Gloty vs. Polylang
Polylang is the beloved lightweight, free-to-start multilingual plugin. The difference is workflow: Polylang has you translate content by hand, post by post — Gloty translates the whole site automatically.
Polylang is lightweight, native, and has a genuinely capable free version with 800,000+ installs — you build multilingual sites by creating a linked, translated post for each language. Its Pro edition adds a DeepL assist, but that runs one item at a time, only with DeepL, and doesn't re-sync when you edit the source. Gloty takes the opposite approach: it intercepts your page output and translates the whole site automatically across multiple AI providers, then keeps translations up to date.
Choose Gloty if…
- You want the whole site translated automatically, not post by post
- You don't want to manually create a translated copy of every page
- You want a choice of AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepL, Google), not DeepL only
- You want translations to re-sync automatically when you edit the source
Choose Polylang if…
- You want a capable free plugin and are happy translating by hand
- You want full editorial control over each language as a distinct, hand-tuned page
- You prefer a lightweight, native plugin and don't need automatic AI at all
Credit where due
Where Polylang genuinely shines
- A genuinely capable free version — real multilingual sites at €0, with no language or word limits on manual translation.
- Lightweight and native: built on WordPress core taxonomies, well-liked on shared hosting.
- Full editorial control — hand-authored, individually SEO-tunable pages per language, ideal when per-market nuance matters.
- Huge, mature, actively maintained install base (800,000+) with a solid ecosystem.
Where Gloty differs
What you get with Gloty
Automatic, whole-site — not post by post
With Polylang you create and translate a separate linked entity for every page in every language. Gloty intercepts your rendered pages and translates everything automatically, so a 300-page site doesn't mean 300 manual translations per language.
Any AI provider, and it stays in sync
Polylang's machine translation is Pro-only, DeepL-only, one item at a time, and doesn't update when you edit the source. Gloty works across OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepL and Google, covers the whole site, and re-translates changed content automatically.
WooCommerce and SEO without extra add-ons
Polylang needs a separate paid add-on for WooCommerce and reserves slug/SEO refinements for Pro. Gloty includes WooCommerce translation and a full SEO suite (hreflang, meta, sitemaps) in the box.
Gloty vs. Polylang — FAQ
- Does Polylang translate automatically?
- Not in the free version — it's fully manual. Polylang Pro adds a DeepL assist, but you trigger it per item, it works only with DeepL, and it doesn't re-sync when you change the source. Gloty translates the whole site automatically and keeps it updated.
- Is Polylang free?
- Yes, the core plugin is free and genuinely useful for hand-translated sites. Gloty is also free to start; the difference is automation — Gloty does the translating for you rather than having you create a translated post per language.
- Do both keep my data local?
- Yes. Both Polylang and Gloty store translations in your own WordPress database — there's no cloud lock-in with either. The real difference is the manual-vs-automatic workflow and provider choice, not data ownership.
As of July 2026, Polylang has a free version (manual translation, no MT). Polylang Pro starts around €99/yr for one site and adds DeepL machine translation, slug translation, and SEO refinements; WooCommerce support is a separate add-on (~€99/yr) or bundle. Verify current pricing at polylang.pro/pricing. Polylang is a trademark of its respective owner and is referenced here for factual comparison only. Details verified July 2026; competitor features and pricing change — always confirm on their official site.
Own your translations. Start free.
Automatic AI translation, stored in your own database, with the provider you already trust.