GlotPress vs. PTC: How to Translate Your WordPress Theme or Plugin

Translating your WordPress plugin or theme is one of the best ways to reach more users. This page helps you figure out whether community translation through GlotPress is enough, or whether PTC is a better alternative.

The bottom line: With GlotPress, translations reach your users when volunteers get to them. With PTC, they are ready on release day.

Quick comparison

	GlotPress translate.wordpress.org	GlotPress self-hosted	Recommended PTC AI-powered
Translation quality	Variable. Depends entirely on who volunteers and their fluency.	Depends on translators you recruit and your review process.	Consistent AI translation with automated quality scores and suggested improvements on every string.
Setup time	Minimal. Submit to the WordPress repo and strings become available automatically.	Significant. Requires a dedicated WordPress install, project config, and locale setup.	Minutes. Follow the setup wizard and PTC begins translating immediately.
Timeline control	None. Strings are translated when volunteers get to them.	Partial. You control review, but still depend on translator availability.	Full. Translated in minutes, then a merge request is sent. You decide when to release.
Language coverage	Unpredictable. Popular plugins get coverage; smaller ones often get none.	Only the languages you can find translators for.	40+ languages, on demand. Translate into as many as you need simultaneously.
Ongoing maintenance	Every new release means waiting again. No predictability.	Manual process repeated for each release.	Automatic. PTC monitors repo and sends updates when strings change.
Cost	Free, but coordination has time cost.	Free software, but high operational time cost.	Free trial, then Pay-As-You-Go pricing.

GlotPress or PTC? Here is how to decide

Use GlotPress (translate.wordpress.org) if:

Your plugin is in the WordPress.org repository, you are comfortable with unpredictable timelines, and getting to zero upfront cost matters more than control over when, and whether, translations are complete. Coverage is reasonable for a small number of well-supported languages: Dutch, Spanish, and French come closest to consistent quality. For most others, even popular plugins end up with partial or missing translations.

Use GlotPress (self-hosted) if:

You want to run your own translation platform on your own infrastructure, you have a community of users or contributors who are willing to translate, and you have the technical capacity to set it up and keep it running. If you do not already have translators ready to bring to it, self-hosted GlotPress will not solve the problem that translate.wordpress.org could not.

Use PTC if:

You need translations ready when your release is ready, you want complete coverage in the languages your users actually speak, and you treat your own development time as a real cost. It works whether your plugin is in the WordPress.org repository or not. Commercial plugins get the same workflow as anyone else. And because PTC handles every language simultaneously, you are not leaving any users with a half-translated product.

Translate a POT file with PTC in 3 simple steps

Quality, setup, and speed: the full breakdown

Translation quality

GlotPress on translate.wordpress.org is entirely run by volunteers. The quality depends on who contributes. This is not a criticism of volunteers, many of whom are highly skilled. It is simply how the model works. A popular plugin in a language with an active Polyglots community, like Spanish or French, will likely get good translations. A smaller plugin in a less active locale may get partial translations, inconsistent quality, or nothing at all. You have no way to influence this.

Self-hosted GlotPress gives you more control because you choose your translators. You can recruit volunteers from your own user community, or hire professional translators directly. Either way, the quality depends on who you bring in and how carefully you manage the review process.

PTC uses AI translation with automated quality scoring on every project. Each translation takes your project context and glossary entries into account. The output is consistent across languages and product versions, which matters when you are releasing updates regularly.

Setup and ease of use

Getting onto translate.wordpress.org requires almost nothing from you. Submit your plugin to the WordPress.org repository following the standard i18n guidelines, and your strings automatically become available to translators. There is no extra configuration.

Self-hosted GlotPress takes significantly more effort. You need a dedicated WordPress installation, a configured GlotPress instance, individual project setup for each plugin or theme, and locale configuration for every language you want to support. If you have never done it before, expect to spend at least a day. If something goes wrong, there is a forum and a GitHub repository, but no support team.

PTC guides you through a simple and intuitive setup wizard and starts translating immediately. The setup takes minutes, not hours, and there is both comprehensive documentation and a support team ready to help you every step of the way.

translate.wordpress.org	Self-hosted GlotPress	PTC
3 steps to get started Submit plugin to WordPress.org following i18n guidelines Strings become available to volunteers automatically Wait for volunteers to provide translations	7+ steps to get started Install a dedicated WordPress instance Install and configure GlotPress Set up a project for each plugin or theme Configure locales for each language Recruit and vet translators Set up a review process Expect at least a full day, with no support team if something goes wrong	2 steps to get started Follow the setup wizard PTC translates your theme or plugin immediately

Speed and timelines

On translate.wordpress.org, there is no timeline. Looking at the current backlog on translate.wordpress.org/stats, thousands of plugins have untranslated or partially translated strings that have been waiting for months. Some will never be fully translated. If your release schedule depends on having translations ready, this model does not work.

The consequences go beyond missed deadlines. In an analysis of the state of community translations, the WPML team found that Chinese and Hindi together account for more than 1.7 billion speakers, yet translation coverage on translate.wordpress.org is almost nonexistent for both. These are not small markets, but most WordPress plugins and themes remain inaccessible to them.

Chart showing translation coverage versus target audience size for major languages. Chinese and Hindi have the largest audiences but among the lowest translation coverage on translate.wordpress.org. — Theme and plugin translation gaps. Source: WPML.org

Self-hosted GlotPress gives you more control over timelines because you manage the translators directly. But you are still dependent on their availability. A translator who does not meet deadlines is a problem you have to solve yourself.

PTC translates in minutes and comes with integration options for continuous localization. Once you connect your project to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, PTC opens a merge request to your repository automatically. You never have to wait for anyone.

translate.wordpress.org

Weeks to months

or never

Self-hosted GlotPress

Days to weeks

depends on translator availability

PTC

~10 minutes

from the moment you connect

What does it actually cost to translate a theme or plugin?

Building and maintaining a plugin or theme is already expensive. Development, support, marketing: it all adds up. So when you find a free translation tool, it feels like an easy decision. The problem is that “free” only describes the price. The full cost, when you count everything including your own time, is a completely different number.

Example: a medium-size plugin with 3,000 strings, 4 languages, releasing once per quarter. Developer rate: €60 per hour.

	translate.wordpress.org	Self-hosted GlotPress	PTC
Initial setup	None	At least one full day to install, configure, and set up projects and locales	Under 30 minutes
First translation	Weeks to months. Partial coverage in some locales is common.	Depends on when your translators are available	Same day
Direct cost	€0	€0 with volunteers. Direct fees per language if you hire freelancers.	~€46
Developer time per release	2 to 4 hours checking status and following up with the Polyglots community	1 to 3 hours re-engaging translators, managing the platform, and reviewing strings	15 to 30 minutes to review and merge
Quality guarantee	None	Depends on who you recruited	Automated quality scores and a money-back guarantee
What happens next release	The wait starts again	The process starts again. Translators must be re-engaged each time.	PTC detects new strings and sends a new merge request automatically
Total cost per release	€180 to €360 in developer time, with no guarantee of a complete result	€60 to €180 in developer time, plus any translator fees	~€61 total (translation fee + review time)

The numbers above are based on a specific example. Yours will depend on your product’s word count and number of translation languages.

See what PTC costs for your theme or plugin

Frequently asked questions

Is GlotPress free?

The software is free and translate.wordpress.org is a free service. But “free” describes the price, not the cost. Both self-hosted GlotPress and the translate.wordpress.org workflow require significant time for setup, translator coordination, quality review, and re-engagement after each release.

How long does GlotPress translation take?

On translate.wordpress.org, there is no set timeline. Translation happens when volunteers are available. Popular plugins in well-supported locales can see fast turnaround. Smaller plugins in less active locales may wait months or never receive a complete translation. Self-hosted GlotPress timelines depend entirely on the translators you recruit and how responsive they are.

Can I control the quality of GlotPress translations?

On translate.wordpress.org, no, at least not directly. The Polyglots team has its own review process, but you do not control it. With self-hosted GlotPress, you can review strings before they are marked as approved, but only if you have someone who can evaluate each language.

Does PTC replace GlotPress entirely?

Yes. If your plugin is in the WordPress.org repository, you can import PTC translations into translate.wordpress.org, so you are not dependent on volunteers for the translation itself. PTC handles the full workflow: translating your strings, letting you review and edit them, and producing files ready to use. Whether your plugin is on WordPress.org or not, the process is the same.
See more on the translation import process

How does PTC pricing work for a typical plugin?

PTC charges per word translated. The free trial gives you 20,000 words into 2 languages at no cost. After that, pricing is pay-as-you-go, with the first 500 words free every month. As an example, 5,000 strings into 5 languages costs around €57. There is no subscription, no monthly fee, and no commitment.

What languages does PTC support?

PTC currently supports 40+ languages. You can translate into any combination at once. There is no need to do them one at a time.

What if I want a human to review the translations before they go live?

PTC has a built-in review workflow. Inside your dashboard, the Translations tab shows every string side by side in a clean table, with the source text next to the translated version, so you can review without opening any files. You can do the review yourself, or invite others to your organization and let them handle it.

Does PTC come with any built-in quality checks?

Yes. If you have set length limits for any strings, PTC highlights translations that exceed them. If a specific translation looks wrong, you can explain the issue to PTC in plain language and it will retranslate that string for free, using your feedback to improve future translations for the project.

Your users deserve a fully translated product

PTC takes two steps to set up and translates in minutes. Try it free: 20,000 words into 2 languages, no commitment.