10 Best WordPress Image Optimizer Plugins 2023 (Free + Paid)

Are you searching for the best WordPress image optimizer plugin to compress the image without losing its quality? If so, this article is for you.

The audience can visualize and understand your content much better when you have relevant images to support the text.

However, if you use large images or multiple images in a single blog, issues like slow website speed or low-quality user experience may occur.

So, we’ve compiled the 10 best image optimization plugins to compress and optimize your images for a smooth WordPress website.

If you’re in a hurry, here are our top recommendations.

What is Image Optimization, and Why is It Necessary?

Image optimization is the process of reducing an image to the smallest possible file size while keeping its quality intact.

You can optimize an image by compressing it or changing the image format or resolution.

Optimizing images allows you to use your preferred images with perfect file sizes without affecting your site’s performance. 

Below, we’ve listed the major benefits of optimizing images.

• Optimized Images have higher chances of ranking in Google Image Search
• Better user experience for the audience
• Reduces page load times and improves overall website speed
• Reduces the occupied space on your server
• Improves site traffic (as a result of the benefits mentioned above)

Thus, optimizing the images before you upload them to your site is important.

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Why Do You Need WordPress Image Optimizer Plugins? 

Initially, the use of large images decreases the free space on your server. In addition, the use of several images on a single page or a post can also increase your site’s loading time.

Ideally, you should optimize your site’s images as much as possible before uploading them to your WordPress site.

You can use image editing tools or third-party software to reduce your image size. However, using such tools can be time-consuming and complicated for some users.

So, the best alternative is to use WordPress image optimizer plugins on your website.

Such WordPress plugins enable you to do everything from image resizing to changing image extensions to optimize your images for the lowest possible file size.  

So, without further ado, let’s look at the best free and paid image optimizer WordPress plugin available on the WordPress market.

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10 Best WordPress Image Optimizer Plugins for 2023

1. Smush

Smush is one of the most popular and best free image optimizer WordPress plugins, created to compress and optimize images.

Launched in 2014, this award-winning plugin takes pride in its capability of compressing images on your server automatically with minimal loss of quality.

Smush scans all the images on your site and compresses them, readjusts their sizes, and removes unwanted data from those images. It also monitors future uploads on the website.

The workload on your server becomes minimal when optimizing images with Smush API. It also compresses images in a given folder for bulk processing.

Smush is compatible with WPML, Envira Gallery, NextGen Gallery, WP Retina 2x, and many other image-related plugins. 

Key Features: 

• Allows easy image optimization on multiple sites with different optimization settings
• Features maximum width/height settings to rescale images larger than your preferred parameters
• Improves site speed with lossless and Smush lossy image compression  
• Compatible with most image formats including JPEG, GIF, and PNG  
• Bulk optimization and automatic optimization on image upload 

Pricing:

Smush is a freemium plugin, i.e., it’s available in both free and premium versions.

The free version of Smush is available on WordPress.org, and you can get the premium version from Smush’s official website.

The pro version offers a free trial for 7 days, followed by a cost of $7.50 per month in a yearly billing system.

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2. Imagify

Imagify is another powerful WordPress image optimizer plugin available on the web.

Imagify has three compression levels: Normal, Aggressive, and Ultra, for varying degrees of image size optimization, losslessness, and quality change.

The tool lets you keep or remove EXIF data if necessary. Similarly, it has a backup option to save your optimized images if you’re unsatisfied with the image optimization.

As a WebP-focused plugin, it’s best for converting your images to the WebP format, which is 20–35% lighter than JPEG or PNG images.

Imagify’s automatic optimization and beginner-friendly features ensure that you don’t have to do much work; use the plugin and watch as your site optimization soars. 

Key Features: 

• Automatic backup for restoring and reoptimizing your optimized images
• Optimizes images in PNG, JPG, and GIF formats 
• Automatic resizing before uploads
• Three levels of lossless, lossy, and ultra-lossy compression for varying degrees of image optimization 
• Provides multi-site support 

Pricing:

Imagify is also another freemium plugin on our list. You can download the free version from WordPress.org and purchase the premium one from the official site.

It has two pricing plans, as follows:

• Growth: $4.99/month
• Infinite: $9.99/month

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3. Optimole

Optimole is one of the best WordPress image optimizer plugins that make your site lightweight by optimizing images’ size without decreasing their visual appeal.

Image optimization by Optimole resizes, compresses, and serves your images everywhere via CDN. Once added, Optimole automatically adapts to your site and does its job all alone.

All the images on your website are optimized through lossless and lossy algorithms.

Optimole provides the required changes to the images as needed on the device that your audience is using.

In addition, Optimole offers more viewing bandwidth, CDN locations, priority support, more disk space, etc for its premium members.

Key Features: 

• DynamicDPR detection on all devices with Retina and HiDPI support
• Features an easy navigation dashboard for tracking and monitoring the stats/results 
• CDN for serving images, with several server locations
• Lazy loading method to display images 
• Automatic image optimization in your preferred settings

Pricing:

Optimole is also available in both free and premium versions.

The free version of the plugin is available on WordPress.org. Furthermore, for more advanced image optimization features, you can also purchase its premium plans as follows:

• Starter: $19.08/month (Billed Yearly)
• Business: $39.08/month to $1165.83/month (Billed annually)
• Custom: Custom Pricing

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4. EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer helps you improve your website’s SEO using the power of image compression.

This image optimizer plugin allows you to process your images to the best compression ratio for JPG, PNG, GIF, and PDF files.  

Depending on the file format, the correct compression is automatically selected. Furthermore, the plugin also comes with complete SSL protection for your files. 

EWWW has two options for image optimization. You can either choose EWWW’s specialized server to assist your CPU’s workload or your server.

This plugin is fully compatible with the WP Retina 2x, NextGEN Gallery, WP Offload Media, etc. 

Key Features: 

• Automatic lossless compression and basic retina support.
• Features CDN servers for uploading and delivering images
• No speed limits, and background optimization with unlimited file size for compression.
• Free image backups for up to 30 days 
• Compress images as well as BuddyPress avatars and images, Meta slider slides, GD bbPress attachments, and user-specified folders 

Pricing:

EWWW Image Optimizer is also available in both free and premium versions.

The free version of the image optimizer can be downloaded from WordPress.org. The paid version is available on its official website. It has three different pricing plans, as follows:

• Standard: $7/month for 1 Site
• Growth: $15/month for 10 Sites
• Infinite: $25/month for Unlimited Sites

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5. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is also one of the best free image optimizer plugins for WordPress. This plugin is lightweight while featuring the concept of automation.

You can simply install the plugin and forget about image sizes due to its automatic compression. It resizes older images while scanning for newer ones.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is GDPR-ready and takes minimal resources to drop the load on your web servers. It works great on a shared cloud network, VPS, or dedicated web hosting.

With lossless and lossy compression, it’s effortless to optimize PNG, JPG images, and other image formats. You can also optimize images in your media libraries or images sent through FTP.

You can test your images’ optimization parameters and quality with a single click. Similarly, Bulk optimization is also freely available for all users with the restore feature.

Key Features: 

• A single API key for multi-site integration.
• Compatible with WPML Media plugins, and watermarking plugins 
• Bulk optimization option for existing images in the media library or any gallery 
• PNG to JPG auto-conversion option
• Compatible with WebP, various image galleries, WP Retina 2x, WooCommerce, and WooCommerce plugins 

Pricing:

ShortPixel Image Optimizer’s free-to-use version is available on the official WordPress plugin repository.

Likewise, you get its paid version from the official site. Its premium pricing ranges from $3.99/month to $249/month, with various plans and packages in between.

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6. TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a free online image compression tool. However, it’s also available as a WordPress plugin.

The plugin compresses your images to reduce the file size for an improved site speed. It also has automatic optimization for new uploads and bulk optimization for compressing older images. 

TinyPNG preserves metadata, copyright information, GPS location, and creation dates. Thus, it ensures you can take full credit for all the images uploaded to your site.

You can also monitor your image compression data and statistics using the dashboard widget offered by the plugin.

Furthermore, the plugin is also made to optimize color profiles. It converts images to standard RGB color profiles to conserve space and maximize compatibility.

Key Features: 

• Supports optimization on PNG and GIF formats 
• Progressive JPEG encoding helps improve page speed
• Metadata, creation date, and GPS location are preserved after conversion 
• Supports multi-site optimization through a single API key 
• Compatible with WooCommerce and WP Retina 2x

Pricing:

TinyPNG is a free-to-use WordPress plugin that you can download from WordPress.org.

However, you can also use its free online tool or become its web pro user at $39 (for a yearly subscription).

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7. Imsanity

Another best free image optimizer plugin for WordPress is Imsanity. It automatically resizes huge image uploads.

All you need to do is choose the size and quality of the image, and Imsanity does the rest of the task. It optimizes and replaces the original image.

Imsanity runs in the background to automatically optimize your new uploads.

You can resize individual images through the Media Library’s List View. Similarly, you can also resize the images that have been previously uploaded using bulk-resize features.

The plugin is perfect for blogs that don’t use original high-resolution images. The automation feature is ideal for those who don’t want to scale each image before uploading. 

Key Features: 

• Allows an option to convert BMP and PNG image files to JPG for more savings 
• No further attention is required on the part of the user after the installation  
• Includes WordPress built-in image scaling functions 
• Features the service in several languages 
• Allows to set the parameters for maximum width, height, and JPG quality 

Pricing:

Imsanity is a free WordPress image compression plugin. So you can easily download it from WordPress.org.

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8. Optimus

Optimus is an outstanding WordPress image optimizer plugin. It’s developed by KeyCDN, a global content delivery platform.

Optimus optimizes not only the images but also thumbnails, and feature images. It can reduce the image size by up to 70%.

There is no compromise in the image’s quality during and after the optimization process.

All the files you compress with Optimus are followed by an instant deletion from its server. So you don’t have to worry about your data being stored on its server.  

This plugin also provides premium versions with expanded functionality; you can choose the plan accordingly. Overall, optimization with Optimus is quick and easy. 

Key Features: 

• Features option for preserving EXIF and IPTC metadata
• Automatic file size optimization during upload 
• Adjustments to the code aren’t necessary 
• Compatible with WooCommerce and WordPress multi-site 
• Transparent data privacy policy 

Pricing:

Optimus comes in both free and premium versions.

A free version can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin repository. Likewise, you can visit the official site to purchase its premium plans.

• Optimus HQ: $29/year (One Time Charge)
• Optimus HQ Plus: $149/year (One Time Charge)

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9. WP Compress 

WP Compress also features on our list of best free image optimizer WordPress plugins.

On top of image optimization, It’s an all-in-one plugin that reduces image size, shrinks file size, and improves load times of WordPress website to boost conversions. 

Furthermore, the plugin adapts your images to be the right size for your visitor’s devices without compromising the image quality.

WP compress also supports retina devices and generates retina images in possible cases. It allows for a high-resolution experience for the users.  

To use the plugin, you can simply link it to your website, and that’s all; you don’t have to worry about maintenance after setup.

Key Features: 

• JPEG, PNG, and live image optimization for GIFs  
• Lossless, intelligent, and ultra-compression modes are available 
• Prevents over-compression 
• One-click bulk optimization and restore 
• Instantly serves images worldwide with Lightning-Fast Hybrid CDN  

Pricing:

A free version of WP Compress is available from WordPress.org.

Similarly, you can view its premium plans from the official site. It offers three different pricing plans as follows:

• Starter: $9/month
• Agency: $29/month
• Unlimited: $99/month

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10. resmush.it

Next on the list, we have reSmush.it . It is a free WordPress image optimizer tool based on the API with the same name.

The plugin allows you to optimize images, either individually or in bulk. It can also help you reduce the size of your images, through several compression algorithms.

However, instead of choosing between different algorithms, you can define the compression level simply using the optimization level feature.

reSmush.it is a free WordPress image compression plugin that creates a copy and works on it, thus providing you with backups to restore.  

Moreover, the plugin is a complete package for image optimization, with its only restriction being its 5MB file size limit. 

Key Features: 

• Statistics and logs preservation of image compression for future viewings
• An easy-to-use design with no premium plans
• Saves the backup on optimization for restoration if needed 
• Allows options for individual, bulk, or automatic compression on upload 
• Choose the optimum compression level as necessary using the image quality value setting 

Pricing:

reSmush.it is a free plugin that you can download from WordPress.org.

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Wrapping It Up!

You can use any of these WordPress image optimization plugins to compress images and improve your website performance without any image editing skills.

Most of these plugins are available in the freemium version. So, you can also upgrade your plan from free to premium if you like the plugin and want to add other functionalities.  

We hope we’ve made your plugin selection effortless with our top WordPress image optimizer plugins list. If you have any confusion or queries, you can leave a comment below.  

You can also explore more articles on WordPress-related topics through our blog. We have amazing articles on the best WordPress SEO plugins, speed optimization plugins, cache plugins, and more. 

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