Weglot

Weglot is the no-code translation layer most Shopify and WooCommerce operators land on when expanding past their first language market. The pitch is operational: a second language live in days instead of months, on subdirectories Google recommends for SEO, with a visual editor non-technical staff can use. The product mostly delivers that pitch. The catch is pricing — word count compounds faster than founders expect, and the Starter tier's word cap fits a homepage but not a real product catalogue.

What Weglot actually does

The product installs as a Shopify or WooCommerce app, scans the storefront, machine-translates everything, and serves the translated pages on subdirectory URLs (/fr/, /de/, /es/, etc.) with correct hreflang tags. The operator-side workflow is two layers: machine translation by default, with an editing surface for refining specific strings — homepage headlines, product names, brand-tone-sensitive copy. The translated URLs are crawlable by Google and the SEO behaviour matches what the search-engine documentation recommends for multi-language sites.

Main features

Plug-and-play install

The Shopify app installs in minutes and starts translating automatically once a target language is selected. Most operators have a working translated storefront they can show to a regional team within the same afternoon they install the app. This speed is the main reason Weglot wins over alternatives that require theme forks or developer time.

SEO-friendly subdirectory output

Translated pages live on /fr/, /de/, etc., with hreflang tags injected automatically. This is the structure Google recommends for multi-language sites, and Weglot configures it correctly by default. For stores that previously tried to localise with separate domains or query parameters and lost SEO equity in the process, this default alone is worth the subscription.

In-context visual editor

Non-technical staff can edit translations directly on the rendered page rather than in spreadsheets or CSV exports. The editor shows the live page with translations overlaid; clicking a string opens an edit panel. This dramatically reduces the "missed string" problem where a translation looks right in isolation but breaks the layout or context on the actual page.

Translation rules and glossaries

Per-domain translation rules (always translate "Free shipping" as "Livraison gratuite", never translate the brand name) and glossaries that propagate across all translated pages. For brands with strict tone-of-voice manuals or technical terms that must stay consistent, this is the feature that scales editing from "one product page at a time" to "rule-based across the catalogue".

Who Weglot fits

Weglot fits Shopify and WooCommerce operators who want a second language live in days, not months. It is a particularly good fit when the team is content-led rather than engineering-led, because the visual editor lets non-technical staff own translations end to end.

It does not fit operators who need fully separate prices, currencies, and inventory per locale — for that work, Shopify Markets or a headless setup makes more sense. Weglot can layer on top of Markets for translation specifically, but it does not handle locale-specific pricing or inventory by itself.

Pricing logic

Starter at $17/mo (10K words, 1 language) is the trial-floor tier — fine for a homepage and a few key pages, too small for a real catalogue. Business at $49/mo (50K words, 3 languages) is the realistic working tier for most Shopify stores adding one or two languages. Pro at $209/mo (200K words, 5 languages) covers larger catalogues; Advanced at $549/mo (1M words, 10 languages) is for stores running serious multi-market operations. Annual billing reduces the rate by about 20%. The free plan (2K words, 1 language) is too small for production use but useful for evaluation.

A typical Shopify catalogue with 100 products lands around 30-60K words once product descriptions, FAQs, and policies are counted — which means most stores need Business or Pro from day one, not Starter.

Alternatives

The two products that come up against Weglot in evaluations are Shopify Markets and headless localisation setups.

Shopify Markets is the native solution for stores that need locale-specific pricing, currency, and inventory in addition to translation. Markets handles the operational side that Weglot does not, but the translation surface itself is shallower — most operators using Markets still layer Weglot on top for actual translation work.

Headless localisation (separate codebases or theme forks per locale) gives full control but costs significantly more developer time than the localised revenue is worth in the first 12 months for most stores. This path makes sense once a store has proven product-market fit in multiple locales and wants to optimise each storefront independently.

Choosing between them is mostly a needs question. If the goal is "ship a translated storefront this quarter", Weglot is the path of least resistance. If the goal is "run independently optimised per-locale stores", Markets or headless is the long-term setup with Weglot or a similar tool handling the translation layer.

Where to start

Starter at $17/mo on monthly billing is the right way to test the install workflow and translation quality on a homepage and a few key pages. Move to Business at $49/mo before launching to a real market — Starter's 10K-word cap will not cover a real catalogue, and discovering that mid-launch is worse than budgeting for Business from the start.