How to build a multilingual site in Bubble

To build a multilingual site in Bubble, the simplest valid approach is to store all your text in a “dictionary” (a data type with translations for each language) and display the correct translation based on a current language field stored in a custom state or in the Current User. Every text element pulls the proper translation dynamically. This avoids Bubble’s old “App Text” limitations and gives you full control.

Core Idea

You create a data type (for example “TextKey”) that contains one field per language. Each visible text element on the page doesn’t contain hardcoded text — instead it does a Search for TextKey and displays the proper field (English, Spanish, etc.) depending on the selected language. You switch languages by changing a custom state or the user’s language field.

Step-by-step Structure

• Create a data type TextKey with fields like key (text), en (text), es (text), fr (text). The key is just an internal name such as “header\_welcome”.
• Add a custom state on the page called current\_language (text). Default value could be “en”.
• For each text element, set its content as: Search for TextKeys:first item’s (dynamic field). Use a conditional to pick the right field.
• Create buttons/flags to change language by setting the custom state current\_language to “en”, “es”, etc.
• If user is logged in, you can save language preference to Current User’s language and load it on page load.

Conditional Setup Example

// Example inside a text element:
// "Search for TextKeys:first item's en"
// Change dynamically using conditionals:

When Page's current_language is "en"
  → This text = Search for TextKeys:first item's en

When Page's current_language is "es"
  → This text = Search for TextKeys:first item's es

Practical Tips

• Always use the key field to find the right dictionary entry: Search for TextKeys where key = "header\_welcome".
• If performance matters, load all TextKeys into a repeating group or custom state on page load and reference from there.
• Keep translations in the database so non-technical teammates can edit them easily.