If you are looking for a powerful and budget-friendly machine translation engine, Microsoft Azure Translator won’t let you down. But to use the machine translation service on a WordPress site, a quality multilingual plugin is key.
The Benefits of Using Microsoft Azure Translator
Machine translation services make it easier for people worldwide to communicate with one another. Because they’re affordable and fast, they make it possible for even the smallest companies to translate their website’s content.
When it comes to deciding which machine translation engine to use, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The right choice for you depends on factors like budget or the languages you want to translate texts into.
For a reliable and cost-effective solution, look no further than Microsoft Azure Translator.
Microsoft supports translation into over 100 languages. Competitors like Google Translate may support more languages, but Microsoft Translator offers the more unique language variations. For example, you can automatically translate texts into Cantonese (Traditional). Or, you can choose Literary, Simplified, and Traditional variations of Mandarin Chinese.
The machine translation engine also comes with features like:
- Translation memory
- Encrypted cloud storage
- In-context editing
- Machine learning technology
The Microsoft Translator service is free for general use. This is useful if you need to translate an email or line from a movie. But to translate website content, you’ll want a more advanced solution.
For business purposes, you can purchase a subscription plan or benefit from the pay-as-you-go pricing model. However, to integrate Microsoft Translator with your CMS or website, you’ll need a developer to write custom code in the programming language of your site.
Doesn’t sound like the most user-friendly option, does it? Fortunately, there is an easier way to add Microsoft Translator to your website. But you’ll need to bring in a third-party solution.
How to Use Microsoft Azure Translator on a WordPress Site
For an above-average user experience, your website should have the various features users seek. Of course, it’s not possible to have every single feature pre-installed on your website. But when you have a website on a platform like WordPress, adding these features is possible – and easy.
As a WordPress user, you can choose from thousands of plugins and themes with assorted functionalities. This allows you to create websites with advanced capabilities.
Out-of-the-box, WordPress is not multilingual. But you can change this by installing one of the many translation plugins available.
To use Microsoft Azure Translator, you need more than an average multilingual plugin, though. You need a multilingual plugin that comes with the machine translation engine as a package deal.
Why WPML is the Right Multilingual Plugin
To use WPML with Microsoft Azure Translator, you don’t need to have any programming knowledge or coding experience. WPML is one of the few multilingual plugins integrated with this machine translation engine.
To start, you only need to install WPML and go through the setup wizard. Then, you can use WPML with Microsoft Translator to automatically translate your entire WordPress site, including:
- Posts, pages, and custom post types
- Button texts, widget titles, and texts from other themes and plugins
- Categories, tags, and custom taxonomies
- WooCommerce products
While Microsoft provides the automatic translations, WPML provides the additional translation features. These features allow you to manage the translation process from start to finish:
- Review automatic translations. Translate your site’s content with Microsoft. Then, outsource the review of automatic translations to professional machine translation reviewers.
- Manage glossary terms. Add terms to WPML’s glossary to ensure the correct translation of specific words and phrases..
- Side-by-side translations. Automatically translate specific posts and pages in WPML’s built-in CAT tool, the Advanced Translation Editor.
What are the Costs of Using WPML with Microsoft Azure Translator?
Now that you’ve been introduced to some features, let’s move on to pricing. When you purchase WPML, you get enough free automatic translation credits to translate most WordPress sites. The amount of credits you receive depends on the purchased account type:
| Account Type | Amount of free automatic translation credits |
| Multilingual CMS | 90,000 |
| Multilingual Agency | 180,000 |
It’s worth noting Microsoft Azure Translator is the only machine translation engine that uses 1 credit per word. This makes it the perfect option for anyone on a budget.
If you do run out of translation credits, you can buy more. WPML lets you choose from two automatic translation pricing options:
- Pay-as-you-go pricing – WPML only charges you for the number of credits you use throughout the month. And the first 2,000 credits each month are free!
- Prepaid credits – Buy credits with no expiration date in bulk and manually assign them to any of your registered sites.
How to Get Started with Microsoft Azure Translator and WPML
To get started, assign automatic translation credits to your site or sign up for pay-as-you-go.
Once you have the translation credits, you can choose Microsoft as the machine translation engine of your choice. To do this, go to WPML → Translation Management and click on the Tools tab. Expand the Automatic translation engines section and drag and drop Microsoft to the first position.
Now, you need to choose the translation mode you want to use to automatically translate your site. For this, go to WPML → Settings:
- The Translate Everything Automatically mode automatically translates your site’s content in the background. You can publish the translations produced by Microsoft Translator right away. Or, you can review and edit them before publishing.
- The Translate What You Choose mode lets you choose which posts and pages you want to send for automatic translation. If you have several pages you want to translate, you can send content for automatic translation in bulk.
That’s it! A few simple steps later, WPML is ready to automatically translate your website.
Interested in Learning More?
Learn everything there is to know about automatic translation for WordPress content with WPML, or learn more about the other two options WPML offers for powering automatic translation on your site: DeepL and Google Translate.
If you aren’t a WPML user yet and have questions, leave our pre-sales team a comment!