Choosing the Right CMS for Multilingual Site Management

Comparing WordPress, Drupal, and Custom Solutions for Multi-Language Web Projects

As your business grows and begins to serve customers across different regions and languages, managing a multilingual website becomes a top priority. But translating content is only half the battle—you also need the right content management system (CMS) to support and maintain multiple languages efficiently.

Choosing a CMS for multilingual support isn’t just about features; it’s about workflow, scalability, ease of use, and long-term maintenance. Should you use WordPress with plugins? Go for Drupal’s built-in multilingual capabilities? Or build your own custom CMS?

In this article, we’ll break down the strengths and weaknesses of WordPress, Drupal, and custom-built CMS platforms, and explore a real-world case study of how an SME built a 3-language website using WordPress and TranslatePress—without needing a full-time developer.

Why the CMS You Choose Matters

Managing a multilingual website requires more than duplicating pages. A CMS must support:

• Language-specific URLs and navigation
  
  

• Side-by-side or inline content editing
  
  

• Translation workflows (manual or automatic)
  
  

• Integration with translation tools or APIs
  
  

• SEO features for each language (e.g., hreflang, metadata)
  
  

• Consistent styling and layout across languages
  
  

If your CMS doesn’t support these well, you risk:

• Increased maintenance overhead
  
  

• Broken layouts in translated versions
  
  

• SEO challenges with duplicate or incorrectly attributed content
  
  

• Frustrated editors juggling multiple versions of the same page
  
  

Let’s compare your main options.

Option 1: WordPress with Multilingual Plugins

Overview:
WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, and while it doesn’t support multilingual sites out-of-the-box, it has a mature ecosystem of plugins that make it multilingual-ready.

Popular plugins include:

• WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin): One of the oldest and most comprehensive options. Paid plugin with robust features.

• Polylang: Lightweight, free version available. Good for manual translations.

• TranslatePress: Allows you to translate content directly from the front-end, supports automatic translation through Google or DeepL.
  
  

Pros:

• Familiar interface for non-technical users

• Huge plugin/theme ecosystem

• Plugins offer flexible integration with SEO tools, e-commerce (e.g., WooCommerce), and translation APIs

• Active community and support forums
  
  

Cons:

• Performance can degrade with large content sets or many plugins

• Requires careful setup to avoid URL and SEO issues

• Some plugins are paid and require licensing for full features

• Multilingual management isn't native—plugin quality matters
  
  

Best for:
Small to medium-sized websites that want flexibility and ease of use without deep development resources.

Option 2: Drupal

Overview:
Drupal is an enterprise-grade CMS with built-in multilingual support. It offers native tools for translating content, configuration, interface text, and menus—without third-party plugins.

Pros:

• Native multilingual features

• Strong support for complex content structures

• Better for sites requiring granular access control and multiple roles

• Excellent for multilingual SEO (e.g., per-language URL aliasing and metadata)
  
  

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve

• Requires more technical expertise than WordPress

• Development and setup can take longer

• Smaller community and plugin ecosystem compared to WordPress
  
  

Best for:
Government websites, universities, large content-driven sites, or organizations with in-house development teams.

Option 3: Custom CMS

Overview:
Building your own CMS allows you to tailor every aspect of multilingual functionality to your exact needs. This is especially useful for unique content types, integrations, or language-specific behavior.

Pros:

• Full control over data structures and workflows

• Can integrate with external translation platforms, APIs, or headless CMS architectures

• Optimized performance for your exact use case
  
  

Cons:

• High development and maintenance cost

• Requires dedicated developers or agency support

• Longer time to launch

• Difficult to scale quickly without proper architecture
  
  

Best for:
Startups with specialized content needs, tech companies with in-house dev teams, or platforms needing custom translation logic or automation.

Use Case: WordPress with TranslatePress for a 3-Language SME Site

A small business in Southeast Asia wanted to create a simple but professional website in three languages: English, Thai, and Japanese. With a small team and limited budget, hiring a full-time developer wasn’t feasible.

Goals:

• Allow site visitors to switch languages easily

• Translate all pages, menus, and forms

• Ensure the site is SEO-friendly in all three languages

• Avoid building or managing multiple websites
  
  

What they did:

• Chose WordPress for ease of use and access to themes/plugins

• Installed TranslatePress, which allowed front-end, inline translation

• Used Google Translate API for initial auto-translation, then reviewed content manually

• Enabled language switcher in the top navigation bar

• Configured URL slugs and SEO metadata for each language version

• Regularly updated all languages from a single dashboard
  
  

Results:

• Launched within 4 weeks with no developer involved

• Search engine visibility increased in all three language markets

• Client inquiries from Japanese users increased 35%

• Internal team could manage content updates themselves without technical help
  
  

This approach allowed them to scale content globally without technical overhead—proof that the right tools and plugins can empower small teams to go multilingual without breaking the bank.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right CMS for your multilingual website is about more than ticking feature boxes—it’s about matching your content strategy, team capability, and user needs.

Start by asking:

• How many languages do I need to support now and in the future?

• Who will manage content—technical teams or non-technical staff?

• Is SEO a priority in each target region?

• Do I need full control or faster deployment?
  
  

Whatever you choose, remember: a multilingual website is only effective if i