What is the best optimization plugin for WordPress?

Which WordPress optimization plugin is most recommended?

6 Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugins

We are in 2022, and the buzz is around dynamic websites with lots of images and an interesting layout, suitable not only for desktop users but also for mobile.
When used correctly, images can capture users’ attention and prevent your web pages from becoming boring pages with text.

On the other hand, if you fill your site with unoptimized images, it can only ruin the user’s experience of browsing your site and make your site unbearably slow.
But if you use WordPress, you’re in luck, as there are many amazing WordPress image optimization plugins that can do all the work for you.

In this article, we will list the best ones out there and give you the best plugins for WordPress image optimization.

In short, check out this quick comparison table that shows what each WordPress image optimization plugin has to offer.

What is image optimization?

Image optimization is the process of adjusting an image to meet certain criteria for your website. The criteria include dimension, size, resolution, and correct format.
Ultimately, images need to be displayed in a way that doesn’t slow down your site or ruin the user experience.

In case you were wondering, image optimization and image compression are not the same thing.
Image compression is part of the image optimization process where the image size is reduced while maintaining image quality.

How did we test this?

One of the most important aspects of image optimization is image compression – how much of the image file size can be reduced so that the image quality degrades little, if at all.

Here, we have compiled a comparison to evaluate the efficiency of the image compression algorithms used by the listed plugins.

JPG

First, let’s see how well the plugin can compress this JPEG image.

Original image:

PNG

Next, let’s compare how well they can compress a PNG file.

Original image:

6 WordPress Image Optimization Plugins

By now, you should already understand what image optimization is and how the different plugins compare to each other when it comes to image compression.

However, image optimization is not just about image compression, and you can implement additional methods to optimize images and improve site performance and user experience.

However, we have put together a detailed review of each of these plugins to give you knowledge about what they have to offer, aside from image compression.

ShortPixel Adaptive Images

ShortPixel Adaptive Images is a plugin packed with all the necessary features to help you optimize your WordPress images and your website’s performance.

You get access to a wealth of features and functionality, including ShortPixel’s signature compression algorithm. It can help you reduce image file size by up to 90% without significantly compromising image quality.

ShortPixel Image Optimization Test

The PNG file had a size reduction of 63.17%. Using a lossy algorithm,
The final image size decreased from 1.65MB to 622.27KB.

For a JPG file, we saw a 59.48% reduction from 484KB to 196.11KB.

What’s good about ShortPixel ?

Apart from its efficient compression algorithm, ShortPixel Adaptive Images has some other amazing features that can optimize your images and improve website performance.

For starters, the plugin gives you access to a dedicated image CDN (Content Delivery Network), which is a globally distributed network of servers. When a user tries to access your site, it will fetch the images from the geographically closest server, which helps with image delivery latency.

On top of that, they also have a smart cropping option that will dynamically crop and resize images based on the screen size and resolution of the site visitors. So if a person is viewing from a laptop, it will deliver images that are 640×480 pixels. If they are viewing from a mobile phone, it will deliver images that are 300×225 pixels.

It also gives you access to lazy image loading. This feature prioritizes loading images that are positioned at the top and fixed, meaning they are immediately visible as soon as a visitor lands on your web page. Other images are only accessible after scrolling to them, thus reducing the initial load on the server that serves the site.

What’s not so good about ShortPixel ?

Overall, we don’t have many complaints, thanks to the plugin’s robust feature set.
However, it is worth noting that this is not a free add-on.

The plugin will let you compress around 200 images per month for free. For more, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium plan. You’ll also need to create a ShortPixel account to get the free 200 image benefit.

Pricing

The plugin follows a freemium model. It basically gives you the functionality of CDN, Lazy Loading, and unlimited image resizing for free. However, you are limited to compressing up to 200 images per month with a free account.

If you need to optimize your images even more, you’ll need to choose one of their paid plans.

Summary – ShortPixel

Overall, ShortPixel Adaptive Images is a powerful and feature-packed option when it comes to image optimization. It comes with a ton of amazing features starting with a powerful image compression algorithm, image CDN, lazy loading, and smart cropping.

Furthermore, the free plan with a limit of 200 images per month is more than enough for amateur bloggers. But if you work with more images, then the paid plans can be affordable for you.

Imagify

Imagify is a popular and powerful WordPress image optimization plugin with over 300,000 active installations.

So what is the reason behind its immense popularity?
Well, this plugin gives you a great deal of control and flexibility in optimizing your images.
It supports a variety of file types and even converts your images to the next-gen WebP file format.

Imagify Image Optimization Test

Imagify, for some reason, noted that the JPG image was already optimized and therefore did not perform any compression. For the PNG image, it did an amazing job of compressing the image from 1.65MB to 33.5KB,
and reduced the size by 98.02%. It uses aggressive lossy image compression algorithms to compress PNG.

What’s good about Imagify ?

With Imagify, you have access to three levels of image compression from lossless to lossy.
It provides great flexibility in terms of balancing the right image quality with image size.
There is also an option to convert an image to WebP format when you optimize it.
Additionally, the plugin also works with all popular image file types, so you won’t encounter any compatibility issues.
You even get access to an image resizer, which you can use to resize images directly from your WordPress backend.

What’s not so good about Imagify ?

The biggest problem with Imagify is that it only allows you to optimize up to 25MB of images per month for free. That’s very low, even for a website that’s just starting out.

Most of the suboptimal images you’ll encounter are around 1MB in size.
So, each month, you can use the plugin to optimize up to 25 high-quality images.

Pricing

In the free version, you can use the plugin to optimize up to 25MB of images per month. For more than that, you’ll need to upgrade to one of their premium plans.

Summary – Imagify

Overall, Imagify offers a lot of great features. However, with a monthly optimization limit of just 25MB for free accounts, it’s tempting to upgrade to a paid plan.

But with that said, the professional plans are really generous with the image optimization limit, making Imagify affordable.

Optimum

Optimole is a WordPress image optimization plugin that comes with a ton of innovative features to help you fully automate all your image optimization needs.

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin and it will do the rest.
You won’t have to worry about website performance issues resulting from heavy image files.

Optimole Image Optimization Test

Optimole did a good job when it came to compressing both JPG and PNG images.

For the JPG, it reduced the file size from 484KB to 217.8KB, resulting in a 45% reduction in image size. It uses both lossy and lossless compression.

In the case of PNG, he was able to reduce the image size by 55% using lossy and lossless compression.

What’s good about Optimole ?

Optimole comes with a unique feature called dynamic image submission which replaces all your image links with virtual links.

Now, when a visitor visits your website, all optimized images will be served from the Optimole server. Your users will have access to high-quality images that are dynamically resized and adjusted to their specific viewing style.

This approach significantly improves loading speeds and allows you to optimize the display of your images for all devices at the same time. You can even set it to reduce image quality in case the user is on a slower internet connection, just to create a situation where the loading speed of the site is not affected.

What’s not so good about Optimole ?

The downside to Optimole is that none of the compressed and resized images are stored in your WordPress database. These are generated and served in real-time.
And the consequences are, you don’t have access to any of the optimized images and there’s no way to re-apply them elsewhere.

Pricing

Optimole comes with a free plan that will optimize your images for around 5,000 monthly site visits, which is more than enough for a blogger just starting out.
And once your blog/website starts to grow, you can easily move to one of their paid plans.

Summary – Optimole

If you are just starting out with a WordPress website or blog, then using Optimole makes a lot of sense.
You may have a dictionary of images, but as long as your monthly website traffic is less than 5000 visitors, you can provide optimized images for free. The plugin is also perfect for users who want to automate the entire image optimization process and not have to worry about it.
However, if you want to have access to your optimized images, we suggest going for one of the other plugins on the list.

Smush

Smush has over a million active installations, making it one of the most popular WordPress image optimization plugins. It is beginner-friendly and known for its ease of use.

The plugin is available in a free version and also in a pro version – called Smush Pro.

Here we are reviewing the free version of the plugin. However, we will list the basic differences between the free and premium versions to help you make the right decision.

Smush reduced the image size by 2.7% (484KB to 471.2KB) for a JPG image.

Regarding PNG, there was 85% compression (1.65MB to 253.5KB).

What’s good about Smush ?

Unlike all the other plugins on the list, Smush allows you to optimize potentially unlimited images without having to upgrade to a premium plan.

It uses lossy and lossless image compression algorithms to reduce the image file size.

On top of that, you get access to many other image optimization features, including lazy loading, image resizing support, and a dedicated image size detector that can point out unoptimized images.

By upgrading to Smush Pro, you can automatically resize your images to a predefined width and height. You also get the option to convert images to WebP format.

What’s not so good about Smush ?

The free version of Smush can optimize images under 5MB. By upgrading to Smush Pro, you can work with images up to 32MB in size.

Pricing
Using Smush is completely free.

If you choose to use Smush Pro, you will need to purchase a subscription.

Summary – Smush

Smush comes with no limit on the number of images you can optimize, making it a tempting proposition. The ability to use lossy and lossless image compression in the free version is a plus.

Upgrading to Smush Pro does give you more options, and you can be more aggressive with the compression algorithm.

EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer is another popular WordPress plugin with over 800,000 active installations.

It connects you with the API which will automatically optimize all the images you upload to your site, including the images you already uploaded before installing the plugin.

Like Smush, the basic plugin is free to use and will allow you to optimize unlimited images. However, a premium version of the plugin does exist with many more advanced features.

Here, we will look at the free version of the plugin.

EWWW Image Optimizer : Image Optimization Test

EWWW Image Optimizer managed an image compression of 3.3% for JPG (484KB to 431.1KB) using lossless algorithms.

For PNG, it compressed the 1.65MB file to 1.02MB, a compression of 37.9%, using a pixel-perfect lossless algorithm.

What’s good about EWWW Image Optimizer ?

In the free version, EWWW Image Optimizer lets you optimize potentially unlimited images. What’s more, the plugin can work with image files up to 150MB in size, which is huge. You’re unlikely to encounter a PNG or JPG file that large anyway.

Apart from that, EWWW Image Optimizer allows you to use both lossy and lossless compression algorithms that can help you reduce file size by up to 50% without any noticeable loss in quality.

What’s not so good about EWWW Image Optimizer ?

The free version of EWWW Image Optimizer does not include most of the important image optimization features other than image compression. There are no image resizing capabilities, lazy image loading option, and so on.

Pricing

The basic plugin is free to use.
However, there are premium plans that start at $0.002 per image or $5-15 per month.

Summary – EWWW Image Optimizer

In its free version, EWWW Image Optimizer offers some of the most powerful image compression that is unlimited. If you’re on a budget and need to work with a lot of images, it’s worth checking out.

However, the lack of other image optimization options means you’ll have to rely on other tools to help with things like image resizing, lazy loading, etc.

WP Compress

The WP Compress plugin is a versatile solution for all your image optimization needs.
And the big advantage is that everything is completely managed and lets you run everything on autopilot.

You can use it to optimize images on your own website, or you can white label it and provide image optimization functionality to your clients.

WP Compress Image Optimization Test

In our image optimization test, we found that WP Compress optimized the JPG image from 484KB to 322.35KB, a compression of 33.4%, using lossless compression.

For PNG, the final image size after lossless compression is 1.18MB from 1.65MB, a 28.3% reduction in image size.

What’s good about WP Compress ?

WP Compress offers a hybrid CDN that combines Google Cloud and BunnyCDN to serve your images at lightning speed.

Their image optimization process relies on three different features.

First, the images are converted to the next-gen WebP format. Then, using the Adaptive Images functionality, it adjusts the images to the browser’s device and screen size.
And finally, the icing on the cake, there is access to lazy image loading functionality that improves site performance even further.

What’s not so good about WP Compress ?

WP Compress is a well-rounded WordPress image optimization plugin and ticks all the right boxes, so we don’t have many complaints about the plugin.

Pricing

There is an option to use WP Compress for free, but with a limit of optimizing up to 100MB of images per month. This is decent and good enough for amateur bloggers, or people just starting out.
However, if you need to exceed the limit, pricing starts at $5.95 per month to optimize 1GB of photos.

Summary – WP Compress

Overall, WP Compress is a good option for all your image optimization needs.
It abundantly contains all the necessary features and functionality.

The free plan is generous, allowing up to 100MB of image optimization per month, which is enough for users just starting out.

The benefits of image optimization

With image optimization, you get the same high-quality images but with significantly reduced file sizes. This little thing can help grow your website in many ways.

Here is a list of some of the main benefits of optimizing your website images.

Faster page loading speeds

Images are a necessary part of the modern website, but they also have large file sizes.

If you have too many unoptimized images, it can make your site very heavy, which can slow down loading speeds.
Apart from that, it can also reduce the overall performance of your website and make it slow.

Better user experience

The faster your website images load, the faster your visitors will experience browsing, which will result in a better user experience.

Increased conversion rates

Sites that take too long to load, especially if it’s more than 2 seconds, increase your bounce rate and then start losing potential visitors. So by improving your site’s load time, image optimization can indirectly improve your site’s conversion rates.

Improves SEO

Search engines take many different factors into account when ranking your website.
One of them is the loading time of your website.

Modern search engine algorithms, including Google, favor websites that are optimized for faster performance.
So image optimization will also indirectly help you rank higher on the search engine results page.

Less storage space and bandwidth consumed

The smaller the file size, the less pressure it will put on your storage server, in terms of storage space and bandwidth.

Faster backups

Making backups will be much faster if your photos are optimized and take up less storage space.

In conclusion

These were the list of the best WordPress image optimization plugins.
We hope the article was useful to you and helped you find the perfect image optimization plugin according to your budget and requirements.

The article was translated from English to Hebrew.
Link to the original article – https://wpastra.com/plugins/best-wordpress-image-optimization-plugins/

However, at Host Center, we offer our customers the Imagify plugin free of charge, with the purchase of a hosting package for one year or more. If you are still undecided, we recommend purchasing the package and this way you can use the imagify plugin without any image restrictions, and you can enjoy control and flexibility in optimizing your images, which will make your website faster and load images optimally.

Contact us for more details