Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you sign up through them, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I used the free plan for the setup shown here.
I run youdo.blog in Arabic, but a large part of my audience also reads French. Translating a whole WordPress site by hand, or wiring a heavy multilingual plugin into it, is the kind of project that gets postponed for months. So I tried Clonable and recorded the whole process: adding the plugin to WordPress and creating a French version of the site on its own subdomain, fr.youdo.blog. This page is the written version, with the real screenshots, my honest notes, and the data that explains why a second language is worth the effort.
Watch the full walkthrough
Why one language is rarely enough
Most countries are bilingual or multilingual, and even inside a single country your visitors may prefer different languages. The data points the same way. CSA Research surveyed 8,709 consumers in 29 countries and found that about 76% prefer to buy products with information in their own language, and around 40% will not buy at all from sites in other languages. Meanwhile, W3Techs reports that English is used on roughly half of all websites, which means a large share of the world is reading content that is not in their first language.
My own case makes this concrete. In Algeria, Arabic is the official language, but French is part of everyday life: Canada’s government country profile reports that 33.3% of Algerians spoke French in 2022. A site that only speaks Arabic leaves a big part of the local audience on the table, and a site that only speaks French does the opposite. The sensible answer is both.
The problem is cost. Hiring a translator for a site with dozens or hundreds of articles is expensive, and keeping it updated is a recurring bill. The tools that automate this are often complex to configure and costly to run. That is the gap a service like Clonable aims at.
The WPML headaches (and why a different approach helps)
Multilingual plugins that live inside WordPress, WPML being the best-known example, are powerful, but the complaints are familiar to anyone who maintains client sites:
1. Database weight: every translation is stored in your WordPress database, so the load grows with each language you add.
2. Layouts that break after updates: a theme, builder or plugin update can disturb translated pages, and you find out from a visitor.
3. Time-consuming manual translation: strings, menus and widgets often need to be handled one by one.
Clonable takes a different route. The localization happens outside your WordPress installation: the translated version is built as a clone of your site on a separate address, so your original database is not carrying the extra language. For a freelancer or an agency this is a strategic advantage. You keep one clean source site, you save the hours you would spend translating and re-checking pages, and you keep an overview of every language version from one place.
Step by step: creating fr.youdo.blog
Here is what I did, following the screens in the video.
Choose how the clone will live
After creating an account, Clonable asks which type of clone you want. I picked a subdomain, so the French version would sit at fr.youdo.blog and the main site would stay untouched.
Pick the target language
Next comes the language. I selected French for the new version.
Install the plugin and connect it with your API key
Then you add the Clonable plugin to WordPress and paste the API key from your Clonable account into the plugin settings. In my screenshot the key is covered with a black box on purpose: treat it like a password.
Point the subdomain to Clonable with DNS records
Finally, you add the DNS records that Clonable lists for fr.youdo.blog at your domain provider. This is the step where web designers and developers will feel at home, and where less technical users will want to go slowly and read the instructions.
An honest note: setup takes some time
I do not want to pretend this is a one-click miracle. In the video you will see a 403 error page appear before the French version started working. That is normal while the new subdomain and its DNS records are being set up and propagated, but it is a good reminder that this kind of setup needs some time and a little patience. Plan for it, especially if you do it for a client.
The good news is that you are not left alone. Clonable offers excellent technical support, a rich knowledge base with step-by-step guides, and a chat assistant that can help if you need guidance while setting things up.
Free plan: enough to test it properly
I did this whole test on the free plan. According to Clonable’s pricing page, the free plan covers one clone and up to 20 pages, which is enough to judge the workflow and the quality of the result on your own site before you pay for anything. Check the current limits on the pricing page, because plans can change.
Who this approach suits
1. Web designers and developers: add a language to a client site without touching the client’s database or theme structure.
2. Agencies: keep an overview of several sites and languages instead of maintaining translation plugins on each install.
3. E-commerce owners: reach customers in the language they prefer to buy in, as the CSA Research figures above suggest.
4. Bloggers like me: serve a bilingual audience without hiring a translator for every article.
My takeaway
If you have been putting off a second language because of the cost of translators or the weight and fragility of in-WordPress multilingual plugins, Clonable is worth a test. The strategic benefit is clear: less time spent translating, a lighter WordPress install, and one place to see all your language versions. The trade-off is that setup takes some time and a few DNS steps. Start with the free plan on a single site, follow the video above, and judge the result yourself.
References
CSA Research, Can’t Read, Won’t Buy (2020 survey of 8,709 consumers in 29 countries): csa-research.com.
W3Techs, usage statistics of content languages for websites: w3techs.com.
Government of Canada, Algeria country profile (French speakers, 2022): canada.ca.
Clonable pricing and help center: Clonable.