Optimus – WordPress Image Optimizer for WordPress

WordPress Image Optimizer Optimus reduces the file size of uploaded media files automatically. Depending on the image and format, reductions in size of up to 70% are possible. Several kilobytes can be saved per image—these savings contribute positively to the performance of the blog website. What’s most impressive about the compression technology: the quality of the images is maintained.

There are three different versions of Optimus:

Optimus (Free) as base version with limitations (e.g. max of 100kb)

Optimus HQ (Premium) with expanded functionality for personal projects

Optimus HQ PRO (Premium) as professional solution for customer websites

More details about the features and the pricing model on optimus.io

How does it work? During the uploading process of images to the media library, the Optimus plugin simultaneously sends the images to the Optimus server, where the incoming material is processed and sent back in optimized form. Afterwards, the Optimus plugin saves the image version with a reduced file size in the media library.

The optimization of images – including thumbnails – is conducted in the background and outside of the view of the user. The image compression gains per file are displayed by Optimus within the media library in form of a percentage value, see screenshot.

Superfluous information that is saved by image processing programs and is not even necessary for displaying the image is extracted from image files. This way, the quality of the graphics remains intact while the image size can be reduced significantly. If you wish, Optimus keeps all author, EXIF and copyright information contained within the photos — the compressional gains will be correspondingly lower.

Optimus supports the conversion of images to the new WebP image format.