Basic Optimization vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Basic Optimization provides simple on/off controls for common WordPress cleanup and performance-related tweaks. It is intentionally small, dependency-free, and designed for site owners who want practical optimization controls without a large performance suite. The plugin adds a Basic Optimization admin screen where administrators can enable or disable each feature independently. It also includes a child Email Notifications settings page for disabling selected WordPress core auto emails. Basic Optimization supports regular single-site WordPress installs and WordPress Multisite. On multisite, when the plugin is network activated, Super Admins configure the plugin only from Network Admin and all sites use the network settings. Features Multisite Support – Adds Network Admin settings pages and stores network-wide settings with WordPress network options. Network-Only Mode – When network activated, subsite admin pages are not added and every site uses the Network Admin settings. Disable Emojis – Removes WordPress emoji scripts, styles, filters, and emoji DNS prefetch output. Remove Shortlink – Removes the shortlink tag from the document head. Remove CSS/JS Version – Removes the ver query argument from enqueued stylesheet and script URLs. Remove RSD Links – Removes the Really Simple Discovery link from the document head. Disable Embeds – Removes WordPress oEmbed discovery links and dequeues the default wp-embed frontend script. Disable XML-RPC – Disables XML-RPC requests and removes the X-Pingback response header. Remove WLW Manifest Link – Removes the Windows Live Writer manifest link from the document head. Disable Self Pingback – Prevents self pingbacks when content links to the same site. Hide WordPress Version – Removes the WordPress generator meta tag from the document head. Disable Heartbeat – Deregisters the WordPress heartbeat script on the frontend. Email Notifications – Adds dropdown controls to disable selected WordPress core auto emails, including new user registration, password changed, comment moderation, and automatically approved comment notifications. Multisite Behavior On a multisite network, the plugin can be network activated. When network activated, only the Network Admin settings pages are shown. Subsite admin pages are not added, and all sites use the network-level settings. Network settings are available under Network Admin > Basic Optimization. Subsite dashboards do not receive a Basic Optimization admin menu while the plugin is network activated. Notes Some features can affect integrations that rely on WordPress defaults. For example, disabling XML-RPC can affect external publishing clients and services that still depend on XML-RPC. Disabling auto emails can also affect administrator awareness of user and comment activity. Disable only the features that match your site requirements.

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.