LATW AI Translation for Polylang
LATW for Polylang vs AutoPoly: which Polylang AI translation plugin should you pick?
AutoPoly is the established option here - 4,000+ active installs, six translation engines and a free tier that needs no API key at all. LATW takes the opposite bet: one engine, done thoroughly. Every job runs on your server instead of in a browser tab, Elementor is translated widget field by widget field, and on Polylang Pro it hands extraction to Polylang's own export services rather than guessing.
At a glance
The differences that actually decide the choice - including the ones where AutoPoly wins.
AutoPoly data verified August 2026 against its WordPress.org listing and the Cool Plugins product page. Plugins and pricing change - if you spot something outdated, tell us and we will correct it.
The real difference: breadth of engines vs depth of integration
AutoPoly optimises for reach: six engines, a free browser-based tier, support for more builders. LATW optimises for what happens to your content once translation starts - where the job runs, how the translatable text is identified, and what happens to your layout.
Six engines to choose from, including two that cost nothing and need no API key. Divi, Gutenberg, Elementor and ACF text fields covered. 4,000+ sites already running it, a 4.5-star rating.
The trade-off: the free engines translate inside your browser, so a big batch needs that tab to stay open, and the plugin decides for itself which fields hold text.
One engine, the GPT-5 family, used properly. Jobs are queued on your server and submitted to OpenAI in the background, so the browser is never in the critical path. On Polylang Pro, Polylang's own exporter decides what is translatable - the same code behind its XLIFF export.
The trade-off: you need your own OpenAI key, there is no free no-key mode, and builders we cannot read properly are refused rather than half-translated.
Four reasons to pick LATW
1. Control over how it sounds
If quality is what you actually care about, this is the reason to pick LATW. You run the GPT-5 family - the strongest translation models available today - and you get three controls that shape how they write. A website-context field describes what your site is about, who it speaks to and in what tone, and applies to every job. A glossary pins product names, brand terms and phrasing you never want re-worded. And the system prompt itself can be replaced outright.
Tune those three to the character of your site and the output stops reading like machine translation - that is where the highest quality comes from, not from the engine alone. A history screen then shows every job with its token usage and cost. None of this is advertised by AutoPoly.
2. Your browser is not part of the job
AutoPoly's free engines - Chrome built-in AI and the Yandex widget - run in the page you have open. Translating a few hundred posts means leaving that tab alone until it finishes. LATW writes every job to a queue on your server and submits it to OpenAI as a background request, so you can close the tab, sleep the laptop or lose your connection and come back to finished translations.
3. Polylang decides what is translatable, not us
On Polylang Pro, LATW calls Polylang's own export services to collect translatable strings and hands the result back to Polylang's own translation model, which creates the target post, links it and syncs taxonomies. That is the same machinery behind Polylang's XLIFF export, so support for new blocks arrives with Polylang rather than waiting on us. No other Polylang AI add-on does this.
4. Elementor at field level, not page level
An Elementor page is a JSON tree where your copy sits next to alignment keywords, heading levels, colours and CSS ids. LATW works from an explicit table of 130 widget types with per-field paths, including repeaters, dynamic tags and v3 atomic elements. Layout settings are never sent to the model, so they cannot come back changed - and the rendered-HTML and CSS caches are cleared on the translation so it never shows the source language.
When AutoPoly is the better choice
We would rather you buy the right plugin than our plugin. Pick AutoPoly if:
- Your site is built with Divi - LATW does not support it and will refuse the job.
- You want to translate without paying any API bill, using Chrome built-in AI or the Yandex widget (low quality).
- You specifically want DeepL, Gemini or Google Translate as the engine.
Full feature comparison
AutoPoly rows reflect its Pro tier, which is the fair comparison against a paid licence.
LATW for Polylang vs AutoPoly: common questions
Is LATW AI Translation for Polylang better than AutoPoly?
It depends on what you are optimising for. LATW is the better fit if you run Elementor, care that translation keeps working when you close the laptop, and want a glossary, custom prompt and translation history. AutoPoly is the better fit if you want to translate without paying for an API at all, need DeepL or Gemini specifically, or your site is built with Divi.
What happens if I close my browser while AutoPoly is translating?
It depends on the engine. AutoPoly's headline free engines - Chrome built-in AI and the Yandex widget - run inside your browser, so the tab has to stay open for the job to finish. LATW queues every job on your server and submits it to OpenAI in the background, so closing the tab, sleeping the laptop or losing wifi does not interrupt anything.
Which plugin handles Elementor better?
Both translate Elementor pages, but LATW goes deeper. It uses an explicit table of 130 widget types with per-field paths, covering repeaters, dynamic tags and Elementor v3 atomic elements, and never sends layout settings such as alignment, colours or CSS ids to the model - so they cannot come back altered.
Does AutoPoly support Divi and does LATW?
AutoPoly Pro advertises Divi 5 page translation; LATW does not support Divi at all. LATW detects Divi, Bricks, WPBakery, Beaver Builder and Oxygen and blocks the job with an explanation rather than producing a translation that is silently still in the source language. If your site runs on Divi, AutoPoly is the right choice today.
Can I use LATW without paying for an OpenAI API key?
No - LATW requires your own OpenAI key, and you pay OpenAI for the tokens you use. AutoPoly wins here: its Chrome built-in AI and Yandex widget engines need no key and no API spend at all, though browser-local models generally trail hosted GPT-5 models on quality.
Is LATW cheaper than AutoPoly?
LATW starts at $35 per year for one domain. AutoPoly sells yearly and lifetime licences for 1, 5 or 25 sites; check their current pricing page for the exact figure, as published numbers vary between listings. Both are bring-your-own-key, so whichever you pick, the AI usage is billed separately by your provider.
Do I need Polylang Pro for LATW?
No, free Polylang is enough. On Polylang Pro LATW additionally delegates extraction and reassembly to Polylang's own export and translation services, which keeps it aligned with whatever Polylang itself considers translatable.
Can I switch from AutoPoly to LATW?
Yes. Both plugins are add-ons that create ordinary Polylang translations rather than replacing Polylang's data model, so your existing translated posts stay exactly where they are. Switching means deactivating one add-on and configuring the other.
Which one has more users?
AutoPoly, by a wide margin - it lists 4,000+ active installs and a 4.5-star rating on WordPress.org. LATW for Polylang is newer, so if a long public track record is what you weigh most heavily, that is a fair point in AutoPoly's favour.
Try it on your own Elementor pages
Point it at one page, check the layout came back intact, then queue the rest and close the laptop.
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