The strongest Loco Translate alternative for most sites is GTranslate, which actually translates your site for visitors rather than only editing theme and plugin strings the way Loco Translate does. If you want a fully free way to run a real multilingual site, Polylang lets you write each language by hand. For hands-off machine translation, Weglot is the smoothest. We ranked these from our index of 55,000+ WordPress plugins.

Why people switch from Loco Translate

• Loco Translate edits .po and .mo files but does not create a multilingual site, so people move to Polylang or TranslatePress when they need separate language versions.
• Editing strings by hand is slow, so people move to GTranslate or Weglot for automatic machine translation.
• Loco Translate has no visitor-facing language switcher, so people move to tools that add one out of the box.
• People who only need to change a few wordings, not translate a whole site, move to Say What?.

GTranslate – Automatic translation

GTranslate adds automatic machine translation and a language switcher powered by Google’s engine, so visitors can read your site in many languages instantly. Against Loco Translate, it delivers a working multilingual front end without you editing a single translation file. Its limitation is that the free tier serves translations dynamically and does not create separate indexable URLs, so search visibility for other languages needs a paid plan.

Choose GTranslate if you want instant multilingual coverage with almost no setup.

Polylang – Manual multilingual, free

Polylang is a well established multilingual plugin that lets you create and link translated versions of posts, pages and menus yourself. Against Loco Translate, it builds a genuine multilingual site with clean per-language URLs at no cost. The drawback is that it does no translating for you, so every language is manual work, and connecting it to automatic translation or WooCommerce needs paid add-ons.

Choose Polylang if you want full control over each language and are happy to translate by hand.

Say What? – Simple string swaps

Say What? is a tiny utility for replacing individual text strings output by themes and plugins without touching translation files. Against Loco Translate, it is far simpler when all you want is to reword a label or a checkout message. Its limitation is obvious: it only substitutes text strings within one language and is not a translation or multilingual solution at all.

Choose Say What? if you only need to reword a handful of built-in phrases.

Weglot – Hands-off translation

Weglot is a cloud translation service that detects your content, translates it automatically and manages the switcher and language URLs for you. Against Loco Translate, it turns a single-language site into a searchable multilingual one with very little effort. The catch is that pricing is a subscription tied to word count and number of languages, so busy or content-heavy sites can get expensive, and translations live on Weglot’s servers.

Choose Weglot if you want the fastest path to a multilingual site and can budget for a subscription.

TranslatePress – Visual translating

TranslatePress from Cozmoslabs lets you translate directly on a live preview of the page, seeing each string in context. Against Loco Translate, it is friendlier for translating the whole site rather than raw files. The drawback is that the free version covers one extra language, and automatic translation plus multiple languages and SEO fields sit behind the paid plans.

Choose TranslatePress if you want to translate visually from the front end of your site.

When to stay on Loco Translate

Stay on Loco Translate if your goal is not a multilingual site at all but simply correcting or completing the translations of a theme or plugin. It is the best free tool for editing .po and .mo files safely inside WordPress, and if you only speak to one audience in one language, a full multilingual plugin adds complexity you will never use.

How we ranked these

Every plugin here is scored by the WPS Score, a single 0 to 10 rating built from 21 signals covering maintenance, support responsiveness, compatibility, performance, and ratings quality across our index of 55,000+ plugins. Rankings are derived from that data, not editorial preference, and no plugin author can pay to change a score. How the WPS Score works.

Frequently asked questions

Is Loco Translate a multilingual plugin?

No. Loco Translate is a translation file editor for themes and plugins, not a way to run a site in several languages at once. To offer visitors multiple languages you need a plugin like Polylang, TranslatePress, GTranslate or Weglot, which create and serve translated versions of your pages.

What is the best free alternative to Loco Translate?

Polylang is the best free alternative for building a real multilingual site, since it lets you create linked translations of your content at no cost. GTranslate also has a free tier that adds automatic translation, though its free version does not create separately indexable language URLs.

Can I translate a WordPress site automatically?

Yes. GTranslate and Weglot both translate your content automatically using machine translation, and TranslatePress offers automatic translation on its paid plans. Loco Translate does not translate anything for you; it only lets you edit existing translation strings manually.

The verdict

The best all-round Loco Translate alternative is GTranslate for turning a single-language site multilingual with minimal effort, while Polylang wins if you want a free, fully manual multilingual setup and Weglot suits teams that want translation handled for them. If you only need to fix theme and plugin wording, staying on Loco Translate remains the sensible choice.