There are actually many plugins that enable multilingualism in WordPress: https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/multilingual/ – there is also the “top dog” WPML, but it comes only at a cost.
Which one is best for you depends on various factors that I cannot assess:
- Are you willing to pay for it? If not so, some options such as WPML or Weglot are out of the question.
- Which theme do you use? Some of these plugins offer convenient options, e.g., only for classic themes, not for modern block themes (or only at a cost).
- Do you use an online shop such as WooCommerce? Here, too, many of these plugins only offer support for a fee.
- Do you want to translate the pages yourself manually or automatically? This is also crucial, because some of the plugins offer both, but some only offer one of them.
- Do you want to work with a personal contact person as a translator who will enter the texts for you? Then some options are also out of the question.
Feel free to provide a little more information so that we can better help you with your decision.
Of course, you can also take a look at the above examples yourself. But be careful: I would not simply install and test them in live systems. Some of these plugins nestle deep in the system and it is almost impossible to change them afterwards. A test system where you can take a look at this would therefore be highly recommended.
If you can’t decide on all of this, you can of course find someone to advise you personally. You can find someone like this here, for example: https://jobs.wordpress.net/
And by the way: WordPress itself is currently not multilingual, only with the help of plugins. In a future version of WordPress, however, multilingualism should also be possible without plugins. The community is currently working on this, but it may take some time before it is ready for use.
For a free plugin, I usually use Polylang https://id.wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/ . But for the paid one, I use WPML https://wpml.org
8-10 years ago I did a couple of web pages for my companies and am now just getting back to developing a multi language site, Primary Language Spanish secondary Language English
The web site will be simple and static to start but I want a firm foundation to grow capabilities like adding a blog in the future and something like woo Comerce. I will most likely use the twenty twenty-four theme and possible GenerateBlocks and Generate Press but still evaluating.
I want to use the block editor only and stay away from Classic options
I prefer not to pay for a language plugin to start because I am in the development and learning stage.
I want to give the site a default to spanish and give the user an option to change to english by a menu option. I have seen this option on several web pages
My 1st step is to get some idea how option works and get a feel of how a user would navigate with it.
a question of how automatic and manual works
The Polylang free plugin seems to require each page to have separate pages for each language
Are there plugins free or cost that do the translation when the page is displayed
do all available plugins require, use the about page as an example, if I have about in English do I also have to have an about page in English
I think https://wordpress.org/plugins/gtranslate/ offers live translation. The disadvantage is that you cannot correct anything in the translations if something is wrong.
Thanks I will take a look
