Did you know that Google uses page load time as a ranking factor? No matter how good a website looks, a massive part of the website’s performance and speed depends on images. The WordPress image optimization plugins are mainly used to optimize the images to appear faster on the websites.
This article will compare the best WordPress image compression plugins and give you a brief idea of why they are helpful to consider.
What is Image Compression or Optimization?
It is the process of reducing the size of an image without compromising the overall quality of the image. It’s done to reduce the load time for web pages, emails, and other documents that contain images. It is usually accomplished by shrinking the file size, which reduces the time it takes to load or transmit files.
Why is it necessary to use Image Optimization Plugins?
Optimization of the images is essential for both SEO and performance reasons. While you can manually optimize images for speed, using a solid image compression plugin is much easier and more crucial. Plugins allow you to compress every photo uploaded on the site automatically. An optimization Plugin will help the website rank in Google search results and improve its Google core web vital score.
Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress
It is the most popular, award-winning, and free WordPress image compression plugin. It uses the latest image data compression algorithms known as Lossless Compression, which removes unused data and compresses images without degrading quality.
Automated Optimization is its main feature that automatically compresses all images when uploaded to the media library. As a result, the website visitors will be able to load images much faster.
You can also run a Bulk optimization process with just a single click. Bulk optimization allows you to optimize and compress 50+ images in a single click. This can save a lot of time if you have many photos on your client’s website.
It also offers plenty of advanced options but is still easy to use, even for beginners. Smush also has a paid option called Smush Pro ($24.17 per month). Offering more compression than the free version (restricts image optimization up to 1 MB), along with unlimited file size and other advanced features like Super Smush (2x compression) and Directory Smush (optimize images that are not located in the media library).
This is also one of the best WordPress image compression plugins that will help you reduce the website’s bandwidth consumption by optimizing images. The main feature of this plugin is that it has No Speed Limits and has Unlimited files support (Up to 150 Mb).
This plugin can optimize the entire media catalog (in case you already have many images on your client’s site). It can even optimize the images into the next-gen WebP image format as well.
EWWW Image Optimizer is not only fast and easy to use, but it’s also very cheap.
Starting at $7 per month, the plans support unlimited images for single websites and go up to $25 for unlimited sites, which is best for agencies.
ShortPixel is another excellent WordPress image optimizer with a great interface. It’s fast, easy on the eyes, and has some fantastic features.
It supports all popular image formats – JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and AVIF– and will convert any of them into a smaller size without affecting the quality. ShortPixel is an excellent tool for image compression, which lets you choose between lossy and lossless compression methods. Another benefit of this image optimizer is that it takes backup of every image you upload.
It is free for personal use, which offers 100 + 50 (Bonus) images/month. The paid plans start at $3.99 per month with 7k + 3.5k (Bonus) images – best for agency owners. The maximum file size for all plans is 100 MB.
Optimus is also a fast and efficient WordPress image compression plugin. If bandwidth is your main concern, this is the best for you because it can reduce the image size up to 70% depending upon the file format.
The process involves sending image files to the Optimus server, which returns-optimized versions of the image for your website. It also automatically reduces the size of uploaded images.
The plugin comes in three flavors: Base, HQ, and HQ PRO. The main difference between them is the number of features they have.
The base, i.e., the free version of the Optimus, comes with a limitation of up to 100 KB. The HQ version ($29 / year) is an excellent starting plan for agency owners; it supports HTTPS connection, WebP conversion, and unlimited images. Note, all paid plans limit file size to 10MB.
Like several others, Imagify is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to optimize your images to speed up website loading time. You can save time and improve your workflow with this plugin because it handles everything for you automatically. This option will run when you upload new images; this way, you optimize everything in one go.
There are three types of compression: lossless, lossy, and strong lossy for the smallest image files with the lowest quality. Thus, you have more control over the quality and size of the compression.
Imagify charges by the size of the images you upload. You can upload up to 20MB for free per month. Paid plans start at $3.49 per month for 500MB or approximately 5000 images.
Which WordPress image optimizer should you choose?
There are plenty of image optimizers available for WordPress users. Which one is right for you? It depends on how advanced you want to get with your optimization. For the vast majority of users, EWWW Image Optimizer is probably the best option out there. It’s fast, reliable, and easy to use. Smush Pro is the best choice if you need something more advanced.
You should keep in mind that your key goal is to optimize your client’s website images so as to speed up the website and boost the Google rankings with core web vitals.
The right way to optimize websites
Gone are the days when WordPress agencies would tinker with images so that they could be uploaded to a website with as little loss of quality as possible.
Today, WordPress agencies employ the best White Label WordPress Development Company to optimize their clients’ websites and present them in the best possible way. You do have choices, though, which means that you need to choose carefully.
If your client’s website is slow or performing poorly, you likely have to hire a white label agency, which might be the easiest part of the job if you know what to look for.
