WPML is a WordPress plugin that enables multilingual website functionality, allowing site owners to create and manage content in multiple languages. It provides comprehensive translation management tools and integrates with WordPress to handle language switching, content translation, and multilingual SEO optimization.
Key Features
Multilingual Content Management - Create and manage website content in multiple languages from a single WordPress installation
Language Switching - Enable visitors to switch between different language versions of your site
Translation Tools - Integrated translation management system for organizing and tracking content translations
SEO Optimization - Supports multilingual search engine optimization to help each language version rank in search results
Content Duplication - Automatically duplicate posts, pages, and custom content across language versions
Language-Specific URLs - Generate language-specific URLs for improved SEO and user experience
Custom Post Type Support - Extend multilingual functionality to custom post types and taxonomies
Media Translation - Manage and translate media files across different language versions
Taxonomy Translation - Translate categories, tags, and custom taxonomies for each language
Plugin Compatibility - Works with other WordPress plugins to maintain multilingual functionality across extensions
Theme Integration - Compatible with WordPress themes to display language switchers and multilingual navigation
Full Support and Updates - Includes customer support and free updates for one year with all accounts
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee - Provides a refund option if the plugin does not meet requirements
Best For
WPML is designed for WordPress site owners who need to serve content to international audiences or operate in multiple languages. It is suitable for businesses, organizations, and publishers that want to expand their reach across different language markets while maintaining a single WordPress installation. This plugin solves the challenge of managing multilingual content efficiently without requiring separate websites for each language.
WPML now intercepts calls to get_user_meta() and returns the translated value for the current language. This is useful when displaying user profile fields (e.g. job title, bio) on multilingual sites. To enable this behaviour, add the following to your theme or plugin:
WPML sends automatic emails from several internal components (translation job assignments, overdue job reports, batch summaries, etc.). Previously there was no official way to suppress them — developers had to rely on workarounds inspecting the call stack. This new hook provides a single, supported way to disable all WPML emails at once:
This is particularly useful on staging or development environments where you want to prevent emails from reaching real users.
Improvements
Migration and Setup
Safer and More Reliable Migration Process
WPML now makes it safer and easier to move or copy a site from one domain to another. If something goes wrong during the migration, the wizard stays visible so users can retry, with clearer messages, better logging, and guidance on where to find the migration code. WPML also automatically fixes misconfigured alias domains, removes the unsafe “Move” option, and improves performance for sites using the Classic Translation Editor.
WPML now notifies the translation service when a site key is unregistered.
Performance
Reduced redundant language filtering calls on sites with many ACF fields for better performance.
Admin and User Experience
Unlocked WPML settings are now visually indicated in the admin interface.
String Translation dashboard filters now show labels and default to Frontend strings.
Clarified how Media Translation settings affect images and featured images.
The notification about jobs that cannot be finished now links directly to the Translation Dashboard.
Fixes
Some posts containing Base64-encoded data were not being sent for translation
In a previous release, we started blocking some posts because they contained Base64-encoded data, to prevent issues during the translation process. However, this also blocked some posts that could actually be translated, or where the Base64 content could simply be ignored. We’ve updated how WPML handles Base64-encoded content — posts that can be safely translated are no longer blocked. A more precise validation approach is planned for an upcoming release.
Performance improvements when the Classic Translation Editor is selected.
Added
filter hook for developers to return translated user meta values
filter hook to globally disable all WPML email notifications
a new option to reset the WPML Setup Wizard when it gets into a corrupted state.
Removed
outdated WP Super Cache integration code that was no longer needed.
Fixed
an issue with WPML blocks causing the Gutenberg editor to use an outdated rendering mode.
an issue with Payments & Maintenance tab failing to load on sites with WordPress installed in a subdirectory.
a PHP warning triggered when search queries contained array parameters.
an issue with Full Site Editing category templates not applying to translated pages.
an issue with translator assignment failing after a database restore or site migration.
an issue with active subscriptions incorrectly shown as expired on the last day of the billing cycle.
an issue with String Translation failing to load translation files due to domain name casing conflicts.
an issue with memory exhaustion errors on sites where user accounts had accented characters in their username.
an issue with minimal custom field values being lost during the translation process.
an issue with page preview slowness or timeouts on resource-limited servers when WPML is active.