ConveyThis vs WPML: the short answer
WPML and ConveyThis are different kinds of product, so the answer to "which is better" depends on what you need most.
WPML is a WordPress plugin that makes WordPress itself multilingual. Every translated post, page, menu, taxonomy term and theme string becomes content in your own database. You translate by hand, with an agency, or with WPML's built-in AI translation, which is metered in words. If you translate mostly by hand and want to own every string, WPML covers more. It also asks more of you, because you maintain the plugin, its add-ons and compatibility with your theme and page builder.
ConveyThis translates the pages your site already renders. A plugin (or a one-line snippet on non-WordPress sites) finds the content, translates it automatically, serves each language on its own indexable URL and gives you a visual editor for corrections. It is faster to set up, cheaper at volume, and it also works on sites that are not built on WordPress.
Choose WPML if you want translations in your database, translate mainly by hand, and have someone to maintain a plugin-heavy stack. Choose ConveyThis if you want the whole site translated automatically in minutes, need many languages, or run more than one platform.
ConveyThis vs WPML at a glance
| Fact (checked 22 Sep 2026) | ConveyThis | WPML |
|---|---|---|
| Что это такое | Website translation service with a WordPress plugin and a universal snippet | WordPress multilingual plugin |
| Platforms | WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Joomla, Drupal, any HTML site | Только WordPress |
| Модель ценообразования | Monthly, by translated words, languages, domains and monthly translation requests (page loads); yearly at ten months' price | Yearly license per tier; one year of support and updates |
| Free option | Free plan: 5,000 words, 1 language, 1 domain, 2,500 page loads a month | None listed; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Entry price | $12 per month (30,000 words, 1 language) | €39 per year (Multilingual Blog, 1 production site, no AI translation) |
| Most popular tier | Business, $24 per month: 100,000 words, 3 languages | Multilingual CMS, €99 per year: 3 production sites, 22,500 AI words included |
| Top tier | Extreme, $960 per month: 10,000,000 words, 100 languages, 50 domains | Multilingual Agency, €199 per year: unlimited sites, 45,000 AI words included |
| Automatic translation | Included in every plan up to the word allowance | Metered AI words on CMS and Agency; not included on Blog |
| Traffic limit | Monthly translation requests (page loads) on every plan: 2,500 on Free, 15,000 on Starter, 50,000 on Business, 200,000 on Pro, up to 5,000,000 on Extreme | None listed on the purchase page; translated pages are served by your own WordPress site |
| Where translations live | Your ConveyThis account (editable, exportable) | Your WordPress database |
| Поддерживаемые языки | 210 | Any language you configure; translation quality depends on the engine you use |
Источники: app.wpml.org/purchase и conveythis.com/pricing, read on 22 September 2026. WPML prices are in euros as listed; WPML's page does not publish the price of additional AI words, so we make no claim about it. The traffic-limit row was re-checked on both pages on 28 September 2026.
Pricing: a yearly license against a monthly word allowance
The two price lists do not line up tier for tier, so the useful comparison is by how you translate.
If you translate by hand or with your own agency, WPML is inexpensive: €99 a year for the CMS tier covers three production sites with no limit on how many words you translate manually. ConveyThis meters machine-translated words rather than human edits, but it also caps monthly translation requests (page loads): 2,500 on Free, 15,000 on Starter, 50,000 on Business. A site translated mostly by hand can stay on the free plan or Starter only while its translated pages stay under those page-load allowances. A busy site has to move up the ladder because of its traffic, even if its text is small. WPML lists no traffic limit, because your own WordPress server serves the translated pages. At the small end you pay WPML €99 a year against $0 to $144 a year for ConveyThis, and the two products are doing different jobs.
If you want the site translated automatically, the comparison goes the other way. WPML's CMS license includes 22,500 AI words and the Agency license 45,000; a 100,000-word site in three languages needs 300,000 words of machine translation, far beyond what either license includes, and WPML's purchase page does not publish the price of extra words. ConveyThis Business includes 100,000 words in three languages and 50,000 page loads a month for $24 a month ($240 a year), and Pro includes 400,000 words in five languages and 200,000 page loads for $64 a month. If you need automatic translation at any real volume, only the ConveyThis ladder can be priced from a public page.
On the number of sites, WPML is generous: CMS covers three production sites and Agency covers unlimited sites. ConveyThis Business covers one domain, Pro three, Pro+ five, Optimum ten and Extreme fifty. Agencies with many small client sites should compare the cost per site, and if those sites are translated by hand, WPML Agency at €199 a year is hard to beat.
| Scenario | WPML | ConveyThis |
|---|---|---|
| One site, translated by hand, 2 languages | Multilingual CMS, €99 per year | Free plan if under 5,000 machine words; otherwise Starter $12 per month |
| One site, 100,000 words translated automatically into 3 languages | CMS license plus extra AI words beyond the 22,500 included (price not published) | Business, $24 per month |
| Agency, 10 small client sites, manual translation | Multilingual Agency, €199 per year, unlimited sites | Optimum, $160 per month, 10 domains, 500,000 page loads across them (only worth it with automatic translation) |
| Store, 400,000 words, 5 languages, automatic | Extra AI words required; price not published | Pro, $64 per month, if the store stays under 200,000 page loads a month; busier stores need a higher tier |
How we scored them
Scores use the five weighted criteria on our методология сравнения page, out of five.
| Criterion (weight) | ConveyThis | WPML | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website deployment (30%) | 5 | 3 | ConveyThis is live in minutes on any platform with no theme changes. WPML is WordPress-only and needs configuration of languages, string translation, menus and taxonomies, plus compatibility checks with page builders and other plugins. |
| Localization workflow (25%) | 4 | 4 | WPML's translation management, translator roles and Advanced Translation Editor are mature, and every string lives in your database. ConveyThis offers a visual editor, glossary, translation assignments, exclusions and professional-translator orders. The strengths differ, but the depth is similar. |
| Multilingual SEO (20%) | 4 | 5 | Both serve indexable language URLs, hreflang and translated metadata. WPML also translates URL slugs and lets you control every SEO field in WordPress itself, which earns it the extra point. |
| Cost model (15%) | 3 | 4 | WPML is cheaper for manual translation and lists no traffic limit. ConveyThis is the only one with a public price for automatic translation at volume and has a free plan, but every plan also caps monthly page loads, so a busy site can outgrow a tier on traffic alone. WPML takes the point. |
| Governance (10%) | 4 | 4 | WPML gives you complete data ownership inside WordPress. ConveyThis offers team roles, an enterprise tier with dedicated servers and GDPR terms. They are equal on what we can verify. |
| Weighted total | 4.15 | 3.90 | 5×0.30 + 4×0.25 + 4×0.20 + 3×0.15 + 4×0.10 against 3×0.30 + 4×0.25 + 5×0.20 + 4×0.15 + 4×0.10. |
Where WPML is the better choice
Choose WPML instead of ConveyThis if one of these applies to you:
- Every translation must live in your own database. Regulated industries, sites that must work without any third-party service, and teams that move content between systems are better served by WPML's model. This is the strongest reason to pick WPML.
- You translate by hand, and not often. For a small, stable site maintained by a bilingual owner, a yearly license with unlimited manual translation is the cheapest arrangement available.
- You need per-language slugs, menus and layouts controlled from the WordPress admin. WPML makes every WordPress feature language-aware, while a proxy-style tool works on the rendered page.
- Your site is busy. WPML serves translations from your own server and lists no page-view limit. ConveyThis counts monthly page loads on every plan, so a high-traffic site with modest text can end up on a larger plan than its word count alone would need.
- You are an agency billing many small client sites. When clients translate by hand, WPML Agency's unlimited-sites license at €199 a year is hard to beat on price.
Where ConveyThis is the better choice
- You want the site translated right away rather than as a project. You install the plugin and pick languages, automatic translation covers the whole site, and you edit the pages that matter most.
- You need many languages. Translating by hand into eight languages means eight separate projects, while automatic translation into eight languages fits in one plan (Pro+ includes nine).
- Your sites are not all on WordPress. A Shopify store, a Webflow marketing site and a WordPress blog can all run on one ConveyThis account.
- You do not want translation to depend on your theme and plugins. ConveyThis translates whatever the page renders, so you do not need to re-check compatibility after page-builder updates, new plugins or theme changes.
- You want a public, predictable price for automatic translation. Every ConveyThis tier states its words, languages, domains and monthly page loads. WPML's price for extra words is not on its purchase page.
Сравнение функций
| Особенность | ConveyThis | WPML |
|---|---|---|
| Works on platforms other than WordPress | Да | Нет |
| Automatic translation of the whole site | Yes, included | Yes, metered AI words on CMS and Agency |
| Translations stored in your WordPress database | No (stored in your ConveyThis account, exportable) | Да |
| Visual editor on the live page | Да | Yes (Advanced Translation Editor) |
| Translated URL slugs | Not on the public feature list | Да |
| Translated metadata and hreflang | Да | Да |
| Subdirectory URLs (/fr/) | Да | Да |
| Language subdomains or separate domains | Поддомены | Subdomains and separate domains |
| Глоссарий | Да | Да |
| Order professional translation inside the tool | Да | Yes, through WPML's translation services integrations |
| Бесплатный план | Yes, 5,000 words | Нет |
| Refund | No money-back guarantee; test on the permanent Free plan (5,000 words, 1 language, no card) before paying; refund requests within 7 days of purchase under the terms | 30-day money-back guarantee |
The rows come from each vendor's public product and purchase pages on 22 September 2026. Where a capability is not documented publicly, the table says so.
Moving a WPML site to ConveyThis
People usually move when a site has grown faster than manual translation can keep up. Most of the migration work is about URLs.
- Write down your current language URL structure (WPML supports /fr/ directories, subdomains and separate domains) and set up the same structure in ConveyThis, so every translated URL keeps working.
- Export your hand-made translations from WPML and import the ones you want to keep as a glossary or through the ConveyThis editor.
- Install the ConveyThis plugin, choose the same languages and let automatic translation cover the rest of the site.
- Deactivate WPML last, after you have checked three translated pages, the language switcher and your sitemap.
If you translate mostly by hand and want to keep WPML, there is no need to move. Our WordPress integration page explains what the ConveyThis plugin changes on your site and what it leaves alone.
Часто задаваемые вопросы
How much does WPML cost compared with ConveyThis?
On 22 September 2026 WPML listed three yearly licenses, Multilingual Blog at €39, Multilingual CMS at €99 with 22,500 words of AI translation included, and Multilingual Agency at €199 with 45,000 AI words, each with one year of support and updates. ConveyThis is priced monthly by translated words, from a free plan with 5,000 words to $12 per month for 30,000 words and $24 for 100,000 words in three languages. Which is cheaper depends on how much you translate automatically.
Does WPML have a free plan?
No. WPML's purchase page lists paid yearly licenses only, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. ConveyThis has a free plan with 5,000 words in one language and 2,500 page loads a month, with no time limit and no card required; paid plans start at $12 a month.
Where are my translations stored?
WPML stores every translation as content in your own WordPress database, which you fully own and can export. ConveyThis stores translations in your ConveyThis account and serves them to the page; you can edit, export and import them from the dashboard, but they live outside your WordPress installation.
Which is easier to set up?
ConveyThis. Install the plugin, paste your API key, choose languages, and the site is translated automatically within minutes with no changes to your theme. WPML needs its language configuration, string translation setup, translation of menus, taxonomies and theme strings, and compatibility work with page builders and other plugins, which is why WPML maintains a compatibility directory.
Can I use ConveyThis on sites that are not WordPress?
Yes. ConveyThis works on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Joomla, Drupal and any custom site through a JavaScript snippet. WPML is a WordPress plugin only.
How this comparison was made
Prices and allowances were read from app.wpml.org/purchase и conveythis.com/pricing on 22 September 2026; features come from each vendor's public documentation on the same day. Scores follow the weights on our methodology page, and the table shows the arithmetic. We re-check competitor pages at least once a quarter. If WPML changes its licenses or publishes extra-word pricing, tell us at [email protected] and we will correct this page.
For other WordPress options, see ConveyThis против TranslatePress, ConveyThis против Weglot и alternatives hub.
