Are you looking for the best WordPress image compression plugin?
We're guessing it's because you want to optimize your post for performance and search engine optimization (SEO).
Let's briefly look at some reasons installing an image compression plugin on your website is an excellent idea.
Why Do You Need a WordPress Image Compression Plugin?
Visual assets like images make up an important part of the content on your posts and pages. Therefore, just like your written content, URLs, and other aspects of your website, your images need to be optimized for SEO.
The best way to do that is to compress them.
Compressing your images also has the benefit of improving your page load speed, resulting in a positive user experience (UX). It also helps you meet Google's Web Core Vitals standards. As a result, your website will rank higher, and you'll drive more traffic.
Sure, you can optimize your images by using powerful photo editing tools like Photoshop, but these can be costly and may require a bit more effort on your part.
That's why considering an image compression plugin would be your best option. The best WordPress image compression plugins help make image optimization a breeze as they do most of the heavy lifting in the background.
4 Factors to Consider as You Look for the Best WordPress Image Compression Plugin
Before we dive into our list of the best WordPress image compression plugins, let's briefly look at what you should look for in an image compression plugin.
Support for Different File Types
One of the most important factors to consider as you look for an image compression plugin is whether it supports most popular image file types. Examples include PNG, JPG or JPEG, GIF, and WebP files.
Bulk Image Compression
Image compression can be time-consuming, especially when working with hundreds of images. That's why you should consider bulk compression as one of the features to look for in a WordPress image compression plugin. This feature will allow you to compress multiple images simultaneously, saving you a lot of time.
Different Compression Levels
Image compression is a balancing act — you need to ensure you reduce an image's file size without losing quality. That's why you should prioritize a plugin that offers different compression levels. This will ensure that you can take a compression approach that will help you optimize each individual image. The two main different compression levels to consider are:
- Lossless compression: This allows you to compress your images without any loss to the quality of the image. However, your image file size won't be reduced as much as it would with lossy compression.
- Lossy compression: This removes unnecessary data from an image to reduce the file size. Lossy compression usually gives you the most significant reduction in image file size.
With that being said, let's get you the best WordPress image compression plugin for your website, shall we?
The Best WordPress Image Compression Plugin: Our Top 5 Picks
When it comes to image compression plugins, you'll be spoilt for choice as there are thousands to choose from. However, not all image compression plugins are the same. Some may slow down your website, conflict with other plugins, or downright fail to do what they promise.
To help you avoid the frustration that comes from trying out several image compression plugins, we've come up with this list of tried and tested ones.
1. Optimole
Optimole is one of the best WordPress image compression plugins on the market.
Setting up Optimole requires creating an account and inserting your API keys. Once that's done, using the plugin is straightforward, plus it gives you complete control over your image optimization. This makes the slight speed bump during the setup process worth it.
One of Optimole's most significant advantages is its dashboard — it's easy to understand and features many useful settings. Speaking of settings, some image optimization settings you'll find in Optimole's dashboard include:
- Compression options
- Large image sizing
- Lazy loading
- Watermarks
A notable feature you'll also love is that Optimole uses an image CDN to serve up images. This ensures your images will load quickly and that each visitor gets served optimized images for their device.
Another feature you'll appreciate is that Optimole makes it easy to view all of your optimized images in a single dashboard. Doing so enables you to easily customize each image's compression settings.
The only caveat with Optimole is that pricing isn't as straightforward as other plugins on the list — it's based on the number of visitors you receive. For example, the free plan supports up to 5,000 visitors per month. On the other hand, Paid plans start at $19.08/month with support for up to 25,000 visitors per month.
2. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
ShortPixel Image Optimizer is another fantastic WordPress image compression plugin you should consider.
One reason ShortPixel Image Optimizer is one of the best WordPress image compression plugins is because it's packed with advanced features. For example, the plugin allows you to choose compression formats. Another cool feature is image compression starts as soon you activate the plugin. It also stores your original images in a separate folder.
Like Optimole, ShortPixel Image Optimizer requires you to get an API key by providing your email address. Notable features you can expect from ShortPixel include:
- 3 compression options — lossy, lossless, and glossy
- Compress up to 50 images at a go
- Works on all file types (JPEG, PNG, GIF, and even PDFs)
- Converts JPEG, PNG or GIF files to next-gen formats like WebP and AVIF
- Convert PNG to JPEG and vice versa with a click of a button.
- Integrates with Cloudflare
The free version of ShortPixel Image Optimizer limits you to 10Mb or 300 images per month. However, you can sign up for their paid plans that start at $3.99/month (up to 7,000 images) billed annually to remove the limitations.
3. EWWW Image Optimizer
Looking for an easy-to-use WordPress image compression plugin?
EWWW Image Optimizer certainly fits that bill.
Besides being super easy to use, EWWW also has the advantage of automatically optimizing images you upload. This makes it an excellent option for beginners or users who are pressed for time.
Another benefit you'll enjoy from this image compression plugin is that it allows for bulk image compression. Quality is also not compromised as you'll hardly find a difference between original images and compressed ones.
What makes EWWW qualify as one of the best WordPress image compression plugins on our list?
Take a look at some of the plugin's feature's, and you'll understand why:
- Lazy loading
- JS/CSS optimizations
- Low-quality image placeholders (LQIP)
- CDN image delivery
- Auto-WebP
- Automatic image scaling
- Site speed audits
One of the best features you'll love is that EWWW allows you to compress an unlimited number of images, no matter which plan you're on. This even includes images generated by other WordPress plugins you're using.
Speaking of plans, the plugin is also very affordable as paid plans start at $7/month.
4. SEO Friendly Images Pro
If you're looking for an image compression plugin that does more than just compress your images, SEO Friendly Images Pro could be the solution you are looking for.
As the name suggests, SEO Friendly Images Pro was explicitly designed to help users boost their SEO. That's why it has several features beyond just image size optimization.
For example, SEO Friendly Images Pro automatically optimizes all your image alt and title attributes. Other notable features of the plugin include:
- Superfast lazy loading
- Supports content images, thumbnails, and images from third-party plugins
- Auto-updates with WordPress's update mechanism
With SEO Friendly Images Pro, optimizing your images for SEO becomes a breeze.
Wondering how much this powerful image compression plugin will cost you?
Expect to pay $20 for the regular license, which comes with six months of support.
5. TinyPNG
Another plugin you should consider as you look for the best WordPress image compression plugins is TinyPNG.
TinyPNG automatically optimizes new images you upload. The plugin can also easily bulk-optimize images you already have on your site. Another advantage of TinyPNG is that it allows you to set a maximum width and/or height for your images, allowing for automatic resizing of large images. To help you get a better understanding of what the plugin can do, here are some of its features:
- No file size limits
- Preserve image metadata like copyrights, creation date, location, e.t.c
- Supports all image file types (including animations)
- WooCommerce compatible
- Multisite support with a single API key
The free version of TinyPNG is limited to 100 images/month. If you're a power user and want to remove the limit, you can upgrade to the paid plans.
The Best WordPress Image Compression Plugins: Part of Your SEO Toolkit
Image compression is no longer an option — what with Google prioritizing websites that load fast and users preferring the same, you have no choice but to make image compression a part of your SEO strategy.
That's why an image compression plugin must be part of your overall image SEO.
Speaking of SEO toolkits, besides an image compression plugin, you should also consider installing the best WordPress SEO plugin. Doing so will help ensure that every aspect of your website is optimized.
What's the best WordPress SEO plugin?
According to over 3 million users, it's AIOSEO. Go ahead and download AIOSEO today!
