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International.

Take Your Platform Global

Expanding into new markets is one of the most complex technical challenges a Craft site can face. It's not just translation—it's rethinking how your entire platform adapts to different languages, currencies, legal frameworks, and cultural expectations, all while keeping the content management experience sane for your editorial team.

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The Complexity Compounds Fast

Your first international expansion—say, adding French to an English site—feels manageable. Two languages, maybe a shared currency, similar legal requirements. But it exposes every assumption baked into your original build. Hardcoded strings in templates. Date formats that don't adapt. URLs that weren't designed for localization. A content model that treats translation as an afterthought.

By the time you're in five markets, the complexity has multiplied across every layer of the stack. Content workflows need to support translation teams working in parallel. Commerce needs regional pricing, local payment methods, and market-specific tax calculations. URL strategy needs to balance SEO with usability. Caching needs to account for language and region variants without exploding your cache storage.

We've done this enough times to know where the problems hide and how to architect around them from the start.

What We Build

01

Multi-Language Content Architecture

The foundation of any international Craft site is a content model that handles translation elegantly. We design architectures that let your editorial team manage translated content without duplicating entire site structures—using Craft's native multi-site capabilities with carefully designed propagation rules, shared assets, and translation workflows.

This includes deciding which content should be translated (marketing copy, product descriptions) versus shared across languages (images, technical specifications, pricing logic), and building the editorial experience so content managers can see what's translated, what's pending, and what's out of date at a glance.

We also integrate with translation management systems (TMS) like Smartling, Crowdin, and Lokalise when your workflow requires professional translation at scale.

02

Multi-Currency Commerce

If you're running Craft Commerce internationally, currency handling is one of the most technically demanding pieces. Real-time exchange rates, regional pricing overrides, localized checkout experiences, currency-specific payment gateways, and the accounting implications of selling in multiple currencies all need to work together.

We build commerce implementations that let you set pricing strategies per market—whether that's automatic conversion, manual regional pricing, or a hybrid approach. Payment processing is configured per region with the gateways your customers expect (Stripe for North America, Mollie for Europe, local processors where needed). And the checkout experience adapts language, currency, tax display, and shipping options based on the customer's market.

03

Localization Beyond Translation

True localization goes deeper than translated text. Date and number formats need to adapt. Imagery and design layouts may need to shift for right-to-left languages. Legal disclaimers, cookie consent, and privacy notices vary by jurisdiction. Product availability and shipping options differ by region. Even the tone and formality of your content may need to adjust for cultural expectations.

We build localization systems that account for all of this—not just the obvious text translation, but the dozens of small regional adaptations that make the difference between a site that feels native to each market and one that feels like a translated English site.

04

Compliance & Regional Requirements

International sites operate under multiple legal frameworks simultaneously. GDPR for European visitors. Regional tax calculations and VAT handling. Country-specific cookie consent requirements. Data residency regulations that may dictate where content and customer data are stored. Age verification requirements that vary by market.

We implement compliance at the platform level so it's systematic rather than manual. Tax calculations are automated per jurisdiction. Consent management adapts to regional requirements. Data handling follows the strictest applicable standard. And the system is structured so that adding a new market doesn't require re-engineering the compliance layer.

International Project FAQ

  • 01

    Can we internationalize our existing Craft site, or do we need to rebuild?

    It depends on how the site was originally built. If the content model is clean and the templates are well-structured, we can often add multi-language and multi-currency capabilities without a full rebuild. If the original build has hardcoded assumptions about language, currency, or region throughout the codebase, more foundational work is needed. We'll assess this during discovery and give you an honest answer.

  • 02

    How do you handle translation workflows?

    We design the workflow around your team's needs. Some clients have in-house translators who work directly in Craft's control panel. Others use professional translation agencies and need content to flow through a TMS. We can build either a workflow or a hybrid where some content is translated in-house and high-volume or specialized content goes through a TMS integration.

  • 03

    What about SEO for international sites?

    International SEO is a critical consideration. We implement proper hreflang tags, design URL strategies (subdirectories, subdomains, or ccTLDs, depending on your situation), configure language-specific sitemaps, and ensure search engines understand the relationships between your language variants. We also handle redirect logic for language detection and user preferences (depending on your situation), configure language-specific sitemaps, and ensure search engines understand the relationships

  • 04

    How many languages or markets can Craft handle?

    Craft's multi-site architecture is robust, and we've built implementations serving 15+ languages from a single installation. Performance does need careful management as you add languages—each language variant multiplies your content volume and can impact query performance if not architected properly. We design for this from the start, so adding market number 12 is as straightforward as adding market number 2.

  • 05

    What does ongoing maintenance look like for an international site?

    More involved than a single-language site. Content needs to stay in sync across languages. Compliance requirements evolve. New markets may need to be added. We offer ongoing retainers that include translation workflow support, compliance monitoring, and incremental market rollouts.

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