The Honest Story About Translations in WordPress

Updates are often more exciting than many developers are willing to admit. Not because WordPress is unreliable, but because the combination of WordPress, plugins, and customizations is vulnerable. Complexity tends to increase rapidly, especially as websites grow. For multilingual websites, there is also the following:

• Content is often logically linked in multiple places
• Changes affect multiple languages
• Errors aren't always immediately apparent

Even an update that seems to be working fine can cause something to go wrong without you noticing:

• A translation that is being removed
• Changes to the URL structure
• A synchronization that stalls

The result?
Translations that no longer work. Or extra checks, more support requests, and a lot more time spent.
Not because someone did something wrong, but because the system relies on the plugin in all sorts of places.

Three questions to ask yourself

• How will this remain manageable in five years?
• How do I explain the translations to a client or a colleague?
• What happens if someone else has to take over?

If you want to translate a WordPress website, you have three options:

1. Website with a translation plugin

The most common option, in which a translation plugin handles the translations. This requires linking the content and results in a high degree of dependence on both the translation plugin and other plugins and add-ons to make everything work. That works fine for a long time, until things get more complicated and something goes wrong or is missing during an update.

Please note: Do you use Weglot? Ultimately, it's a translation plugin that handles all translations externally. The main drawbacks of this approach are the high costs and the fact that all translations are stored externally. That means you don't have complete control over it.

2. Several separate sites

A completely safe choice, but very time-consuming. Because a separate WordPress site is developed for each language, any changes to the text must be made manually in every instance. Difficult to scale and time-consuming to maintain.

3. wpMula-multisite

The best of both worlds, thanks to WordPress’s built-in multisite functionality. Within a single WordPress installation, wpMula creates a separate version of the site for each language. Centrally managed and automatically translated. Without any extra plugins or add-ons, so it’s much less complex and easier to manage.

Tip: Are you choosing wpMula? Then create a separate subsite for each language. This means you can specify who has access for each language. This way, you can grant a French administrator access to only the French translation. This is an easy way to restrict access to other languages for those who shouldn't have it.

Translating a WordPress site becomes complex when it comes to growing websites or multiple languages. How you handle that complexity determines whether it remains manageable.

Translation plugins use add-ons and other extras to try to address that complexity. This becomes increasingly difficult as the site grows or more languages are added. People who work with standalone websites try to avoid complexity, but end up spending a lot of time on it.

wpMula does things differently. The Multisite approach in WordPress provides a framework for managing complexity. That is why wpMula is not a translation plugin. It’s a different way of working, built right into the core of WordPress.

In addition, string translations are built into wpMula by default. This allows you to translate static text in plugins and themes without needing an additional plugin like Loco Translate. That's handy, because that plugin makes many websites heavier and slower.

WordPress Multisite is part of the CMS's original architecture.
This allows you to manage a single website, with a separate version for each language. From a single management interface, without any additional plugins, add-ons, or other extras.

Simple despite the complexity

wpMula remains very simple, even as your site grows or when you add multiple languages. You can prevent:

• Add additional settings to plugins
• Override important settings
• Links remain under the radar

It's easier to understand what's going on from within WordPress Multisite. This makes debugging easier and allows you to communicate the decisions you've made much more effectively. Both to customers and to other developers.

What wpMula deliberately does not do

wpMula does not force automatic content synchronization and does not hide settings, underlying structure, or required add-ons. This works because wpMula uses WordPress's multisite functionality.

Choose wpMula too

wpMula is, among other things, popular with:

• Agencies that manage multiple sites
• Developers who work for multiple clients
• Professionals who want to explain their decisions to their clients