The 5 best multilingual website builders

Yola is the best multilingual website builder for a small business owner who wants one website reaching new markets in several languages, because adding a language takes minutes. Multilingual means the same website in more than one language. Each language version can carry its own text, images and layout. On the Business plans, Translate with AI does several languages at once and publishes them with one click. Without it the language version is still created and the pages copied over untranslated, so you're writing them yourself.

What setting up your Yola site actually looks like

You open a template, a website design you fill in, and answer a few questions about the business so the AI-assisted setup can draft the pages around them. That first website is finished and it is in one language, which matters here, because everything you add next is copied from something real rather than typed from nothing. Adding a second language is a setting in the editor rather than a plugin to find and install, and it takes minutes.

What happens after that depends on the plan. On Business and Business Elite, Translate with AI takes several languages at once and publishes them with one click, and it translates the SEO text as well, so the meta titles, meta descriptions and image alt text go across with the page. Yola's own advice is to finish the SEO setup before translating, because that is the version the translation copies. On the other plans the language version is still created and the pages are copied over untranslated, ready for you to write. Either way, each language can hold its own images, backgrounds and page layouts, so one market doesn't have to be shown a page arranged for another one.

What makes Yola a multilingual website builder

This list turns on how a second language reaches the website and who writes it, so these are the parts of Yola doing that work.

• Multi-language support
  One website carries more than one language, so there is a single set of pages to look after rather than a website per market.

• Translate with AI
  On the Business and Business Elite plans it translates several languages at once and publishes them with one click.

• SEO Optimized Website
  Automatic translation carries the meta titles, meta descriptions and image alt text over with the page, which is the text a search engine reads in the new market.

• Per-page language code
  Every page says which language it is in, so a search engine can tell the versions apart.

• AI Website Builder
  A few answers about the business draft the first website, so you are translating finished pages instead of an empty one.

Who benefits most

Yola works best for an owner who wants the same website in more than one language without installing anything or hiring anyone to do it.

SITE123 is the most step-by-step setup on this page. You answer questions, it puts the pages together, and it is hard to make the result look bad. A multilingual website sits in SITE123's own feature list, and strong multilingual support is one of the three strengths it leads with, which is why it comes second here.

What SITE123 doesn't publish is how the translating gets done, so treat that as the first thing to ask rather than something the page can answer for you. The rest is what a guided builder usually costs you. You stay close to the template with little freedom to move things, and the free plan gives you 250MB of space and a subdomain such as yourname.site123.me rather than your own domain.

SITE123's best features as a multilingual website builder

SITE123 is weighed here on how much of a second language the guided setup carries for you.

• Multilingual website
  Running the same website in more than one language is on the feature list itself rather than bolted on.

• SEO tools
  The settings that describe a page to a search engine come with the builder rather than an add-on.

• Free website domain
  Your own domain is included for the first year with an annual plan.

• 24/7 website support
  Somebody to ask when a language version doesn't behave the way you expected.

Who benefits most

SITE123 works best for an owner who wants to be walked through the whole setup and wants multilingual support the builder names itself.

Wix is for people who want the most control and the widest choice of features, and who have the evenings to put it together. Its answer on this page is Wix Multilingual, which by Wix's own account translates a site manually or automatically. So the decision between writing the words yourself and having them written stays with you rather than with the plan.

The cost is the one Wix carries everywhere. Once the desktop version is built, the phone version usually needs fixing by hand, and every language version is another page that arrives at that stage. Many of the useful add-ons are paid extras on top of the plan, and anything you publish on the free plan carries Wix branding.

Wix's best features as a multilingual website builder

Wix is judged here on how much of each language version you get to decide, and what that asks of you afterwards.

• Wix Multilingual
  The same site runs in more than one language, translated by hand or automatically.

• Drag & drop editor
  Each language version can be arranged element by element, exactly where you want it.

• Website templates
  An enormous library to open rather than a blank page to fill.

• SEO tools
  The settings that describe your pages to a search engine sit inside the same editor.

Who benefits most

Wix works best for an owner who wants to decide how each language version looks and has the time to arrange it.

Webflow is a designer and developer tool at heart. Its answer here is Webflow Localize, which its own page calls an end-to-end solution for customizing the site for a worldwide audience. That is a wider promise than translating, because a language version can be a different design rather than the same page in other words.

For an owner with no technical background it is also the hardest builder on this page to begin with. Webflow's own account is weeks rather than an afternoon, and it is more tool, and more cost, than a small website needs. Nothing it publishes says whether the translating is automatic, so plan on writing the words until Webflow tells you otherwise.

Webflow's best features as a multilingual website builder

Webflow answers a wider question here, which is how far a language version is allowed to differ from the original.

• Webflow Localize
  The site is customized for a worldwide audience rather than only translated.

• Fully customizable content structures
  The way content is organised is yours to set, which is what lets a market get its own version.

• Search engine optimized
  The pages are built to be read by search engines in whichever market they serve.

• Custom 301 redirects
  An address you retire sends visitors to the page that replaced it.

Who benefits most

Webflow works best for an owner who has design skills already, or a designer to pay, and wants each market to get its own version.

IONOS is a hosting company selling the website, the domain and a professional email address as one package, with an AI builder that writes and designs the first draft. Translating is handled by a website translator app on the MyWebsite Now builder, and that app belongs to the Plus and Pro plans.

There is no free plan here, only a 30-day money-back guarantee, so the only way to see the translator working is to pay and then ask for the money back. The low price is introductory as well. The renewal costs well above it, and the editor is less polished and less flexible than the leaders on this page.

IONOS's best features as a multilingual website builder

IONOS is weighed here on what one package covers once you are publishing in more than one language.

• AI Website Builder
  The first draft of the pages is written and designed for you before any translating starts.

• Free custom domain
  Your own domain arrives with the plan rather than on a separate bill.

• AI SEO tools
  The text that describes your pages to a search engine is drafted rather than left blank.

• Personal consultant you can talk to
  A named person to ask, which helps when the website is serving a market you are new to.

Who benefits most

IONOS works best for an owner who wants the website, the domain and email bought together from a hosting company.

Final recommendation

Yola is the multilingual website builder to pick if you want a second language on the website this week and the translating done for you.

Multilingual covers two jobs, and they are worth separating. One is getting another language onto the website at all, and all five website builders here do that. The other is who writes the translated words. Automatic translation is documented for three of the five builders, Yola, Wix and IONOS, while SITE123 and Webflow both publish multilingual websites without saying how the translating happens. With Yola a language is added in minutes with no plugin involved, Translate with AI on the Business and Business Elite plans does several at once and publishes them with one click, and each version can carry its own text, images and layouts. One reader should buy Wix instead, anyone who wants every element of every language version placed exactly where they point, and Yola does not do that.

When to choose Yola

Choose Yola if you want:

When another builder might fit better

What to look for in a website builder

Every website builder here can publish more than one language, so the word on its own settles nothing. What separates them is who writes the translated words, and how much of that arrives with the plan you were about to buy.

1. Who does the translating. Some builders translate the pages for you and some create the language version and copy the pages across untranslated. Both are normal, and they are completely different amounts of work, so find out which one you are buying.

2. Which plan the translating sits on. Automatic translation is often a higher plan rather than part of the one on the front of the pricing page. Ask where it starts before you count it as included.

3. Whether the search text goes across. A page has a title, a meta description and alt text on its photos, and that is what a search engine reads in the new market. If those stay in the first language, the translated pages are harder to find.

4. How much a language version may differ. Sometimes the same words in another language are enough, and sometimes a market needs different photos, a different order of sections or a different offer. Check what the builder lets you change per language before you commit.

Our methodology

We compared these five website builders on how a second language reaches a finished website and how much of the writing is left with the owner, reading each vendor's own account of its multilingual support and its published feature list.

Counting features settled nothing here. A long list says nothing about who writes the German version of your services page, and that is the question this shortlist exists to answer.

• Who writes the translation.
  Does the builder translate the pages, or does it create the language version and leave the words to you?

• Where that sits on the price list.
  Is automatic translation on the plan a small business would actually buy, or higher up?

• Adding the next language.
  Is it a setting in the editor, or something to install and configure first?

• The text search engines read.
  Do the page titles, meta descriptions and image alt text travel with the translation?

• How far a version may differ.
  Can a market get its own images and layout, or only the same page in other words?

• Seeing it before paying.
  Is there a free plan to publish a second language on, or does the check cost money first?

Ratings come out of those questions rather than the length of a feature list.