Do you want to find the best WordPress image compression plugin for your website?
Image compression plugins make it simple to optimize images in WordPress for improved speed and performance.
We compared the best image compression plugins for WordPress in this article.
When Is a WordPress Image Compression Plugin Necessary?
Because images are larger than plain text, they take longer to load and can slow down your website.
You’ve probably heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images enhance the interactivity and engagement of your content.
You must optimize your images for the web in order to improve the speed of your WordPress website.
Because optimizing your images can help your site load faster, it will boost your WordPress SEO and help you get more traffic.
The best way to do this is to edit the image in Photoshop or another image editing software before uploading it to WordPress. This gives you a lot more control over the image quality on your website.
However, not all users are at ease with image editing software. For some, optimizing each and every image they upload sounds like a lot of work.
Fortunately, there are many other WordPress image compression plugins available to assist you. These plugins optimize your images by resizing them automatically and showing the smaller-sized version on your website.
With that in mind, let us take a look at the best WordPress image compression plugins and also how they compare in terms of image optimization, performance, and quality.
1. EWWW Image Optimizer
The best WordPress image compression plugin is EWWW Image Optimizer. It is simple to use and can automatically optimize images as you upload them.
It can also bulk compress and optimize previously uploaded images.
Even if your images are compressed, it will be difficult to tell the difference in quality between compressed and uncompressed images.
Furthermore, the entire compressing and optimizing process is automated. Image scaling to fit the right size page and device, lazy loading, and even conversion to the next-generation WebP image format are all part of this.
It can also optimize images created by other WordPress plugins and saved them in locations other than your media library folders. This plugin can optimize JPG, PNG, GIF, and even PDF files.
There is also a free version of the plugin available that allows you to optimize images on your own server. This can be beneficial for WordPress website owners who are concerned about their privacy.
Sites with a lot of images or sites with a lot of traffic, on the other hand, will want to go with the paid plan because it includes an image optimizing CDN, which will automatically compress and convert images as they are viewed.
Best of all, EWWW Image Optimizer is inexpensive. Plans begin at $7 per month and include unlimited images. If you have more than one site, you’ll need a more expensive plan.
To help your site load faster, your plan includes a caching engine, CSS/JS optimization, and Google Font optimization.
2. Optimole
Another great option for a WordPress image compression plugin is Optimole.
Using this plugin necessitates the quick creation of an account and the creation of an API key. Following that, it’s simple to use and gives you complete control over your image optimization.
Optimole is powered by an image CDN, which ensures that your images load quickly regardless of where your visitors are coming from. With a CDN, your images are optimized in real-time and delivered to your website visitors in the exact size they require.
All of your optimized images can also be viewed in a single dashboard, making it possible to customize the compression setup for individual images.
It allows you to customize the compression quality, large image resizing, lazy loading, and other features.
There’s even a one-of-a-kind setting that will automatically watermark your images. This is fantastic for photographers who want to protect their work.
Pricing is determined by the number of visitors you receive each month. The free plugin allows for up to 5,000 monthly visitors. While paid plans begin at $19.08 per month when billed annually and support up to 25,000 visitors per month.
3. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
Another excellent WordPress image compression plugin is ShortPixel Image Optimizer.
It has a plethora of advanced features and allows you to select compression formats. As soon as you activate the plugin, it begins compressing images and saves your original images in a separate folder.
If you use the free plugin, you must obtain an API key by providing your email address.
The basic free account enables you to compress up to 100 images per month; to enhance this limit, you should upgrade to one of their paid plans.
With the click of a button, you can even convert PNG to JPEG and vice versa.
It also works with the WooCommerce, NextGEN Gallery, and WPML translation plugins.
If you use Cloudflare as your WordPress CDN, you can integrate the service so that your images are automatically updated with the new version.
ShortPixel is also very inexpensive. Plans are priced according to the number of images uploaded and begin at $4.99 per month for up to 5,000 images per month.
4. reSmush.it
reSmush. It is yet another excellent option for a WordPress image compression plugin. It enables you to automatically optimize images as they are uploaded, and to provide a bulk optimization option for older images.
With an easy-to-use slider, you have complete control over image quality and compression.
It optimizes images using the reSmush API and lets you choose the level of optimization for your uploads.
The disadvantage is that there are no different compression levels. It also restricts optimization to uploads that are less than 5MB in size. Individual images can be excluded from compression if you need to include a full-size image.
5. Compress JPEG & PNG images
The team behind TinyPNG created Compress JPEG & PNG, and you will need to create an account to use the plugin. With the free account, you can only optimize 500 images per month.
It can compress images automatically when you upload them, and you can also bulk optimize older images.
You can specify which image sizes you want to optimize in the plugin settings. You can also specify a maximum file size for original uploads. The plugin will automatically resize images that are larger than that size.
On JPEG files, you can also save image data such as time and date, copyright information, and GPS location.
6. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is by far the most effective WordPress caching plugin usable. It’s great for beginners and will help your site load quickly.
WP Rocket includes image optimization features such as lazy loading, which loads images only when they are viewed.
They also created the Imagify plugin. With a single click, you can optimize all of your images. It can also resize your images on the fly and restore them to their original size.
You can also fully customize your image optimization and compression settings. All of your images will be optimized according to your specifications.
7. Jetpack
Jetpack is a robust WordPress plugin suite that combines key WordPress features into a single plugin. The main emphasis is on security, performance, and marketing.
The image optimization features are classified as performance. All you have to do to enable image compression is enable a single setting. There are no additional options for you to configure.
It automatically optimizes your image and serves it to your visitors via a CDN. This reduces server load and speeds up image loading for your visitors.
You can also use the free version of the plugin to access the image optimization.
Test Results for Image Compression Plugins
Now that you’ve learned about the various WordPress image compression options, let’s see how they stack up in terms of performance.
To test this, we uploaded the same image using each of these plugins.
JPEG Image Compression Testing
For our tests, we used the following JPEG image, which has a file size of 118.3 KB.
We did not change any of the plugin settings and tested the compression with the default settings. Here are the results of our tests:
| Plugin | Compressed Size | Saved (%) | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| EWWW Image Optimizer | 64 KB | 54.24% | Lossless |
| Optimole | 64 KB | 54.24% | Lossless |
| ShortPixel Image Optimizer | 72 KB | 39.30% | Lossless |
| reSmush.it | 78 KB | 20.81% | Lossless |
| Compress JPEG & PNG images | 118.1 KB | 2 % | Lossy |
Testing PNG Image Compression Next, we wanted to see how our competitors optimized a PNG image.
For the test, we used the PNG image below, which has a file size of 99.4 KB.
Here are the results of our tests:
| Plugin | Compressed Size | Saved (%) | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| EWWW Image Optimizer | 97 KB | 1.9% | Lossless |
| Optimole | 41 KB | 64% | Lossless |
| ShortPixel Image Optimizer | 36 KB | 56% | Lossy |
| reSmush.it | 36 KB | 56% | Lossless |
| Compress JPEG & PNG images | 34.3 KB | 54% | Lossy |
Which is the best WordPress image compression plugin?
If you want the best image compression plugin, EWWW Image Optimizer is the way to go.
It provides high levels of compression without sacrificing image quality, as well as an image CDN and other features that will optimize your website for speed.
Optimole is another excellent option for low-traffic sites. It works completely in the background as well as handles image optimization for you; likewise, it is free for up to 5,000 visitors per month.
If you are looking for the cheapest plugin that provides high levels of compression and image conversion, ShortPixel is worth a look.
We hope you enjoyed our comparison of the best WordPress image compression plugins.
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