Undetectable but impressive compression

I’ve now used Imagify on several client sites. If your Google Page Speed test is telling you to compress your images, this plugin is a great choice, especially because it doesn’t suck up resources on your own server. (That means that it’s safe to use in managed hosting environments that wouldn’t let you use the free version of EWWW.)

The user interface is beautiful and it’s easy to get your free API key and get started. The plugin also lets you select which thumbnails to compress, which helps you to get the most out of your credit. (A suggestion, though: use the Image Regenerate and Select Crop plugin to remove unwanted thumbnails from your uploads folder before running Imagify.)

So far I’ve always used the default “Aggressive” setting and the images look just as good to me after compression as before–but the images are now 46-48% smaller (that’s an average of all thumbnails).

If you have the option, install this plugin when you first set up a site. Because content (including images) usually accumulates gradually, you may be able to go forever on the free plan. If you install it on a site that’s been around a while and has a lot of images already, you may need to buy a credit pack in order to finish bulk optimization. These are very affordably priced and not difficult to purchase.)

If you regenerate your thumbnails (say you’ve changed themes or added a new custom image size), Imagify will optimize them automatically during the regeneration process. (Yes, that will take up credits, but at least there are no extra steps involved.)

Even if you, as a designer or dev, compress the site’s design images before you upload them, it’s usually too much to ask your clients to do that. Imagify saves your site from the burden of 10-megapixel images uploaded straight from the camera.

More options:

• You can set a maximum pixel width for uploads so that even the original image is a reasonable size for the web.
• You can choose to keep EXIF data, which is important to photographers but not always useful for anyone else.
• You can back up your original images (always good to do when running your first optimization, especially if you try the Ultra setting), so if you don’t like the compressed version, you can get your original back.

I highly recommend this plugin.