Multilingual websites can serve pages in a specific language requested by the browser. They must have translated/localized pages on the server for each language supported. The server must recognize the browser's language request.

Globalized websites attempt to server multiple cultures and languages with a single page.

Localized websites are completely customized to fit a local culture (a locale), which might distinguish Brazilian Portuguese from that in Portugal. It involves much more than language translation.

A multilingual CMS needs a workflow system that notifies localizers, perhaps in different countries around the world, of the existence of new pages that must be localized.

A multilingual shortcut is to provide links to "gists," computer-translated versions of a page. See Open Internet Lexicon.