Images can explain thousands of words with one picture. To make something more clear, images become one of the essential elements in making websites and blogs. Carrying thousands of words within a picture also consumes a million words in file size. Therefore, you might need the best image compression plugin for the WordPress site.
That means an image can dramatically increase web page size affecting page load speed. Therefore, we need to optimize the image to make the site load faster and make the site optimized for SEO. For that, you will need image compression plugins for your website.
There are multiple ways to optimize images for SEO, and one of them is lazy loading. But, an uncompressed lazy loaded image still consumes resources in the server and requires more data to load on the viewer’s screen. Therefore, the best solution is to compress the image dramatically while preserving the quality.
Understanding the need for image compression in the world of the internet we have prepared a list of the best image compression plugin for WordPress sites. These tools perform at their best level without affecting the quality.
Table of Contents
Top 6 Best Image Compression Plugins
The following image compression plugins can be used for free and there is always an option to add extra features by purchasing a premium plan. We have not included exclusively paid/ premium plugins in this list.
Imagify by WP Rocket (Recommended) – Best Image Compression Plugin for WordPress
Imagify can optimize all images: jpeg, png, pdf, and animated and non-animated gifs.
Do you have lots of unoptimized images? In Imagify, there is a bulk optimization feature to optimize all your existing images in one click.
Main Features
There are three optimization levels available in Imagify.
- Normal, a lossless compression algorithm. The image quality won’t be altered at all.
- Aggressive, a lossy compression algorithm. Stronger compression with a tiny loss of quality most of the time this is not even noticeable at all.
- Ultra, is the strongest compression method using a lossy algorithm. It unbelievably reduces the size of the image by lowering the quality of the image to an acceptable level.
You can optimize for free 20MB of images (about 200 images) every month. To increase the limit, you have to buy paid subscription according to your need. There are no limitations to converting images into WebP for free.
If you want to check how its compression works, you can go to https://imagify.io/optimizer for testing image compression.
reSmush.it (Completely Free)
reSmush.it is a completely free image compression plugin. It uses reSmush.it API. The API accepts JPG, PNG, and GIF files up to 5MB. For already uploaded images, it also has a bulk optimization feature.
To the date of writing it, reSmush has already optimized more than 22 billion images. It is a completely free image compression plugin.
Main Features
- Optimize on Upload – this feature is enabled for all new pictures to be added and can be disabled on will.
- Cornjobs – for big (and even for small) media Libraries, you can optimize your pictures using Cronjobs.
- Optimization Level – By default the optimization level is set at 92. But you can optimize more your pictures by reducing this optimization level.
- Revert to Original (Backup) – Yes, by excluding/reverting this asset you’ll have your original image available.
- Exclusion Rule – Yes, since version 0.1.2, you can easily exclude an asset from the optimizer.
Smush – Lazy Load Images, Optimize & Compress Images (Freemium)
Smush is again a freemium image compression plugin. It provides some basic features for free.
This plugin uses similar techniques to reSmush.it API to compress images. Therefore, the maximum image supported by it is also capped at 5MB per image. It utilizes different compression levels of the API to compress images in different sizes and qualities. Smush also has a paid plan for additional features such as CDN for images, restoration of the image to original quality, etc
But it provides compression and lazy loading feature for free. However, conversion to WebP is not possible with a free subscription. You must buy the pro addon in order to convert images to WebP format.
Main Features
- Lossless Compression – Strip unused data and compress images without affecting image quality.
- Lazy Load – Defer offscreen images with the flip of a switch.
- Bulk Smush – Optimize & compress up to 50 images with one click.
- Image Resizing – Set a max width and height and large images will scale down as they are being compressed.
- Incorrect Size Image Detection – Quickly locate images that are slowing down your site.
- Directory Smush – Optimize images even if they are not located in the media library.
- Automated Optimization – Asynchronously auto-smush your attachments for super fast compression on upload.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer (Freemium)
ShortPixel is again a freemium image compression plugin. It provides 3 compression options lossy, glossy, and lossless. It has a feature to preserve or delete EXIF data, backup original images, limit the resolution to a maximum set level, etc.
This plugin also optimizes images for retina devices. And also optimize pdf files. Similar to others, it also provides an exclusion feature. However, the conversion of images to WebP requires a paid subscription.
Compress JPEG & PNG by TinyPNG (freemium)
TinyPNG is also a popular online compression tool. The same has made a plugin for WordPress too.
It automatically optimizes new images on upload. Optimizes individual images already in your media library. There are no file size limits like other plugins have. It has a feature to preserve or delete metadata from images.
To enable its compression features, you must log in to your TinyPNG account and enter the API key. With that API key, you can compress 500 images a month. And of course, there are paid plans to increase that limit.
EWWW Image Optimizer (freemium)
It is also a free image compression plugin for WordPress. There are no size limitations in this plugin. With Easy IO, images are automatically compressed, scaled to fit the page and device size, lazy-loaded, and converted to the next-gen WebP format.
If you want simple, get automatic WebP conversion with Easy IO, and be done with it! Otherwise, you can generate WebP versions of your images with the Bulk Optimizer, and deliver them to supported browsers.
My Recommendation
These are the 6 best image compression plugins I have used on my different websites. You can pick any one of them. But, if you have a small website, I recommend you to use Imagify by WP Rocket. I personally use most of my sites where I need to upload less than 100 images a month. But for larger websites, I recommend using reSmush.it as it has no limit per month and is always free to use.