10 Best Image Optimization Plugins For WordPress In 2022

16Jun 2022 by Moonthemes 3201 Comments

Are you in search of the best WordPress image optimization plugins? If yes, then stick till the end.

Images are a great way to enhance the user experience on your website. They have the power to convey critical messages very effectively so that anyone can understand. 

However, too much use of the heavy images just for the sake of impressing your visitors is also not a good idea. This can make your website miserably slow. To get rid of these issues, you must optimize your images. 

Only then you won’t face any decline in your site’s performance. Thankfully, in WordPress, there are several image optimizer plugins to take care of this process. So users don’t have to do it on their own.

To ease things for you, we’ve come up with the best WordPress image optimizer plugins after extensive research. So, let’s get to know them!

Why Use a WordPress Image Optimization Plugin?

Human beings tend to memorize visual information quickly rather than the written content. This is why you see a lot of images used on a website. But on the flip side, images are heavier in size than text.

That means they take longer to load, as a result, your website has a higher chance of slowing down. To tackle these issues, you must optimize your images first. You can do it manually by using Photoshop or any other image editing tool.

But the process is too overwhelming as you have to optimize every single image before uploading it to WordPress. This is where the role of the image optimization plugin comes into play. 

It will optimize your images automatically by compressing them. Following that, the same smaller-sized version of the image is used on your website.

As a result, your website will load quickly, which positively impacts your SEO, and enhances the user experience.

How do We at SiteSaga Optimize Images for Our Blog?

Although image optimizer plugins do a great job, we believe uploading already optimized images is an even better approach! Hence, we optimize all the media before adding them to our blog. 

First of all, we make images in the exact size as per our image guidelines. The width and height of images are as big as required, but not bigger. For example, we avoid uploading images taller than 700px.

To create images, we take the help of Adobe Photoshop. It’s a computer program for editing photos. The reason to choose this is its ability to save images optimized for the web. 

TinyPNG Online Image Compression Tool For Reducing Image Size

After creating the ideal size images, we compress them using TinyPNG. It’s an online compression tool that optimizes your WebP, JPEG, and PNG images by 50-80% without loss in quality. 

To use this tool, just go to https://tinypng.com/ and then drop your images there. It’ll compress your images in no time and provide you with optimized images. (Note: This tool is also available in plugin form, included below.)

After compression, we upload these images to our blog. We use the Imagify plugin on our blog, which will further take care of image optimization. If we missed any images, then it’ll do the job!

With that said, let’s go ahead and check the best WordPress image optimization plugins 2022.

10 Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugins In 2022

Here, we’ve come up with a list of the best free WordPress image compression plugins for 2022. Go through the description, features, and pricing of each plugin. And then, you’ll be able to know which one suits you the most.

1. Imagify

Imagify Image Optimization WordPress Plugin

Imagify is one of the modern image optimization plugins that allows you to resize and compress images. With this plugin, you can cut down the weight of the photos you want to add to your website all in a single click. 

Imagify gives you the ability to resize and compress images for the most common image formats. These are PNG, JPG, GIF, as well as PDF formats. Additionally, you can also resize images in bulk with the help of the bulk optimization option.

Features:

  • You can upload an image up to 2MB in size in the free version.
  • Ability to resize your images with their online app.
  • Offers you 3 different levels of compression, such as Normal, Aggressive, and Ultra.
  • With secure and encrypted connections, your images and documents will be safe.
  • You can also restore your images to the original versions if required.

Pricing:

This image optimization plugin is available in both free and premium versions. You can download the free version from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. To compress more images, the premium version is required which comes up in the price tag of $9.99/month. 

2. Smush 

Smush - Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugin

Smush is one of the renowned image optimization plugins of WordPress in the market. Developed by WPMU DEV, this powerful plugin has an active installation of over 1 million. When you upload images to your website, it automatically optimizes and compresses them.

Smush makes use of the lossless compression to strip unused data. And it reduces the image size, that too without a drop in quality. Not only that, but you can also optimize images that are outside of your media uploads directory. 

Features:

  • Offers bulk smush, which means you can optimize and compress up to 50 images.
  • Incorrect Size Image Detection allows you to find images that are making your website slow.
  • With it, you can optimize images that are up to 5MB in size.
  • This plugin supports all of the image file types like PNG, JPEG, and GIF. 
  • Offers a lazy loading feature that is responsible for increasing your page loading speed.

Pricing:

Smush is a freemium (available on both the free and premium versions) plugin. You can get the free version from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. Hence, you can also install this plugin directly on your WordPress dashboard. 

For more functionalities, you must buy Smush Pro which comes in various pricing plans:

  • Basic: $7.50/month, 1 site license, All pro plugins, 5GB CDN, 5GB backup storage.
  • Standard: $12.50/month, 3 sites license, All pro plugins, 10GB CDN, 10GB backup storage.
  • Freelancer: $32.50/month, 10 sites license, All pro plugins, 20GB CDN, 20GB backup storage.
  • Agency: $82.50/month, unlimited sites license, All pro plugins, 50GB CDN, 50GB backup storage.

3. EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer WordPress Plugin

EWWW Image Optimizer instantly optimizes your images as you upload them to your website. This plugin applies lossless compression, which means there is no decline in the quality of the image. 

It also provides you with lazy loading functionality to enhance your website’s performance. This way, the images will only load when it appears on the screen. The best thing about EWWW Image Optimizer is it allows for unlimited file sizes. So, you can optimize and compress any size of images.

Features:

  • It ensures smooth handling with pixel-perfect optimization.
  • Offers premium compression for PNG, JPG, and PDF files for top-quality compression/quality ratio.
  • Has a smart conversion option to get the ideal image format. (PNG, JPG, GIF, or WebP).
  • Provides you free image backups to add your images for 30 days.
  • All communications are protected with the best SSL encryption.

Pricing:

EWWW Image Optimizer plugin is available on both the free and paid versions. You can download the free version from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. 

Similarly, the premium version includes 3 different pricing plans:

  • Standard: $7/month, 1 site license, unlimited images, auto-compress, auto-WebP, 200GB bandwidth.
  • Growth: $15/month, 10 sites license, global CDN delivery, custom domain, 400GB bandwidth.
  • Infinite: $25/month, unlimited sites license, all Growth features, 800GB bandwidth, site speed audits. 

4. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer WordPress Plugin

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is a user-friendly plugin that compresses images and PDF documents with a single click. Not only your website images, but you can also optimize images that aren’t stored in the media library. 

To be more specific, you can optimize images in the NextGEN gallery as well as other image galleries. Besides that, it provides glossy JPEG compression. It is a high-quality lossy optimization algorithm that is ideal for photographers.

Features:

  • Supports lossy and lossless image compression for the most common image types (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and AVIF).
  • Easily convert any JPEG, PNG, or GIF to WebP and AVIF for better performance. 
  • Option to optimize thumbnails as well as featured images. 
  • Automatically compressed retina-optimized images for enhancing user experience. 
  • The plugin works perfectly with any shared cloud, VPS, or dedicated web hosting. 

Pricing:

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is a freemium plugin. To get the free version you can visit the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. In it, you’ll get 100 images per month. For 7000 images per month, you’ve to pay $3.99/month. While 16000 images per month cost you $8.33/month. 

5. Imsanity

Imsanity WordPress Plugin

Imsanity lets you easily optimize images for better speed and performance of your website. The entire process of compressing and optimizing your images is automatic. The plugin automatically resizes the huge image uploads. For that, you only have to set the maximum size for your original upload.

If the uploaded image is bigger than the configured size, then Imsanity will automatically resize it. Moreover, it also offers a bulk-resize feature for resizing previously uploaded images and cleaning up disk space. 

Features:

  • By default, it scales large image uploads to a smaller size.
  • Comes up with a bulk resize feature for resizing existing images.
  • Option to resize images directly in the media library.  
  • Ability to configure max width/height and JPG quality. 
  • Full freedom to convert BMP and PNG files to JPG.

Pricing:

Imsanity is a free plugin, you can download it from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. 

6. TinyPNG

TinyPNG WordPress Image Optimization Plugin

TinyPNG makes your website lightning fast by optimizing your JPEG, PNG, and WebP images. This plugin integrates with image compression services such as TinyJPG and TinyPNG, for optimizing your images.

Each image you upload on your WordPress site is added to the TinyJPG or TinyPNG service. After that, depending on the content of your image, the best possible optimization strategy is applied. And that processed image will replace the original one which is much smaller in size.

Features:

  • JPEG images are compressed by 40%-60% and PNG images by 50%-80%.
  • Comes with advanced background optimization to fasten your workflow.
  • Bulk optimization for scaling existing images in the media library.
  • Has progressive JPEG encoding for displaying JPEG images instantly.
  • It even allows you to compress an animated PNG. 

Pricing:

This plugin comes up in both the free and paid versions. The free version can be downloaded from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. If you like to compress more, then its pro plan costs you $39 per user which is a yearly subscription. 

There is also a web-based version of it, i.e. tinypng.com, or tinyjpg.com, which is free for everyone.

7. reSmush.it

reSmush.it Image Optimization WordPress Plugin

reSmush.it provides you free image optimization through its API. The API can handle JPG, PNG, and GIF files up to 5MB. Most importantly, it creates a copy of the original image, and that copied image is compressed. This way, you won’t lose the original one too. 

reSmush.it is well known for optimizing and compressing the images with its advanced algorithms. This tool is also used by other CMS platforms  (Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Prestashop) and powers over 400K websites online.

Features:

  • It lets you optimize images up to 5MB for absolutely free.
  • Offers a bulk operation to optimize all of your images with a double click.
  • EXIF data are cut out by default to reduce the file size.
  • Fully compatible with Yahoo Smush.its web service.

Pricing:

reSmush.it is free of cost. You can download it from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. Or, you can even install this plugin directly on your WordPress dashboard.

8. Image optimization & Lazy Load by Optimole

Optimole Free Image Optimization Plugin

Optimole is a feature-rich plugin that is capable of fulfilling all your image optimization needs. Unlike other plugins, it optimizes your images in real-time with a cloud-based system. And that will make your website run at a full pace.

After installing the plugin, it will replace all of your photo URLs with cloud-based URLs. This plugin applies the specific transformations based on the visitor’s actual device and sends it to website visitors. That means every image is perfectly appropriate for all the devices. 

Features:

  • Send your website images directly to Optimole Cloud for saving storage space on your server.
  • Ability to optimize images in next-gen formats.
  • Machine Learning(ML) powered compression to offer you good-looking images at the smallest size.
  • This plugin provides you with images with the perfect Digital Pixel Ratio (DPR) for a better user experience.
  • Enable smart cropping to trim the unwanted portion of the image without loss in quality.
  • It offers you free access to an AWS CloudFront CDN for increased speed and performance.

Pricing:

It is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. For more features, you’ve to upgrade to the paid plan. It comes up in 3 different pricing plans:

  • Starter: $19.08/month, 25000 monthly visits, auto-scaled images, machine learning compression.
  • Business: $39.08/month, 1x custom domain, smart lazy-loading, AVIF support.
  • Custom: Flexible (You’ve to contact them for this), 10 million+ monthly visits, auto-scaled images, machine learning compression, unmetered bandwidth.

9. WP Compress

WP Compress Optimization Plugin of WordPress

WP Compress is another great image optimization plugin. More specifically, you’ve to simply link your website to the management portal and turn on the autopilot mode. The plugin will automatically optimize your new images daily for better performance. 

It offers two different optimization modes, i.e. local image optimization and live image optimization. No matter which option you choose, there are some common functionalities that you’ll discover. These are adaptive images, next-gen WebP images, retina device support, and image lazy loading.

Features:

  • Inclusion of Hybrid CDN and BunnyCDN to serve your images instantly from any part of the globe.
  • Depending on the visitor’s device, it adapts the images to be of perfect size.
  • Generates retina images for a higher resolution experience.
  • Offers you 3 different compression modes i.e. lossless, intelligent, and ultra compression.
  • Includes a backup option where you can restore the original version of images at any given time. 

Pricing:

WP Compress is available on both the free and paid versions. To get the free version, you’ve to navigate to the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. 

Meanwhile, to upgrade to the premium plan, you need to spend some money. It consists of various pricing plans:

  • Starter: $5/month, 50GB live optimization, 10000 local images. 
  • Professional: $15/month, 250GB live optimization, 50000 local images.
  • Whitelabel: $25/month, 500GB live optimization, 100000 local images.
  • High-Volume: $75/month, 2.5TB live optimization, 500000 local images.

10. WPvivid Image Optimization

WPvivid Free Image Optimization WordPress Plugin

WPvivid Image Optimization is an all-in-one solution for all your image optimization needs. This plugin allows you to effortlessly optimize your images and improve website performance. It supports a wide range of file types (JPG, PNG, GIF) and also converts your images to WebP format. 

WPvivid Image Optimization offers two different image compression methods, lossy and lossless. Lossy compression works by removing some amount of data from the image file. That means the output will be a smaller file but with a slight loss in quality. 

Features:

  • Ability to optimize around 2000 images per month for free.
  • It gives you the freedom to upload images up to 5MB in size.
  • Integrate CDN service to your website for improving your page load time. 
  • You can optimize all your images in bulk with a single click.
  • Option to back up original images and restore them later if required.

Pricing:

It is available on both the free and paid versions. You can download the free version from the WordPress.org plugin’s directory. 

For more amazing features, you’ve to buy the premium version. It comes up in 4 different pricing plans:

  • Blogger: $49/year, 2 domains, unlimited image optimization.
  • Freelancer: $69/year, 10 domains, unlimited image optimization.
  • Small Business: $99/year, 50 domains, unlimited image optimization.
  • Ultimate: $149/year, unlimited domains, unlimited image optimization.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap! So, in this article, we’ve covered the 10 best image optimization plugins for WordPress in 2022. We hope you liked it!

As seen by yourself, each of these plugins is equally good and offers tons of features. So, it’s normal to be in a dilemma regarding which one to pick. However, you don’t have to fret cause we’re about to make the selection process easier for you.

Imagify is the best image optimization plugin for WordPress. It gives you the power to optimize images and reduce the weight of the images you want to add to your site. Besides, we’ve also been using this plugin on our site, so we highly recommend this to you all.

Check out our article on the best WordPress cache plugins to boost your site speed. Also, you might be interested to know the best Flickr WordPress plugins. 

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