Your search of the best WordPress image compression plugins of 2020 ends here. Compressing images is considered as the best tips to increase website speed. Here in this article, we will cover 10 best WordPress plugins to compress your images automatically or with a single click.
Why compress images and reduce quality?
It is an obvious reason, when you get high-quality images in higher size why compress it and downgrade the quality. The compression of images is equally important to WordPress security tips. However, we need to compress jpeg images for many other reasons also. The reasons to compress images include:
- Compressing images leads to the smaller page size, thus decreases load time and improve user experience.
- After compressing the image, it takes minimum size on the server, thus not eating up space.
- “Image says thousands of words”, so use more images with reduced size.
- Compressing image only reduces size without compromising quality (as seen through the human eye).
- Resize images according to required dimensions, thus saving space.
WordPress Plugins v/s Online Tools to Compress Image
WordPress is a very popular cms platform to operate any kind of website. But we need to compress images for a variety of reasons stated above. There are various online image compression web tools. Some of them are really very fast and let you compress images in bulk also. But there are few benefits in which plugins beat these web tools. They are:
- WordPress Plugins Saves Time and Effort
Whenever you head up to compress images, you search on google the image compression tools and see a lot of results. There is a difficulty to choose either of them. Using wordpress plugins rather than the online tools to compress images saves this time of searching online. Just, install the plugin and it will do the rest. You don’t have to upload them on their server, download from them, rename them accordingly, and then upload them on your website. All this time is saved by installing a WordPress image compression plugin.
- No Need to Signup and Register
Sometimes, if you need to compress images in bulk these web tools ask for registration or sign up. This one is not in the case of WordPress image compression plugins. They just need to be installed on your website and rest is their work.
- Automated Compression of Images
There are some powerful WordPress image compression plugins in 2020 which directly compress images on upload. This means, your time of going to the plugin dashboard and selecting the images is saved also.
- Serve Images from CDN Networks
We all compress images to save space and speed up the website. WordPress plugins also have features to serve images from their CDN (Content delivery Networks) also. By enabling this option your images are served through high-performance servers within minimal time.
- Optimize Any Type of Image Formats
Many online image compression web tools can compress only a single type of image format. But, in the WordPress image compression plugin you can optimize any type of image format. This is the best advantage of WordPress plugins over online web tools. They can also convert images to the latest Webp image formats, which is the current fastest available format of images.
Top WordPress Plugins To Compare Images
We have discussed the reasons to compress image with benefits of plugin over web tools. But you can see a variety of tools available in the market. The very much question arises – Which one is the best WordPress plugin to compress image? We are here to answer your question. So, here is a list of 8 such WordPress plugins which are known to compress images without losing the image quality.
1. Smush Image Compress
The popular and the fastest plugin available in WordPress to compress your website images is Smush It plugin. With over 2+ million installs, this plugin has optimized millions of images online. With a variety of features this compression tools tops on our list. Some of the features include:
- Direct Compress of Image on upload
- Bulk Compress Images,
- Compress images and resize images according to your specified dimensions,
- Serve images from their CDN network (Premium Version),
- Serve images in the next gen Webp image format.
The plugin is available in two versions i.e free and paid version. The premium version says to compress images more effectively but its free version is enough to speed up your website.
2. EWWW Image Optimizer
Another popular image compression tool in the form of a WordPress plugin is EWWW Image optimizer. This plugin has over 1+ million installs, which makes it another lovable plugin to compress images. Some of the features and limitations of this EWWW Image optimizer plugin are:
- Compresses JPG, PNG, GIF and PDF files on your website,
- Highly compress images and files (paid version),
- Stores a copy of your files n their server in the form of backup for 30 days (Paid version),
- Enable Lazyload and CDN delivery network (Paid version)
However, you can see that their feature are only in the paid version. You have to buy an API key from their official website and then use them on yours. They have priced per image for compression at 0.003$/per image. The price is not too high but why use paid tools to compress images when there are best free alternatives. As a welcome offer they provide 500 images for free compression but as a compensation they ask permission to collect your website data.
3. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
With over 70,000 installs, our next plugin in list is ShortPixel Image Optimizer. This plugin uses advanced technology to compress your images and provide them at fast speed. The features of this image compression plugins leads its users to install them on their website. They are:
- Automatically convert images from PNG to JPG format.
- Connect to Cloudflare server and deliver images from its CDN.
- Can convert Webp formats of images for free,
- Optimize pdf files and retina images automatically.
- Resize images according to your requirement,
- Can also convert images on the front-end too.
Yes! This plugin can do all these stuff and all for free (100 images/per month). Just need to install the plugin, configure its setting and it will perform the rest of the steps automatically. However, compression quality of the plugin is not good than the other plugins but, these features makes it a must install.
Try this image compression plugin
4. Compress JPEG & PNG Images
The most simple plugin for WordPress website to compress images is “Compress JPEG & PNG Images”. With fewer options to set up, this plugin is also an install and forget type plugin. The plugin is not like the above plugins. It only performs its task of image compression only.
- Compress images in background or on upload,
- Option to select the image size you want to compress,
- Can resize original image without storing a copy.
- Optimize JPG and PNG image formats only.
The quality of image resized by this plugin is not too good. But this plugin consumes less space on your server. If you prefer only to compress images rather than any other feature, this plugin is the one you are looking for.
5. Kraken Image Optimizer
Another plugin that only performs the task of image compress is Kraken Image optimizer. This free tool is just like the above plugin with the same features. The only feature which makes it unique is the selection of the quality. Some of the main features are:
- Select the quality of image to be compressed.
- Choose optimization mode between lossless and Intelligent Lossy.
- Optimizes images automatically on upload,
- Optimize and resize the main image or select the image sizes to compress them.
These features make this plugin important for your website to compress images. All you need is an API key which is not available for free. The pricing of the Kraken image compression tool starts with 5$ per month (500 MB images) which can be viewed here.
6. WPOptimize – Clean, Compress, Cache
This plugin can perform 3 tasks for you to speed up your website. The tasks include cleaning the database, compress images and also provided cache for the website. All the tasks are important for a fast website, which are delivered by this popular plugins. It includes:
- Database cleaning and optimization,
- Compress images automatically or manually (from media library) with preferable option to either save space or to preserve image quality,
- Lazy load images and see unused images (Premium version),
- Enable Page Cache with variety of options,
- Enable Schedule cleanup and image optimization.
This plugin is more than the image compression plugin. If you are searching for a plugin for multi-task, then install this plugin on your WordPress and experience it. You can see the price and the features of the premium WPOptimize plugin here.
7. Imagify
The another popular tool to compress images at a blazing fast speed id Imagify. All you need is an API key which you can get on your mail address. After submitting the API key you are ready to compress your images and experience the magic. Some of the salient features are:
- Different optimization levels (Normal, Aggressive, Ultra).
- Bulk compress images on front end and in background also,
- Backup original images on your own server,
- Convert images to WebP format and uses them.
- Option to select folders and image sizes to compress.
- Resize the original image and reduce the size according to the requirement.
These features are not the best but enough for the free versions of image compression plugins. Just setup the plugin setting and you are ready to compress image for free.
8. Robin image optimizer — save money on image compression
The plugin “Robin Image Optimizer” is from Webcraftic. This free plugin to compress your images at blazing fast speed. Don’t sacrifice your image quality with the weight of the image. The unmatchable features of this plugin makes it to stand in crowd. With over 60,000+ installs it is the best plugin to serve images in high quality and less size.
- Use different image optimization server,
- Saves log of the file converted,
- Schedule the image optimization,
- Automatic compress image after uploading it onto server.
- Optimize custom folders (pro version only).
It’s premium version can cost you 19$ per month. Premium version is non advertisement and include custom folder compression. I also includes multi site support with fast support ticket and also supports Nextgen gallery also.
21 WordPress Image Compression Plugins (Compared)
We have discussed the 8 best images to compress images in detail. However, there are too many plugins which performs the same task of compressing images. We have listed all of the plugins so you don’t need to find them one by one. They are:
- Smush – Compress, Optimize and Lazy Load Images
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer
- Compress JPEG & PNG Images
- Kraken Image Optimizer
- WPOptimize – Clean, Compress, Cache
- Imagify
- Robin image optimizer — save money on image compression
- WP Compress | Image Optimizer for WordPress
- Highcompress Image Compressor
- Image optimization & Lazy Load by Optimole
- Optimus – WordPress Image Optimizer
- Image Optimizer by 10web – Image Optimizer and Compression plugin
- ImageRecycle pdf & image compression
- CheetahO Image Compression and Optimizer
- Zara 4 Image Compression
- SEO Image Optimizer
- Image Optimizer, Resizer and CDN – Sirv
- Just Image Optimizer
- JPG, PNG Compression and Optimization
- Image Compressor & Optimizer – iLoveIMG
Which one is the best image compression wordpress plugin?
So, the very next question in our mind is about the best plugin to compress image. There are lot of plugins to choose from but among all, we love Smush plugin to compress images. This plugin uses lossy form of image compression. After comparing it with all the other plugins, we concluded that the size of the image after compression is very low than the other plugins. Also, the quality was too far good than the other plugins.
We have tested this JPG image on all of the 21 plugins and concluded on the result. The image is of 365 Kb before compression and rest you can see the result:
| Image compress plugin (without changing any settings) | Size after compression |
| Smush – Compress, Optimize and Lazy Load Images | 87 KB |
| EWWW Image Optimizer | 142 KB |
| ShortPixel Image Optimizer | 140 KB |
| Compress JPEG & PNG Images | 75 KB |
| WPOptimize – Clean, Compress, Cache | 152 KB |
| Image optimization & Lazy Load by Optimole | 107 KB |
| Optimus – WordPress Image Optimizer | 110 KB |
| Image Optimizer by 10web – Image Optimizer and Compression plugin | 154 KB |
| Image Optimizer, Resizer and CDN – Sirv | 160 KB |
| JPG, PNG Compression and Optimization | 107 KB |
| WP Compress | Image Optimizer for WordPress | 97 KB |
| Robin image optimizer — save money on image compression | 145 KB |
| SEO Image Optimizer | 174 KB |
| Highcompress Image Compressor | 162 KB |
| ImageRecycle pdf & image compression | 187 KB |
| CheetahO Image Compression and Optimizer | 210 KB |
| Imagify | 165 KB |
| Just Image Optimizer | 142 KB |
| Zara 4 Image Compression | 154 KB |
| Kraken Image Optimizer | 172 KB |
| Image Compressor & Optimizer – iLoveIMG | 116 KB |
We also use this plugin for our website and suggest same to you. All is upto you, which one you choose for your website and what settings you prefer.
Limitations of using wordpress plugins to compress image files
Everything has its advantages and limitations, what about WordPress image compression plugins. Are there no limitations? No, they too have some limitations than the online image compression web tools. Some of the limitations are as:
- WordPress plugins can increase your load time.
- Increase the load on your server,
- Can conflict with the theme and your version,
- Stores a copy of your file on the server. Thus, eating up space on server.
- Less efficient than the online web tools to compress image.
Final Thoughts!
WordPress image plugins are a best way to compress images and speed up your website effectively. We have compared different plugins and given all of the information we can. If you know more plugins which can compress images effectively, don’t forget to mention in comments. In this way you can increase the quality of our article and help fellow readers.
