10 Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugins in 2024

Visuals can enrich the experience on your website, enhance your brand, and provide supplementary resources to utilize in advertising. Nonetheless, needlessly large visuals can amplify page load speeds, which adversely affects your SEO and leads to irritation for your visitors.

1. Smush

Smush is the most favored Image Optimization plugin accessible for WordPress. It applies lossless compression (meaning no quality is removed from the visual file) to diminish your visual size by up to 5 MB, individually or in bulk. It also takes other measures to enhance page performance including lazy loading and auto-resizing.

Smush is a simple plugin for novices. If you deploy this plugin on an existing site, all you need to do to activate it is visit the plugin’s settings. Then, it will optimize all of your existing visuals. Any new visuals you upload will be optimized automatically too as long as the plugin is installed.

The free version of Smush and its paid companion, Smush Pro, are exceptional all-around options for most WordPress users looking to compress their visuals but who don’t have time to compress each visual themselves. Smush Pro ($6 per month) reduces file sizes more than the free version and also removes file size limits (the free version restricts you to images under 1 MB).

2. Optimus

If bandwidth is a concern, Optimus optimizes uploaded WordPress images up to 70%. The plugin does this by sending image files to the Optimus server and returning new, smaller versions to use on your site. This compression is lossless and won’t alter the quality of the visuals. It also takes the work of actually compressing the visuals off of your own server.

Optimus is an automated tool — it processes the images as they are uploaded to your WordPress site, enhancing your site’s page performance without any manual effort on your part. If preferred, you can deactivate the automatic optimization.

Aside from the no-cost version, Optimus provides two premium options: Optimus HQ ($29 annually) and Optimus HQ Pro ($149 yearly). Both premium versions enable HTTPS connection to the Optimus compression server, conversion for WebP images, and access to the developer API. Optimus HQ Pro is more suitable for those overseeing multiple sites as it provides a license for all customer sites.

3. EWWW Image Optimizer

The EWWW Image Optimizer plugin functions similarly to our initial suggestions, automatically optimizing images upon upload, and providing the option to optimize previously uploaded JPG images individually or in bulk. EWWW’s compression is without loss.

EWWW has additional advantages that make it noteworthy. The plugin allows for unlimited file sizes, eliminating concerns about large, uncompressed images. Moreover, the premium API version can handle PNG, GIF, and WebP files, beneficial for sites utilizing all these file types. Lastly, EWWW Image Optimizer includes a support team that addresses all queries, including those from free users.

4. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

The freemium image optimization plugin ShortPixel provides two distinct image compression solutions, lossless and lossy. Lossy compression involves removing some data from the file, resulting in significantly smaller files but marginally lower image quality. If you wish to choose between these methods, consider ShortPixel.

An exceptional aspect of this plugin is that it preserves the original image, allowing easy restoration if necessary. It also offers supplementary benefits such as CMK to RGB conversion and image rescaling. Additionally, ShortPixel enables compression for JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, and PDF files without any size restrictions.

ShortPixel permits optimization of up to 100 images per month at no cost and imposes a monthly fee for additional images. For instance, you can pay $3.99 monthly for 7,000 images per month, $8.33 monthly for 16,000 images per month, and so forth.

5. Compress JPEG & PNG Images

Compress JPEG & PNG Images automatically optimizes your JPGs and PNGs by integrating with the image compression services TinyJPG and TinyPNG provide services to examine the content of the image and select the most suitable compression technique without compromising image quality. This compression involves the reduction or removal of metadata, distracting artifacts, and redundant data.

Whenever you upload images, as well as the images already on your site, Compress JPEG & PNG Images will automatically optimize them in the background. It also provides plugin options to retain specific metadata in your images, such as copyright and geolocation, along with a CMYK-to-RGB converter and no file size restrictions. However, the free usage is restricted to around 100 images per month. Beyond that, a paid account is required.

6. Imsanity

If you desire an image optimizer plugin that resizes rather than compressing, give Imsanity a try. This free plugin alters the dimensions of images upon uploading them to your WordPress site. It stands out by allowing you to specify a maximum width, height, and quality level, and it will identify and resize any images that exceed those parameters, making it perfect for websites with less strict image requirements overall.

Imsanity also provides a bulk resize function for previously uploaded images and can convert less optimized file formats (such as BMPs and PNGs) into more compact JPG formats. This plugin is particularly suitable for content-heavy sites, such as blogs, wherein authors need to upload their own images. Instead of relying on contributors to resize images themselves, use Imsanity to automate the process.

It’s important to note that Imsanity does not apply compression beyond the default WordPress compression. However, you can utilize an image compression plugin concurrently with Imsanity to further compress your resized images.

To delve deeper into this powerful plugin, explore our comprehensive analysis of Imsanity.

7. Imagify

Similar to several previous options, Imagify compresses your newly uploaded images and those already in your WordPress media folder. All of this is handled automatically, saving time and streamlining workflows.

An impressive feature of Imagify is its three optimization levels, which can be toggled in the plugin settings. The three options are lossless compression, lossy compression, and strong lossy compression for the smallest image files but the lowest image quality. This gives you greater control over the level of quality and file size.

Furthermore, Imagify is compatible with WooCommerce, NextGen Gallery, and other popular plugins, making it suitable for sites with a large number of images that need compression. Additionally, Imagify offers a backup option allowing you to restore the original version at any time and start over.

8. reSmush.it

reSmush.it is the official WordPress plugin for the reSmush.it is an image compressor, that applies one of several compression algorithms to each image you upload. You can shrink images up to 5 MB for free, and you can bulk-optimize images in just two clicks.

Significantly, reSmush. generates a copy of the original image and works from that copy for compression, ensuring that you never lose the original. It also has a sliding scale for optimization level to finely control the compression level.

9. Kraken Image Optimizer

This plugin collaborates with the Kraken.io API, an image optimization service that supports both lossless and lossy compression. Kraken provides image optimization along with other features such as a Page Cruncher and Dropbox compatibility. Optimization is executed through Kraken’s infrastructure and adding the output to your WordPress library.

In addition to compression, the plugin automatically resizes images upon upload based on designated maximum dimensions, and it includes a bulk action menu to manage multiple images at once.

Another important point is the file size limit, which is a generous 32 MB per file. However, the free version limits you to 100 MB of images per month. There are five paid plans to increase file size limits, ranging from 500 MB per month for $5 per month to 60 GB of images per month for $79 per month,

10. WP Compress

Finally, we have WP Compress, an image optimization plugin that reduces file sizes using local image optimization and live image optimization. It also provides adaptive images by device, retina device support, and image lazy loading. File compression is fully automated.

WP compress also utilizes a CDN to deliver images as fast as seven milliseconds without requiring them to be so small, and it offers a variety of features for agencies who may be working with multiple client sites. Together, these features make WP Compress a strong contender for those managing multiple client sites.