Are you looking for some of the best ShortPixel alternatives for image compression? Even though ShortPixel is an excellent plugin for compressing images in WordPress, it might have some limitations depending on your needs.

So, in this post, we will look at some of the best alternatives for the plugin. But before that, let’s briefly introduce why ShortPixel is so good and popular, why you may want to look for its alternatives, and what to look for in an image compression plugin.

ShortPixel: An Introduction

ShortPixel is an all-inclusive image compression plugin designed to optimize images and PDF documents on your website. It gives you a seamless experience supported by a dedicated team that provides a user-friendly interface, lightweight design, and regular updates.

Besides compressing your website’s existing images and PDFs, ShortPixel automatically optimizes new uploads in the background. The plugin offers lossy and lossless compression options for various image formats, including JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and AVIF. It also includes glossy JPEG compression tailored for photographers.

However, the plugin’s efficiency is not limited to optimizing images in the media library. It also optimizes them in galleries and sliders, which makes it versatile for different website setups. It seamlessly integrates with various galleries, sliders, and eCommerce platforms for better compatibility and ease of use.

ShortPixel also provides features like smart cropping, HEIC file support for Apple devices, WP-CLI support, and compatibility with WP Retina 2x. Hence, it caters to diverse optimization needs that have contributed to its popularity among 300,000+ active installations on WordPress. The plugin is so user-friendly that we even made a detailed tutorial on compressing images in WordPress.

ShortPixel is a freemium plugin available for free on the official WordPress plugin repository. If you want its premium features, purchase it through the official ShortPixel website. It starts at 9.99 USD per month.

Why Look for ShortPixel Alternatives

No matter how good a product is, it can always have limitations depending on the users. Similarly, even though ShortPixel is one of the best choices for image compression, here are some reasons you may need to look for alternatives.

• Cost: Since ShortPixel is a freemium plugin, it operates on a subscription-based model along with a free plan. If you have more extensive image libraries or higher compression needs, upgrading to a paid plan might be costly. So you can seek alternatives that offer competitive pricing for better value or even a free one for your specific requirements.
• Features: Different users have different requirements when it comes to image optimization. You might need features such as advanced compression settings, support for specific file types, image resizing options, or integration with other tools or platforms. If ShortPixel doesn’t provide particular features or lacks them compared to other tools, you will have to explore alternatives that better cater to their needs.
• Performance: ShortPixel generally offers reasonable compression rates and quality. However, other image optimization tools might perform better regarding compression ratios or maintaining image quality for certain types of images or use cases. So, you may need to opt for alternatives that provide superior results if you prioritize performance.
• Integration: Seamless integration with your existing workflow is crucial for working with specific tools. Even though it’s doubtful, ShortPixel might not integrate well with your chosen platform or even lack support for particular plugins and extensions. So, you may have to look for alternatives that offer better integration options if this is the case.

What to Look for In an Image Compressor Plugin

You must consider several factors while selecting an Image compressor plugin or one of the best alternatives for ShortPixel.

• Compression efficiency: Look for a plugin that offers high compression ratios and maintains good image quality. The compression process should be fast to minimize loading times for your website visitors. This ensures that your website loads quickly without sacrificing visual appeal.
• Supported formats: Ensure the plugin supports the image formats commonly used on your website, such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, etc. It should be versatile enough to handle different types of images.
• Ease of use: Select a plugin with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to compress images without requiring technical expertise. Features like bulk compression and automatic optimization can streamline the process.
• Customization options: Go for a plugin that adjusts compression settings according to your preferences. This might include options for resizing images, choosing compression levels, and preserving metadata.
• Compatibility: Check if the plugin is compatible with your plugins and theme for seamless integration. This can also help in the smooth functionality of your overall website during the image compression process.
• Cost: Consider the plugin’s cost, including subscription fees or one-time purchases. Compare pricing plans and features to find the best value for your needs.
• Customer Support: Choose a plugin from a reputable developer that offers reliable customer support. This ensures you can get assistance if you encounter any issues or have questions about using the plugin.
• Reviews and Ratings: Review reviews and ratings from other users to understand the plugin’s performance, reliability, and overall satisfaction.

9 Best ShortPixel Alternatives To Try

Our curated list of best ShortPixel alternatives consists of the following plugins

1. Smush (Freemium)
2. EWWW Image Optimizer (Freemium)
3. Imagify (Freemium)
4. Optimole (Freemium)
5. TinyPNG (Free)
6. reSmush.it (Free)
7. Robin Image Optimizer (Freemium)
8. WP Compress (Freemium)
9. WP-Optimize (Freemium)

We’ll review each plugin and look at their highlighting features and pricing options.

1. Smush

With over 1 million active installations, Smush is one of the leading image compression plugins with comprehensive features. Its highlighting features include compression, resizing, and conversion to WebP format. These significantly help in reducing file sizes while maintaining image quality.

Smush has been benchmarked and tested as one of the fastest image optimization plugins available with the highest quality. Its effectiveness in optimizing images without visible quality loss has earned it awards and recognition from users worldwide.

Apart from this, the plugin also provides a wide range of features beyond basic image compression. It also includes image lazy load, bulk optimization, automated optimization, incorrect image size detection, and more. These features cater to both beginners and experienced users, which help in thorough image optimization tailored to specific needs.

Features

• Background optimization
• Incorrect image size detection
• Bulk optimization
• Multisite compatibility
• Local WebP conversion

Pricing

Smush is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 30 USD monthly with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

2. EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer is also one of WordPress’s most popular choices for image compression, with more than 1 million active installations. This is all due to its valuable features, such as automatic image compression, conversions, lazy loading, resizing, etc.

EWWW Image Optimizer can automatically convert images to the WebP format. So you don’t have to manually go through the hassle of altering your images to WebP format for every image.

Furthermore, the plugin provides advanced compression options like adjustable compression levels and image resizing. It even has an option to exclude specific images from optimization if you don’t want any changes to some pictures. All these features make the plugin one of the best ShortPixel alternatives for image compression.

Features

• Automatic WebP conversion
• Adjustable compression levels and image resizing
• Exclude specific images from the optimization
• Seamless integration with CDNs
• PDF optimization support

Pricing

EWWW Image Optimizer is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 7 USD monthly with a refund policy of 30 days.

3. Imagify

Imagify is one of the fastest image compression plugins on WordPress. The plugin claims that the image compression takes less than 200 milliseconds per image. This swift processing ensures you can optimize your image libraries quickly and efficiently to improve the website’s performance.

To save you more time, it even comes with Imagify’s Smart Compression for automatic optimization. It automatically balances performance and quality to optimize images, so you don’t need to change complex compression settings. As a result, you can achieve the best image quality possible without sacrificing visual integrity.

Moreover, the plugin also features Core Web Vitals optimization. It improves Core Web Vitals metrics by optimizing images for faster loading times. Hence, oversized and heavy photos won’t be able to impact website performance significantly.

Features

• Smart compression mode for automatic optimization
• Core Web Vitals optimization
• Compression rate of less than 200 milliseconds per image
• Asynchronous bulk optimization
• Specialized servers for image compression

Pricing

Imagify is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 5.99 USD per month.

4. Optimole

Optimole is an all-round image optimization solution that seamlessly balances high-quality visuals with lightning-fast performance. Its impressive, unique features make it one of the best alternatives for ShortPixel.

The plugin comes with real-time cloud-based optimization to process optimization tasks instantly without any delays. It uses cloud-based systems to optimize images dynamically based on the visitor’s device specifications like screen size and resolution. This ensures visitors receive images tailored to their device’s requirements without manual adjustments.

Optimole also utilizes machine learning-powered optimization to analyze each image using advanced algorithms. Then, it identifies patterns and characteristics to determine the most efficient way to compress the image while preserving its quality.

Features

• Real-time cloud-based optimization
• Machine learning-powered compression
• AVIF format support
• Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution
• Global Content Delivery Network

Pricing

Optimole is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 19.08 USD monthly with a 7-day money-back guarantee.

5. TinyPNG

TinyPNG is one of the most popular free image compression plugins on WordPress. But even though it is a free plugin, it provides you with numerous image optimization features. Hence, it is also one of the best alternatives for ShortPixel if your concern is the plugin’s cost or budget.

One of the highlighting features of the plugin is the preservation of metadata. So, It allows you to preserve necessary metadata such as copyright information, creation date, and GPS location in your original images. Due to this, vital information is not lost during the optimization process.

It also uses progressive JPEG encoding to ensure JPEG images are displayed more quickly. This also enhances user experience by providing faster image loading.

Features

• Preservation of metadata
• Progressive JPEG encoding
• CMYK to RGB conversion
• Color profile translation to standard RGB
• Automatic optimization with advanced background processing

Pricing

TinyPNG is a free plugin. You can download it from the official WordPress plugin repository.

6. reSmush.it

reSmush.it is the most suitable choice if you are looking for one of the free and easy-to-use alternatives for ShortPixel. It uses features like EXIF data preservation to stand out from other image compression plugins. This is particularly useful if you are a photographer or a professional who relies on metadata for image management.

The plugin can also optimize images automatically upon upload. As a result, all the new photos added to your website are optimized without manual intervention. This also streamlines the optimization process and improves efficiency.

Moreover, it also generates detailed statistics and logs for optimized images to allow you to track the entire optimization process. You can even use it to analyze the image sizes before and after compression and identify optimized images quickly.

Features

• EXIF data preservation
• Automatic optimization while uploading images
• Comprehensive image statistics and logging
• Customizable image quality selector
• Utilizes optimization algorithms such as PNGQuant, JPEGOptim, OptiPNG

Pricing

reSmush.it is a free plugin. You can download it from the official WordPress plugin repository.

7. Robin Image Optimizer

Regarding the best alternatives for ShortPixel, Robin Image Optimizer is also an excellent tool. It offers automatic optimization using Cron to optimize images in the background without requiring manual intervention. This ensures that images are continuously optimized for improved website performance without additional effort from you.

The plugin also has different compression modes: standard, regular, and high. So, it allows you to choose the compression level based on your preferences and requirements. This lets you balance image quality and file size according to their needs.

It also creates a backup of all your images in their original quality before optimization begins. So, there is no data loss during the optimization process and you can also restore pictures later if necessary.

Features

• Automatic optimization with Cron
• Backup images before the optimization process
• Ordinary, regular, and high compression modes
• Image optimization on boot
• Manual mass-optimization

Pricing

Robin Image Optimizer is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 39 USD per month.

8. WP Compress

The versatility of WP Compress sets it apart from other image compression plugins on WordPress. More importantly, if you own an agency or manage multiple client websites, it is the best tool for you since its features are tailored for agencies. These features include monthly client quotas, centralized management, detailed reporting, and remote configuration.

Nonetheless, the plugin also provides essential image compression features for general individual website owners. Some include adaptive images based on devices, retina support, and next-gen WebP images.

Furthermore, one of its highlighting features includes a lightning-fast hybrid CDN powered by Google Cloud and BunnyCDN. This ensures optimized images are delivered to users globally with incredibly low latency.

Features

• Monthly client quotas
• Lightning-fast hybrid CDN
• Local and live optimization modes
• Automatic backup and optimization
• Remote configuration options

Pricing

WP Compress is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 9 USD monthly with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

9. WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is initially one of the speed optimization plugins developed to help you boost the overall performance of your WordPress website. But it’s also one of the best ShortPixel alternatives as an image compression plugin. This is because it also has comprehensive features to compress images efficiently.

It has everything you might need for image compression, like lossy or lossless compression and WebP conversion. The plugin even offers you automatic and bulk compression options to make it more convenient to use the plugin.

WP-Optimize also offers an option to retain EXIF image data effortlessly by just checking a box during the compression process. But if you go for the premium version, you can even delete orphaned images or unused image sizes to save your website’s disk space.

Features

• Lossy or lossless image compression
• Retain EXIF image data
• Delete orphaned images or unused image sizes
• Lazy loading
• Advanced caching options

Pricing

WP-Optimize is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version from the official WordPress plugin repository. The premium version starts at 49 USD annually with two site licenses and a 10-day refund policy.

Conclusion

We have handpicked these plugins as the best ShortPixel alternatives for image compression on WordPress. But the best one among them depends on your needs and budget.

If you want a free alternative for ShortPixel, your best choices can be TinyPNG or reSmush.it. You can select any of these plugins that suit the requirements of your website.

But if performance is your priority, plugins like Imagify or Optimole can be your top choice. On the other hand, Smush, EWWW Image Optimizer, and Robin Image Optimizer are some of the most powerful image compression plugins that provide all-around features for any type of website. However, if you want to use a plugin just for your agency, WP Compress can be worth a try, too.

Lastly, if you want a plugin to improve the overall performance of your website with general image compression capabilities, WP-Optimize is the best tool for you.

So, according to you, which plugin is the best alternative for ShortPixel? We would love to know about it in the comments below. Additionally, suppose none of these plugins suit your needs. In that case, you may find a better alternative in our list of the best WordPress image compression plugins, Optimole alternatives, or lazy load plugins.

In the meantime, here are some more posts that might be helpful to customize or improve your WordPress website.

• How to Prevent Image Hotlinking in WordPress
• Create interactive images: WP Draw Attention review
• How to Disable Right Click on WordPress Images