Hire WPML Developers

WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) allows a single WordPress installation to serve content in multiple languages. Rather than running separate WordPress installations for each language, WPML stores all translations within the same database and manages language switching, translated URLs, and language-specific content from a central location.

A WPML project is typically more complex than it first appears. The plugin itself needs to be configured for the language setup — which languages, URL structure (subdirectory, subdomain, or country code domain), and how untranslated content is handled. Then the translation workflow needs to be decided: manual translation by the site team, integration with a translation management service, or a combination.

WPML also needs to be configured for every plugin and theme that generates content — WooCommerce products, custom post types, ACF fields, and theme strings all need WPML to know about them for translations to work correctly. Missing this step results in untranslated strings appearing in the wrong language or not appearing at all.

Performance is a specific concern for WPML sites. The plugin adds complexity to every database query that involves language filtering. Without proper caching, multilingual sites with many translated posts can be noticeably slower than their single-language equivalents.

WPML is the right choice when a WordPress site needs to serve multiple language audiences from a single installation. The most common scenarios:

Corporate and business sites with audiences in multiple countries — a company site that needs German, French, Spanish, and English versions of pages, a consistent URL structure per language, and the ability for the marketing team to manage translations without developer involvement.

WooCommerce stores selling internationally — product pages, checkout, emails, and all store strings translated per language, with language-specific pricing or tax rates where applicable.

News and media sites with regional editions — content that is either fully translated or partially translated, with fallback behaviour for untranslated content clearly defined.

Government and institutional sites — sites with mandatory multilingual requirements (Switzerland, Belgium, Canada) where all content must be available in official languages.

WPML configuration is specific enough that a developer who has done it well on several projects has a clearly different level of understanding than someone who has only done a basic setup.

A developer with real WPML experience can describe how they configured the String Translation component, how they handled custom post type and ACF field translation, and how they set up the language switcher for a specific theme. They will also have an opinion on URL structure choice — subdirectory vs subdomain vs separate domains — and when each makes sense.

For WooCommerce multilingual projects, ask specifically about WooCommerce Multilingual, the official WPML add-on. It handles product translations, multicurrency, and language-specific checkout configurations. A developer who has not used it will take longer and make more mistakes on a multilingual WooCommerce project.

On Codeable, developers who ask about your language setup, URL structure preference, and translation workflow before estimating understand the project correctly. WPML projects that are not scoped properly tend to have significant rework when the translation workflow does not match what was built.

The most common WPML problems:

Content showing in the wrong language — usually a language assignment issue. Go to WPML, then Translation Management and verify that the content is assigned to the correct language. Also check that the post was saved with the correct language selected — editing a post in the wrong language context creates a new translation rather than updating the original.

Language switcher showing wrong links — the language switcher generates URLs based on the URL structure setting. If the URL structure was changed after content was created, some links may point to old patterns. Run WPML’s URL troubleshooting tool under WPML, then Languages to regenerate language URLs.

Untranslated strings appearing on the front end — these are usually strings registered by a plugin or theme that WPML has not been told to translate. Go to WPML, then String Translation and search for the untranslated string to find and translate it.

Performance issues — WPML adds language conditions to database queries. On large sites, this slows queries. Use object caching and ensure WP Super Cache or WP Rocket is configured to cache per language separately. WPML has specific cache configuration guidance for each major caching plugin.

Multilingual sites require ongoing maintenance that single-language sites do not. When new content is published, it needs to be translated. When existing content is updated, translations need to be updated to match. Without a clear workflow, translations drift out of sync with the source language over time.

WPML has a Translation Management dashboard that shows which content has been translated, which is outdated (the source was updated after the translation was created), and which has not been translated yet. A developer maintaining a WPML site should review this regularly and flag outdated translations to the content team.

Plugin updates can affect WPML compatibility. When a plugin that generates strings updates, its new strings may need to be registered with WPML for translation. After plugin updates, check WPML String Translation for any new unregistered strings.

When posting a WPML project on Codeable, specify the languages, URL structure preference, the content types that need translation (pages, posts, products, custom post types), and whether you have a translation team or need integration with a translation service.

Also specify whether WooCommerce is involved — WooCommerce multilingual is a distinct scope with its own requirements around product translations, multicurrency, and checkout localisation.

A developer who asks about your translation workflow and whether you are using human translators or machine translation is thinking about the project correctly. The translation management setup depends heavily on who is doing the translating and what their technical comfort level is.