[Waiting for user confirmation] WPML compatibility with Elementor hosting
This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.
Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.
Our wait time is higher than usual, please make sure you are meeting the minimum requirement - https://wpml.org/home/minimum-requirements before you report issues, and if you can take a look at current Known Issues - https://wpml.org/known-issues/. Thank you.
Background of the issue:
I'm considering switching to a new hosting company, specifically Elementor hosting, for my site hidden link. I want to know if a bilingual site is possible on their basic plan.
Symptoms:
No specific issue or error message mentioned.
Questions:
Is a bilingual site possible on Elementor hosting's basic plan?
Please make sure that both WP_MEMORY_LIMIT and the PHP memory_limit are set high enough, as outlined here: https://wpml.org/home/minimum-requirements/.
Once these requirements are met, hosting your site directly on Elementor.com should work without any issues.
It's funny that Elementor support people say that their hosting is not compatible with bilingual sites.
That doesn't really make sense. Perhaps they meant Multisite environments instead of using plugins like WPML?
As far as I'm aware, there are no known compatibility issues with hosting provided by Elementor.com. They use Google Cloud infrastructure, similar to other specialized WordPress hosts like SiteGround: hidden link
If the memory limit is available as you mentioned, it shouldn’t behave any differently than on a typical hosting or cloud environment.
I'm interested in the basic plan for only a single website. Since I'm using 2 domains for the website, home-alarm.ca on the English side, and alarme-maison.ca on the French site, I wonder if Elementor considers it a single site or not.
Tech support at Elementor seems to be run by kids with no clue how to answer even a simple question.
It should be considered a single site, as it’s technically still the same WordPress installation. This is the standard approach used by most hosting providers.
The most important requirement is that both domains must point to the same root directory. If this is possible, you should be good to go. You can easily test it yourself by configuring WPML and verifying that the DNS settings are correct. A simple way to check this is to place a test file in your site’s root folder and confirm that it’s accessible from both domains. If not, the domain configuration was not set up correctly.
Upon checking this further with my team, I would like to let you know this is not a supported feature at the moment to use 2 domain names in basic plan. You will need two WordPress installations for this with the 2 domain names.
Those guys are obviously too dumb. I have had a lengthy conversation with them with multiple people.
I think will stick to SiteGround hosting. SiteGround support team is excellent (the best in the industry).
I'm currently on the GrowBig plan as recommended. But, I'm thinking of downgrading to StartUp since I will only keep on website and the GrowBig has grown in price due to our weak dollar currency value against the US$.
Why isn't the StartUp plan not recommended by WPML?
More resources and features, such as a staging environment, are available on higher-tier plans. However, if your site has a large number of plugins, media files, or cached files, you can hit the inode limit fairly quickly: hidden link">SiteGround Fair Use Policy.
Keep in mind that cheap hosting always comes with trade-offs — and inode limits are one of the most common bottlenecks.
Well, since WPML along with separate domains do NOT work on staging, I am avoiding staging altogether.
You can set up a multi-domain environment by adding any domains you like—even made-up ones—to your hosts.ini file and pointing them to the correct IP. This is just a simple networking setup and isn’t directly related to WPML itself. You can even do it locally (via .htaccess and VHOST config). If needed, just disable the “Validate on save” option in the WPML settings when configuring this.
For example, on Cloudways, I route a fake domain (not registerd) by adding this to my hosts file:
46.101.155.xx my-wpml.de
So you can either use a fake domain or simply point your real domains to a staging IP.
I suppose I could always upgrade back to GrowBig if I encounter warning about Iode limits, right?
Yes, that's right. Keep in mind that WordPress automatically generates multiple versions of each image based on your theme's settings. So, 500 uploaded images could easily result in 2,500 to 5,000 inodes. If you're using SiteGround, you can check the current usage as far as I know by going to Client Area > Services > Settings > Statistics
You can share it. It doesn’t matter whether you use a fake domain or your real one—as long as you point the domain to the IP of the staging server in your hosts file. In this case, the IP was from a Cloudways installation. Others can also access the staging site as long as they apply the same modification to their hosts file.
However, since you still want to access your live website, it makes sense to use a fake domain for staging. That way, you can access both environments without conflicts.
