DeepL offers native-like translation for most European languages. Use the formality setting and glossary to achieve outstanding translation quality with DeepL and WPML.
Why Translate WordPress Sites With DeepL and WPML?
DeepL is the most accurate machine translation available today. And with over 30 languages, it can help you automatically translate your WordPress site into popular languages.
By translating with DeepL, you get:
Accurate translations
Choice of formal or informal voice
Automatic glossary conjugation
DeepL doesn’t offer a native WordPress plugin, but you can use WPML to get all of DeepL’s power for WordPress sites. No need to worry about APIs or keys.
DeepL and WPML, together, offer you:
Native-like Translations – DeepLs AI Neural Networks produce state-of-the-art translations.
Consistent Translations – WPML’s Glossary helps you get translations that match your site’s terminology.
Translation Memory – Don’t pay twice for words you already translated.
Complete Localization – WPML translates everything in the site and not only texts visible on the front-end (email content, validation messages, checkout process, user account, and more).
Free Translation Credits – Automatically translate your site with automatic translation credits, included for free in WPML plans.
SEO Optimized Translations – WPML translates URLs and metadata and sets hreflang links for excellent SEO with no effort by you.
And as the most popular multilingual plugin for WordPress, WPML fully integrates with hundreds of other plugins and themes. You can visit our compatible Plugins and Themes directories for the full list of compatibility partners.
How to Translate Your WordPress Site with DeepL and WPML
To translate your WordPress site with DeepL and WPML, you need the WPML CMS or Agency plan. You can learn more about WPML plans on our pricing page.
1. Select Your Languages
To get started, first decide which languages you want to add to your site. There’s no limit to how many languages you can add with WPML, so choose as many as you need.
If you haven’t yet decided the full list of languages you want, start with your most important ones. WPML lets you add or remove languages at any moment, so you can easily add more later.
For languages DeepL doesn’t support, WPML uses its alternative translation engines, Google Translate and Microsoft Azure, to automatically translate content into your target language. WPML will use DeepL for language pairs that DeepL offers and Google/Azure for other languages.
2. Set Formality for DeepL Translations
Formality in translation refers to how polite, respectful, and casual the language is. The level of formality varies depending on culture and can significantly affect how people perceive your content.
For instance, French readers prefer a formal and respectful tone when interacting with online content. In contrast, Italian readers prefer a more informal and conversational tone.
By default, WPML automatically sets the formality in DeepL based on what users in each culture usually prefer. You have the flexibility to change the formality according to your specific needs on a per-language basis.
To change DeepL’s default formality settings, go to WPML → Translation Management and click the Tools tab. There, expand the Automatic translation engines section and click Edit formality next to DeepL to choose between a formal and informal tone for each language.
Setting the DeepL formality per language in Translation Management
3. Choose Content to Translate
With WPML, you can automatically translate your entire website, or, only content you specify.
Translation mode
With Translate Everything Automatically, WPML sends all your website content to DeepL, which automatically translates it into your chosen languages.
With Translate What You Choose, WPML only sends the content you specify to DeepL. Content you don’t select won’t be translated and will appear in your default language.
Translate Everything Automatically
Translate What You Choose
Save time by not having to manually select content for translation
Avoid untranslated ‘gaps’ by translating everything on your site
Translate your entire site in a few minutes
Only translate necessary content
Reduce workload by having less translations to review
Gradually translate more content as needed
In both Translate Everything Automatically and Translate What You Choose, you can automatically translate all your website content. This includes:
Pages and posts
Custom post types
Custom fields (native WordPress, ACF or others)
Forms
Menus
Taxonomies
Images
WooCommerce products
Page-builder designs (Elementor, Divi, Avada, …)
and anything else you’re using…
4. Review Your Translations
DeepL is highly accurate, and can produce near human-level translations. To make sure that DeepL got everything right, you can review the translations on the front-end, before publishing them.
Translation review front end editor
If you’re satisfied with DeepL’s translations, you publish them to your site by clicking the Accept this translation button. If you want to make changes, you can edit translations in WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor.
WPML Advanced Translation Editor
If you’re short on time, or simply prefer a professional translator to review your content, you can invite other users to your site and let them review translations. Reviewers will only be able to edit the pages that you sent them for review and cannot accidentally modify any other content on your site.
For Example… If you translated your About page, and want a human translator to review it, WPML will only share the contents of the About page with the translator.
The rest of your site, including the WP admin dashboard, will be closed off and inaccessible to the translator.
What’s the Cost of Using DeepL With WPML?
For most websites, there’s no additional cost for translating with DeepL and WPML. When you buy WPML, you get a free package of automatic translation credits. This lets you use DeepL (and other translation engines supported by WPML) to automatically translate your content – at no extra fee.
Both the WPML CMS and Agency plans include enough credits to automatically translate your entire site into 2-3 languages.
Have a big site and need more credits?
You can easily get additional credits at an affordable price, starting at $0.0012 per word. WPML uses a declining pricing model, so the more credits you buy, the lower the cost-per-word is.
Every year, WPML helps thousands of WordPress websites translate their content. In 2023 alone, WPML translated over 13 billion words with DeepL!
For reference, DeepL accounts for 72% of the total number of words WPML automatically translates every year – over 18 billion.
Top languages WPML translates
Whether you want to enter a new international market, or simply add a new language to your website – WPML has you covered.
Start Translating with DeepL and WPML
Translating your WordPress site with DeepL and WPML is easy and fast. As the leading translation engine, DeepL can accurately translate your entire site automatically. And with WPML, you can easily get started in just a few minutes.
If you already have a WPML plan, you can start translating with DeepL straight away. For more specific instructions, read our automatic translation guide.
If you don’t yet have WPML, visit our pricing page to find the right plan for your website. You can also reach out to our pre-sales team if you have any questions – we’ll be happy to help!
