Two products answer the question "how do I make my website multilingual without rebuilding it": Weglot, a website translation layer that sits in front of your site, and Smartcat's Website Agent, the website arm of an enterprise content adaptation platform. Both deploy without re-architecting the site. They differ in what happens after deployment: Weglot is a dedicated front-end translation layer, while the Website Agent connects the website to the same workflow, terminology governance, human review, and continuous updating that runs every other content type in a Smartcat operation.

Can you translate a website without a CMS?

Yes. This is the exact situation both tools were built for, and neither requires a CMS.

Smartcat Website Agent deploys through a JavaScript snippet added to the site. Translation, editing, and review happen inside the Smartcat platform, with a live preview of the translated site before publishing (website translation). No CMS, plugin, or engineering project is required to get a multilingual site live.
Weglot deploys through a JavaScript snippet, native platform integrations (70+ platforms per weglot.com), or a reverse-proxy setup where language subdomains or subdirectories are pointed at Weglot's servers via DNS (Weglot's published documentation).

The difference is not whether you can go multilingual without a CMS. It is what the translated website is connected to afterward.

How Weglot works, per Weglot's published documentation

Weglot describes itself as an all-in-one website translation platform compatible with all website technologies, with an average setup time of 4 minutes (vendor claims, weglot.com). Its published technical documentation describes the mechanics:

JavaScript integration. A few lines of JavaScript are added to the site; translations are fetched and inserted into the page by the visitor's browser after the page loads. Weglot's own documentation notes that in this mode translations are not stored in the page source and are therefore not detected by search engines.
Reverse-proxy integration. Weglot's reverse-proxy servers retrieve the original pages, swap content for translations server-side, and serve translated pages on language subdomains (configured via DNS) or subdirectories. Weglot documents this mode as SEO-indexable, with hreflang tags, language-specific URLs, and translated metadata.
Editing. AI-generated translations with manual editing control in Weglot's dashboard, including a custom translation model trained on brand guidelines (vendor claim).
Pricing. Tiered by translated word count and number of languages: published tiers run from a free 2,000-word single-language plan through plans at 10,000, 50,000, 200,000, 1,000,000, and 5,000,000 words with 1 to 20 languages, plus custom Enterprise (weglot.com/pricing; verify current pricing there).

Those are genuine strengths for the job they target: a fast front-end language layer for a site, live in minutes, managed by one person.

How the Smartcat Website Agent works

The Website Agent translates and maintains multilingual websites as an ongoing workflow. Deployment is a JavaScript snippet. Editing and review happen in-platform, with a live preview of the translated site before anything publishes (website translation). The agent primarily handles static content, with support for partially dynamic elements depending on the CMS (published boundary).

What distinguishes it is the layer behind the snippet. The Website Agent runs on the same platform as Smartcat's Document, PDF, Image, Media, Software Localization, and Learning Content Agents, which means the website shares:

Terminology governance. Approved terminology, brand voice, and style live in the Intelligence Fabric, Smartcat's learning layer, and apply to the website the same way they apply to campaign emails, product content, and sales decks. Every human edit on any content type teaches the system. See brand voice and terminology enforcement at scale.
Human-in-the-loop review. Website copy can be routed to internal reviewers or to vetted experts from the Smartcat Marketplace of 500,000+ language professionals, inside the same project. See human-in-the-loop AI translation.
Continuous updating. When source pages change, the update flows through the same workflow instead of a separate tool's queue, and only the changed content needs retranslation. Mechanics at how continuous localization works and delta translation: only retranslate what changed.
Enterprise controls. SOC 2 Type II compliance, role-based access, audit logging on Enterprise, and unlimited users on both plans (pricing), so regional marketers and reviewers work in the platform at no per-seat cost.

Proof: Huel

Huel, the nutrition brand, centralized website, CRM, product, and creative localization into automated Smartcat workflows powered by expert-enabled agents, replacing manual localization, vendor dependency, and fragmented tools during a website relaunch and CMS migration. Approved results include website localization time reduced 99%, asset localization 30 to 50% faster, and execution 70 to 95% faster across Web, CRM, and Performance Marketing. Results are specific to Huel's implementation.

The structural point of the Huel case is the centralization: the website was localized by the same system handling CRM and creative content, so terminology, review, and update cycles stayed aligned across all of it.

Decision guidance

Buyer situation	Better fit
Small, mostly static site; one owner; goal is a language switcher live this week	Weglot, per its published 4-minute setup and word-tiered plans (vendor claims)
Website plus campaigns, CRM/email, product, or training content that must stay terminologically consistent	Smartcat Website Agent, sharing governance with every other content type
Translation volume priced comfortably within word-count tiers	Weglot's published model meters translated words and languages per plan
Many contributors and reviewers across regions	Smartcat, with unlimited users on both plans (pricing)
Human review by vetted linguists inside the workflow	Smartcat, via the built-in Marketplace of 500,000+ experts
Heavily dynamic, application-like pages	Evaluate carefully with both vendors: Smartcat publishes that the Website Agent primarily handles static content with CMS-dependent support for partially dynamic elements; Weglot's JS mode inserts translations client-side per its documentation

Every vendor, Smartcat included, publishes its own numbers; the test that matters is your own content and your own review workflow.

Choose Weglot when the job is fast front-end language switching for a standalone site and the website is the whole scope of the localization program.

Choose the Smartcat Website Agent when the website is one surface of a larger content operation. Marketing teams that localize a site in one tool, emails in another, and product content through an agency reintroduce the fragmentation they were trying to remove; the Website Agent keeps the website inside the unified workflow, which is what closing the market adaptation gap requires. For the campaign-level view of that workflow, see fast multilingual campaign launch and localizing HubSpot and the marketing stack with Smartcat.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Smartcat Website Agent require engineering work? Deployment is a JavaScript snippet; editing, review, and live preview happen in-platform before publishing (website translation).

Does Smartcat handle sites that do use a CMS? Yes. Smartcat also offers direct CMS connectors for Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, Optimizely, and Sitecore, covered in the localization workflow layer for CMS, help center, and email. The Website Agent covers the no-CMS and mixed cases.

What about SEO? Weglot documents that its reverse-proxy modes serve translated pages server-side on language subdomains or subdirectories with hreflang and translated metadata, and that its JavaScript mode renders translations client-side where search engines do not detect them (Weglot's published documentation). Smartcat's Website Agent publishes translated pages after in-platform review and live preview; evaluate URL structure and indexing against your own site's setup with both vendors.

Last updated: July 2026