The Best Image Optimization Plugins for WordPress

When you’re running a website, image optimization can help keep page load times down and ensure that your website looks great no matter what device your visitors are using to access it. While there are lots of free plugins that can help with WordPress image optimization, they aren’t all created equal, and not all of them have the same features and benefits that you’re looking for.

In this guide, we’ll help you narrow down your choices by offering our top 6 picks for WordPress image optimization plugins, so you can find the one that best fits your site needs:

1- WP Smush.it

The first plugin on our list is an easy and convenient way to optimize your images. It automatically detects, compresses, and optimizes images uploaded to your WordPress-powered site. In a nutshell, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do: making sure images aren’t unnecessarily bloated. The best part about WP Smush.it is that you can set up automatic image optimization by simply checking a box in your settings menu. That’s definitely easier than trying to do it manually!

Other notable features include full control over settings for custom image sizes, presets, and configurable file size limits. There are also a few other handy functions that let you force re-optimization of images or automate a certain amount of files in an individual directory. All in all, it’s a simple plugin with a lot of useful functionality to offer! It’s definitely worth checking out.

Although its number of active installs doesn’t compare to some of the other plugins on our list. We include it because of its simple functions that are used widely throughout many different types of WordPress sites.

2- EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer is a free WordPress plugin that optimizes images on the fly as they’re uploaded. In other words, when you insert an image into a post via WordPress’s media manager, it will already be optimized before it’s even saved to your server.
The plugin is written in JavaScript and uses several open-source libraries to do its job. All you need to do is install it, go to Settings > Media and tick Automatically optimize new images. The image optimizer takes care of everything else. After that, EWWW will even convert PNGs into a format appropriate for Web usage (using ImageMagick). This can save space and improve the load times of images that appear on your site.
Plus, it’s easy to use: just install, set up, and forget about it. As stated above, there are no settings to configure or options to tweak! There is also a nifty bulk optimization tool that lets you select multiple images from your media library at once.

3- ShortPixel Image Optimization Plugin

When you’re optimizing images, your goal is to ensure that they look good but also take up as little space as possible. ShortPixel checks both boxes. This plugin weighs in at less than a megabyte. So it won’t bog down your server and, at least according to tests run by our own team of SEO experts.
This is an all-in-one plugin that includes features that you don’t find in many of its competitors. It can automatically resize, compress, and optimize images without requiring you to download and install a separate piece of software.
It’s also compatible with many of WordPress’ most popular themes, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues. This plugin adds all of its features as buttons directly into your media library, where you can easily access them when needed. It works well and is super simple to use—everything you need in an image optimization plugin.

4- Fast Velocity Minify

Like most Image Optimization Plugins, this one has a free version that allows you to compress one image per day. The free version is useful if you want to test its features and get a feel for how it works. But I highly recommend purchasing a commercial license if you plan on using it frequently. It supports batch processing. This means you can process multiple images at once and allows you to adjust compression settings without slowing down performance. Just make sure your server supports GD2 because that’s what Fast Velocity Minify uses by default.
Fast Velocity Minify. It’s incredibly easy to use. All you have to do is upload your images through an Ajax-based interface and select which files you want to be compressed.

The plugin offers a ton of customization options so you can customize how your images are compressed without sacrificing performance. While it supports batch processing and lossless optimization, so you can optimize high-quality images quickly.

The only downside is that it doesn’t support GIF or SVG format. But most modern web browsers support PNG format these days.

5- Imagify Image Optimization Plugin

It compresses photos on its own server as you upload them so that they don’t take up space. And it reduces image sizes by at least 30 percent without sacrificing any of their visual quality or clarity.

6- Optimole

Of all of these image optimization plugins, Optipole stands out as one of our favorites. It’s a lightweight plugin that does a great job with JPEG optimization. And allows you to set different compression levels and quality based on image sizes (think large versus small, background images versus product photos).

In addition to compression settings, it also provides three other important functions: image resizing, lossless transformation (to eliminate unnecessary metadata), and lazy loading.

Optimole also is using an image CDN, this will help your images to load quickly no matter where your visitors are. With the CDN integration, your website images are quickly optimized in real-time and delivered to your visitors in the ideal size.

Quick account creation and API key setup are required to use this plugin. However, after that, it’s easy to use and gives you complete control over your image optimization.

Conclusion

We’ve taken a look at some of our favorite WordPress image optimization plugins. For bloggers, image optimization is crucial to page load times, SEO, and the overall performance of your site. While there are numerous ways to optimize your images, plugins are one way to manage your images more effectively.

I hope this WordPress tutorial helped you choose the Best Image Optimization Plugins for your WordPress website. And for more WordPress, free step-by-step tutorials visit our dedicated WordPress Tutorials section (You can find more tutorials like How to Quickly Fix the “HTTP Error 500” in WordPress) and check our WordPress hosting providers guide if you are still looking for a host to start your blog.