WordPress translation plugin complaints: what 28 bad reviews say
28 one- and two-star WordPress.org reviews (22 one-star) of the 6 most-installed plugins in the Translation category, posted 26 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2026. Combined: 3,600,000+ active installs.
What users complain about in WordPress translation plugins
| Complaint | Share | Reviews | All plugins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bugs & errors | 39.3% | 11 | 32.5% |
| Charges, renewals & refunds | 32.1% | 9 | 11.1% |
| Slow or no support | 28.6% | 8 | 18% |
| Upsell, paywall & pushy Pro version | 25% | 7 | 14.9% |
| Called it a scam or misleading | 14.3% | 4 | 8% |
| Ads, nags & admin clutter | 10.7% | 3 | 4.5% |
| Hard to use or set up | 7.1% | 2 | 9.3% |
| Missing features & limits | 7.1% | 2 | 5.9% |
| Slows the site or heavy | 7.1% | 2 | 8.8% |
| AI features or AI support | 3.6% | 1 | 6.1% |
| Conflicts with other plugins or themes | 3.6% | 1 | 1.9% |
A review can match several themes; 21.4% match none. “All plugins” = 578 low-star reviews of 138 plugins in 12 categories.
What is different about this category
Compared with all 138 plugins in the study, translation plugin reviews mention charges, renewals & refunds 2.9× as often (32.1% vs 11.1%); upsell, paywall & pushy pro version 1.7× as often (25% vs 14.9%); slow or no support 1.6× as often (28.6% vs 18%). They mention crashed or took down the site (0% vs 5.4%) and broke after an update (0% vs 8.5%) less often than average.
WordPress translation plugins by number of bad reviews
| Plugin | 1–2★ | Top complaint (5+ reviews) | Replied | Installs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polylang | 13 | Bugs & errors 53.8% | 15.4% | 900,000+ |
| Translate WordPress with GTranslate | 12 | Slow or no support 33.3% | 8.3% | 900,000+ |
| TranslatePress | 3 | – | 100% | 400,000+ |
| Loco Translate | 0 | – | – | 1,000,000+ |
| Cyr-To-Lat | 0 | – | – | 300,000+ |
| Translate WordPress | 0 | – | – | 100,000+ |
In users’ words
“… I wanted to report a bug but got told support is only for paying customers.”
WordPress.org review, May 2026
“Charging a monthly subscription of 8$ just to be able to change your slug depending on the language its honestly diabolical.”
WordPress.org review, Sep 2026
“… Echoing what some have mentioned here… note that on the Pro plan, we find that Polylang’s support team are can be relatively poor at technical analysis of bugs and don’t appear to be able to follow your repros at all.”
WordPress.org review, Feb 2026
“… On top of that, the ability to use more than two languages was previously available for free, and now it has been removed and locked behind a paid subscription.”
WordPress.org review, Apr 2026
“This plugin is not worth installing, it’s missing basic functions – you can’t use it to translate websites built with default theme (or any other FSE theme) and native tools (gutenberg).”
WordPress.org review, Feb 2026
Do WordPress translation developers reply to bad reviews?
21.4% of these low-star reviews got a reply from the author or support team, median 1.5 days after the review (all plugins: 70.2%, median 1 day).
What to fix first (our reading of the data)
- Bugs & errors (39.3% of reviews): Reply to each bug review with the version that fixes it, and test against the most popular themes and PHP versions.
- Charges, renewals & refunds (32.1% of reviews): Make renewals and refunds easy to find; send a reminder before auto-renewal.
- Slow or no support (28.6% of reviews): Answer forum threads within a day or two; plugins in this study that replied fast had fewer repeat complaints.
This breakdown for your plugin
Your plugin’s low-star reviews by theme, with quotes and reply rate. Revunda has no self-serve WordPress.org report yet: send the plugin URL and we reply with what we can do.
Other categories: Page builders & blocks · Backup & migration · WooCommerce & payments · SEO · Cookies & privacy · Images, galleries & sliders · Security & anti-spam · Caching & speed · Forms · Email & SMTP · Analytics
Data and method: WordPress review study (138 plugins, CC BY 4.0 CSV) · WordPress plugin 1-star reviews: what to fix first · All categories
FAQ
What do users complain about most in WordPress translation plugins?
In 28 one- and two-star WordPress.org reviews of 6 WordPress translation plugins (Oct 2025 – Oct 2026), the top complaints were bugs & errors (39.3%), charges, renewals & refunds (32.1%), slow or no support (28.6%).
Do WordPress translation plugin developers reply to bad reviews?
21.4% of these low-star reviews got a reply from the author or support team, median 1.5 days after the review (all plugins: 70.2%, median 1 day).
Which WordPress translation plugin had the most bad reviews?
Polylang, with 13 one- and two-star reviews in the 12 months to Oct 2026.
How many bad reviews do translation plugins get per million installs?
7.8 low-star reviews per million active installs over 12 months, against 3.5 across all 138 plugins in the study.