty of businesses that is exactly the right place to be. The third column is a different category. Glopal has run cross-border e-commerce localization since 2007, and sits there by design — treating translation as step one of localized SEO, currency, duties and taxes, payments and checkout, rather than the whole job.

If you're weighing where different tools fall on this spectrum, our rundown of the best Weglot alternatives for e-commerce compares them side by side.

Which one does your store actually need?

The label matters less than the fit. Four checks place you on the spectrum above.

Start with what you're selling, not how many languages. Documents, support content or internal material may need translation only. A storefront meant to win customers is already past translation alone — the question is just how far past.
Check whether your localized pages can be found. Translating product pages without local-market SEO gets you pages that exist but don't rank. If organic discovery in a new market matters, localization has to include how people search there, not just the words on the page.
Follow the shopper all the way to checkout. Currency, duties, taxes, payment methods, the checkout flow itself. If any of these stays in your home market's terms, that's where the cross-border step begins — and where carts are quietly lost.
Match the tool to the column, not the other way round. A translation tool for a translation job; a localization platform for cultural fit; a cross-border setup when the goal is revenue in a new market. Buying below where you sit means redoing the work later; buying above it spends money you didn't need to.

Map your content and your market against those four, and the right approach — translation, localization, or the wider cross-border operation — tends to answer itself. If it points past translation, our guide to how to localize a Shopify store step by step shows what that looks like in practice.

Frequently asked questions

Is localization the same as translation?

No. Translation converts text from one language to another while keeping the meaning; localization adapts the full experience — tone, imagery, date and number formats, currency display — so the content feels native rather than imported. Translation is one part of localization, not an alternative to it.

Do I need localization or just translation for my website?

It depends on the content. Internal documents, manuals and legal text often need translation only. Customer-facing pages — especially an e-commerce store — generally need localization, and selling across borders needs more again: in-country SEO, currency, duties and taxes, and a localized checkout.

What does website localization include?

Beyond translated text: adapted tone and imagery, local date, number and currency formats, layout adjustments, and — for e-commerce — in-country SEO, local pricing, duties and taxes, recognised payment methods and a localized checkout.

Is translation enough for an e-commerce site?

Rarely. A translated store is understandable but not necessarily findable or trusted in-market. Local search, currency, duties shown up front and familiar payment options are what turn a translated page into a sale.

What are web localization services?

Services that handle the localization process — from app and agency tools to full platforms — covering adapted translation, cultural adaptation and formats, and at the fuller end the commercial pieces of selling in a market. They vary widely in scope, which is the thing to match to what your store actually needs.

Does localization help SEO?

Done properly, yes. Real localized pages with local-language keywords, localized URLs and hreflang can rank in-market, where a surface translation of your existing SEO usually can't.

Choosing a tool

See which approach your store needs

A side-by-side of the tools that translate, the ones that localize, and the ones built for the whole cross-border journey.

Compare Weglot alternatives

Ecommerce website translation: Shopify guide (2026)

Julien Duhaubois — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:45:46 GMT

Most Shopify stores approach ecommerce website translation as a setting to switch on: add a language, run auto-translate, move on. For a small store adding one language, that's often enough. The trouble starts when the traffic arrives and the translated pages don't convert — because translating a store and localizing it are two different jobs, and the distance between them is where cross-border sales are won or lost.

This guide covers how to translate a Shopify store properly — starting with Shopify's own tools, then the apps and services that take you further — and the part most guides skip: what localizing a store actually involves once the words are done. It's written for store owners and marketers working out how to go multilingual without overspending or publishing pages that read like a machine wrote them. Everything here reflects how Shopify handles languages as of June 2026.

In this guide

What ecommerce website translation actually involves
Three ways to translate a Shopify store
Step by step: setting up a multilingual store
Getting translation quality right
Multilingual SEO: making translated pages rank
Where localization goes beyond translation
Frequently asked questions

What ecommerce website translation actually involves

Translating a store means converting everything a shopper reads into their language: product titles and descriptions, collection pages, navigation, policies, the checkout, and the emails that follow an order. It's more than running the homepage through a translator — every step of the path to purchase has to make sense in the target language, or the shopper drops out somewhere along it.

Shopify makes the groundwork straightforward. Every plan except Lite lets you sell in up to 20 languages from a single store, and when you publish a language Shopify creates a separate URL for each translated page, so it can be indexed and found in search rather than hidden behind a button. The work, and the decisions, are in how you fill those pages and how far you take the rest of the experience.

The groundwork Shopify gives you

Up to 20 languages from one store. Available on every plan except Lite — you don't need a separate store per language.
A unique URL per language. Adding a language creates subfolder URLs (for example yourstore.com/fr/), so each version is a real page search engines can index.
hreflang added automatically. Shopify tags each language version so Google serves the right one to the right searcher.

Three ways to translate a Shopify store

There are three practical routes, and most stores end up combining them. The right starting point depends on how many languages you need, how much the quality matters, and how hands-on you want to be.

Method	How it works	Best for	Watch-outs
Shopify Translate & Adapt (native)	Shopify's own free app. Auto-translates up to two languages with Google; further languages are entered by hand in a side-by-side editor.	Testing the waters, small catalogues, one or two languages.	Doesn't translate URL slugs or tags; machine output still needs a review pass.
CSV export / import	Export your store's translatable content, translate it offline (in-house or with an agency), then import it back.	Teams with their own translators who want full control of wording.	Manual and slow; nothing syncs automatically when you change or add content.
Third-party apps & ecommerce translation services	Apps automate translation and add features (translated slugs, more languages, glossaries); managed agencies add human linguists at scale.	Scaling languages, protecting brand voice, or going hands-off.	A recurring cost that scales with words and languages; quality varies by provider.

A common pattern is to start native for one or two languages, then move to an app or a service once the language list grows or quality on key pages starts to matter. The cost of the app route is worth modelling in advance, because translation tools tend to price on words and languages — what Weglot costs as you add languages walks through how that climbs.

Step by step: setting up a multilingual Shopify store

Once you've chosen a method, the setup itself is a short sequence. The order matters — get the infrastructure right before you pour content into it.

Turn on Shopify Markets and add your languages. Markets is the infrastructure for selling across regions. Adding a language creates its subfolder URL and applies hreflang automatically. Decide your full language roadmap here, not one language at a time.
Pick your translation method. Native, CSV, or a third-party app or service — based on the number of languages and how much quality matters (see the table above). You can mix them.
Translate what sells first. Products, collections, navigation, policies and checkout strings before blog archives. Prioritise by what a buyer reads on the way to checkout, not by what's easiest to export.
Add a language and country selector. So visitors can switch. Some themes include one; if yours doesn't, add it from the App Store.
Check your URLs and hreflang. Shopify adds hreflang for each version; translating the slugs themselves (/produkte/stuhl rather than /products/chair) is optional but helps local search.
Review, then publish. Read the machine output on your important pages before it goes live. Auto-translation is a strong first draft, not a finished one.

Getting translation quality right

AI translation is now good enough to carry the bulk of a catalogue, and on Shopify it's free for two languages. What it doesn't do is understand your market. A sportswear brand once had its "bodybuilding accessories" rendered into French as gymnastique — the word for school gym class, not strength training. The right word was musculation. No spell-check catches that; only someone who knows the market does.

The practical answer is rarely all-AI or all-human. Translate the long tail by machine, and put human review where it earns its keep: the pages that carry the most buying intent and the most brand voice — hero products, category pages, the homepage. Spend the review budget there rather than spreading it thin across the whole site.

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Multilingual SEO: making translated pages rank

Translated pages only earn their keep if search engines can find them. Shopify's native setup handles the basics — each language lives on its own URL with hreflang, so Google can index and serve the right version to the right searcher. The failure mode to avoid is a browser-side language switcher that swaps the text on a page without giving each language its own URL: there's nothing distinct for Google to index, so the translated version simply never ranks.

If you want translated pages to pull organic traffic rather than just exist, make sure each one is a real, indexable page. Translate the slugs, keep every language version in your sitemap, and don't rely on a switch that only changes what the visitor sees. Translated pages that don't rank don't sell.

Where localization goes beyond translation

Here's the part the word counts hide. Translating the storefront gets a shopper to understand you. It doesn't, on its own, get them to buy. A French shopper reading your product page in French still hits friction if the price shows in dollars, duties and taxes are a surprise at checkout, the payment methods are unfamiliar, and the shipping options assume a US address.

Localizing a store means handling all of it: prices in local currency, duties and taxes shown up front, recognised local payment methods, a checkout that feels native, and marketing — ads and email — written for the market rather than translated into it. Shopify Markets covers some of this, such as local pricing and duties at checkout; the rest depends on the tools and partners you add. This is the line between a translation tool, which prices words and languages, and a localization platform, which is built around selling in a market. It's a distinction worth getting straight — we unpack it in the difference between website translation and localization.

Glopal sits on the localization side: it has run cross-border e-commerce localization since 2007, treating translation as one part of localized SEO, currency, duties, payments and checkout rather than the whole job. If you're weighing which tool fits your stage, our rundown of the best Weglot alternatives for e-commerce lays the options out side by side.

Translating your store gets a shopper to understand you. Localizing it gets them to buy.

— On the difference between translation and localization

Frequently asked questions

How do I translate my Shopify store?

You translate a Shopify store by turning on Shopify Markets, adding your languages, and then translating the content using one of three methods: Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app, a CSV export/import workflow, or a third-party translation app or service. Shopify creates a separate URL for each language and adds hreflang automatically.

Is Shopify Translate & Adapt free?

Yes. Translate & Adapt is Shopify's own free app. It auto-translates up to two languages using Google, and lets you enter translations for further languages by hand. It doesn't translate URL slugs or tags, and machine output should be reviewed before publishing.

How many languages can a Shopify store have?

Every Shopify plan except Lite lets you sell in up to 20 languages from a single store. You don't need a separate store for each language.

Does Shopify add hreflang tags automatically?

Yes. When you publish a language, Shopify creates a unique URL for each translated page and adds the correct hreflang tags, so search engines serve the right language version to the right searcher.

What's the difference between translating and localizing a Shopify store?

Translation converts the words a shopper reads. Localization adapts the whole buying experience to a market: local currency, duties and taxes, recognised payment methods, a native-feeling checkout, and marketing written for the market. Translation is one part of localization, not the whole of it.

Do I need a third-party app or an ecommerce translation service?

Not always. For one or two languages on a small catalogue, Shopify's native Translate & Adapt is often enough. Third-party apps and ecommerce translation services become worthwhile when you're scaling languages, need translated slugs and automation, or want human quality on key pages.

Will translated pages rank on Google?

They can, if each language version is a real page with its own URL, hreflang, and a place in your sitemap — which Shopify's native setup provides. A browser-side language switcher that changes only the on-screen text, without separate URLs, gives search engines nothing distinct to index, so those translations won't rank.

Choosing your setup

See how the tools actually compare

A side-by-side of the apps and platforms that handle translation — and the ones built for the whole cross-border journey.

Compare the alternatives

Weglot pricing in 2026: what it really costs to scale

Julien Duhaubois — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:41:51 GMT

Weglot pricing looks simple at first glance: pick a plan, add languages, go live. The headline numbers are low, and for a small site they stay low. The part worth understanding before you commit is how the cost moves as your catalogue and your language list grow — because the plan you start on is rarely the plan you stay on.

This is a plain read of what Weglot costs in 2026, what each plan includes, and a short framework for working out which tier your site will actually land on. All figures are taken from Weglot's own pricing page (verified 12 June 2026); Weglot prices in euros, so we lead with euros and note the dollar estimate.

In this guide

Weglot pricing at a glance
What you get as you move up
How to work out which plan you'll be on
Where translation sits in the cost of selling abroad
When Weglot is the right spend
Frequently asked questions

Weglot pricing at a glance

Weglot runs six standard plans plus a custom Enterprise tier. Two things set the plan: the total number of translated words across your site, and the number of languages you translate into. Prices below are the monthly rate when billed annually (annual billing is roughly two months cheaper than paying monthly).

Plan	Price (billed annually)	Translated words	Languages	Best for
Free	€0	2,000	1	Testing on a small site or a single landing page
Starter	€15 / mo (≈ $17)	10,000	1	An early-stage site adding one language
Business	€29 / mo (≈ $32)	50,000	3	A small store going multilingual on a real site
Pro	€79 / mo (≈ $87)	200,000	5	Growing companies with active content across markets
Advanced	€299 / mo (≈ $329)	1,000,000	10	High-traffic sites with large catalogues and wider coverage
Extended	€699 / mo (≈ $769)	5,000,000	20	Large-scale sites with global reach
Enterprise	On request	Custom	Custom	Custom security, SSO, SLA and reverse-proxy needs

What shapes the real bill

The word allowance is a fixed total, not a monthly refill. It's the total number of unique words you can have translated across all your languages at once — not an amount that resets each month. According to Weglot, each unique word counts once, however many times it appears on the site.
Your original language doesn't count toward the language limit. Translating an English site into French, German and Spanish uses three of your allotted languages.
There's a separate translation-request allowance (Weglot's term for the number of times your site calls its translation API, roughly equal to translated page views) that scales with each plan.
Billing is in euros. A dollar price is an estimate based on the euro–dollar rate on your subscription date, and VAT is added for EU customers without a valid VAT number.

What you get as you move up

The lower plans are about getting one or a few languages live cleanly. Weglot's strength here is real: it's no-code, it sets up quickly, and its multilingual SEO is server-side and indexable — translated pages get their own URLs and hreflang tags, so they can rank rather than sitting behind a browser-side language switch.

The features that matter to larger sites arrive higher up. Translated URL slugs and traffic statistics start at Pro, which is also where you can run more than one site from a single account. Export and import, custom language definitions, and a top-level-domain option come in at Advanced and Extended. Professional human translation can be ordered through the dashboard on the paid plans, billed separately from around €0.13 per word.

How to work out which plan you'll actually be on

The published price isn't the useful number — the useful number is the plan your site lands on once it's fully translated. Four checks get you there.

Count your words before you count your savings. Use a word-count estimate for your whole site, not just the pages you have in mind. Product descriptions, collection pages, menus, policies and blog content all add up, and the allowance is a fixed ceiling rather than a monthly budget. Knowing the real total tells you which word tier you need.
Let your language list set the tier — it often decides before words do. The language caps step up unevenly: 1, then 3, then 5, then 10, then 20. If you need a sixth language, you move from Pro (five languages, €79) to Advanced (ten languages, €299), regardless of how few words you have. For most multi-market plans, the language count, not the word count, is what picks the plan. Decide your full language roadmap up front so the jump doesn't surprise you mid-year.
Decide how much you'll translate by machine versus by hand. AI translation is included; professional human translation is a per-word cost on top (from about €0.13/word). If brand voice and accuracy matter on key pages, budget for review on those pages specifically rather than the whole site.
Price it annually and in euros. Annual billing saves roughly two months a year, and because plans are charged in euros, your real cost in another currency moves with the exchange rate. For a yearly budget, work from the euro figure.

Run those four checks and you'll have a defensible number — usually the tier above where the sticker price first suggests, because language coverage tends to be what pulls a growing store upward.

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Where translation sits in the cost of selling abroad

It's worth zooming out, because "what does translation cost" is only part of the question for an e-commerce brand. A translation tool prices the words. Selling in a new market prices everything around them.

Weglot is a strong fit when the job is translating a site quickly and keeping those pages indexable for search. That's genuinely most of what some businesses need. But for a store actually trying to win a market, translated pages are step one of a longer list: localized SEO that ranks in-country, prices shown in local currency, duties and taxes handled at checkout, payment methods people recognise, and ads and email that read as though they were written locally. Each of those is a line in the real cost of going cross-border — and none of them is a word count. If you're mapping that work on Shopify, our guide to translating and localizing a Shopify store walks through each piece.

A translation widget is priced per word and per language; a cross-border operation is budgeted per market.

— On the real cost of going global

That's the distinction worth holding in mind when you compare tools. Glopal, which has run cross-border e-commerce localization since 2007, sits on the second of those — translation as one part of localized SEO, currency, duties, payments and checkout, rather than the whole job. If you're weighing where each tool fits, our rundown of the best Weglot alternatives for e-commerce lays out the options side by side.

When Weglot is the right spend

For a site that needs a few languages live fast, with clean SEO and no developer, Weglot's lower plans are a sensible, low-cost choice — and the support reputation backs that up. The cost question gets sharper as language coverage and content volume grow, which is exactly the point at which it's worth asking whether you're buying a translation layer or the wider cross-border setup your market actually needs. Map your languages and your word count first, and the right plan — or the decision to look wider — tends to answer itself.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Weglot cost?

Weglot has six standard plans, billed annually: Free (€0), Starter (€15/mo), Business (€29/mo), Pro (€79/mo), Advanced (€299/mo) and Extended (€699/mo), plus a custom Enterprise tier. Each plan sets a total translated-word allowance and a maximum number of languages.

Is there a free version of Weglot?

Yes. There's a 14-day free trial (up to 10,000 words in one language), after which a permanent Free plan covers up to 2,000 words in one language. Above that, you move to a paid plan.

Does the Weglot word limit reset each month?

No. The word allowance is a fixed total across all your languages, not a monthly amount that renews. Weglot counts each unique word once, however many times it appears on your site.

Why does Weglot cost more as I add languages?

Two reasons. Each language you add counts against your plan's language cap (1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 depending on the tier), and translating the same content into more languages increases your total translated-word count — both of which can move you up a tier.

What's the difference between the Pro and Advanced plans?

Pro (€79/mo) covers 5 languages and 200,000 words; Advanced (€299/mo) covers 10 languages and 1,000,000 words, and adds export/import and custom languages. The step is large, so if you expect to pass five languages or 200,000 words it's worth planning for in advance.

Does professional translation cost extra?

Yes. AI translation is included in every plan; professional human translation ordered through Weglot is billed separately, starting from around €0.13 per word.

Is Weglot priced in dollars or euros?

Standard plans are charged in euros. Any dollar figure is an estimate based on the euro–dollar rate on your subscription date, and VAT is added for EU customers without a valid VAT number.

Choosing a tool

See how the alternatives compare

A side-by-side of the tools that handle translation — and the ones built for the whole cross-border journey.

Compare Weglot alternatives