Simple Multilingual Option

I would like to propose that for smaller businesses and artists living in geographies with a wide range of languages (Europe, Asia, Africa) it would be beneficial to have a simplified option of switching between languages. I appreciate there is the paid for version that auto translates the site for you - but it is very expensive and also it seems a bit like overkill if all you have is a few pages to translate (like contact, about, and portfolios). Even, some people may just prefer to translate short blog articles themselves. For example I am totally fluent in three languages and have no need for an outside service. 

I would like to request from Squarespace the ability to just do your own multi language site without having to pay an extra fee. 

Yes there is a free version of Weglot but

1. But only until 2000 words.
2. What if you can translate yourself?
3. What if you want certain pages in multilingual (less than 2000 words) and the blog in English
4. I don't trust that third party translators would translate better than me!
5. Why pay a monthly fee for something that only requires a one-off translation!

I would just want the ability to have on the top right a select language menu and then I can translate whatever pages I want in whatever language and I'm perfectly happy to do it myself. 

I have moved to France and it is very impolite not to have a French language version. Also I have customers in Germany and Switzerland. I just want to write my own content in the languages I speak anyway. And I think it is very America-Centric/ Anglosphere Centric approach to only offer a Paid for Service to translate in other languages. 

It so happens that in other parts of the world we are capable to speak other languages and monthly translation services are not only NOT REQUIRED but also I wouldn't trust to outsource it anyway! 

This limitation is actually making me consider alternatives to Squarespace at this point and I would really want Squarespace to be more flexible in offering a "manual" version instead of forcing you to accept third party "monthly translation fees" for something that only requires a one off translation!

On 1/2/2024 at 12:52 PM, lessucettes said:

I would just want the ability to have on the top right a select language menu and then I can translate whatever pages I want in whatever language and I'm perfectly happy to do it myself. 

There isn't a built in 'free' feature but you should be able to manually translate your content and add it into separate pages (or posts) with a link that includes a two letter code for the language. Brad wrote a great article explaining how to setup multi-language content using some (free) code which is included in the article.

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Thanks Paul — unfortunately even if you use this method, it appears you'd have to fully rebuild the blog page as you cannot duplicate a blog post into another blog. LEt's use English and French as an example. If I have a English Blog and what to Translate it into French, I cannot simply duplicate one EN-Blog Post from en/blog/title to fr/blog/titre ... I have to re do it from scratch entirely. 

All this could be easily resolved if Squarespace gave us the option to switch between languages while being able to use the same resources. 

Instead it appears I'd have to spend €17 to have a business account plus another minimum €25 on Weglot and maybe even €79 every MONTH. Assuming 17+29 that's a whopping €552 every year. And once I reach 50000 words (easy to do) I now would have to spend €1200 on a website every month. 

I don't think that this is fair to he small creator who may be perfectly capable to translate the blogs himself. 

Indeed - with AI, translations are done within seconds all you need to do is to review and if you are native in a language that's a matter of minutes (the time it takes to read the blog post). 

So why do I need to pay €948 for that??

PS I still want to thank you for this extensive work around. I gave it a serious try before answering to you — I thought this could work until I reached the point of translating my blog where artificial limitations are the issue rather than real technical. 

45 minutes ago, lessucettes said:

Thanks Paul — unfortunately even if you use this method, it appears you'd have to fully rebuild the blog page as you cannot duplicate a blog post into another blog. LEt's use English and French as an example. If I have a English Blog and what to Translate it into French, I cannot simply duplicate one EN-Blog Post from en/blog/title to fr/blog/titre ... I have to re do it from scratch entirely. 

Thanks for posting back. If you can't justify the cost of a service like Weglot then manually creating duplicate posts, and then pasting in the translated content, is the only option available right now.

I only have to add that the pricing for startups, and small businesses are just too high. As was said at the beginning, I cannot trust an auto translate to be better than me. Still, it is the price which kills this. I am left with loads of duplication while all the while thinking "should I move from SQSP?"