Baskerville AI Security vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Baskerville is a comprehensive WordPress security plugin that protects your site from malicious bots, AI crawlers, and unwanted traffic using multiple detection methods. Key Features: AI Bot Detection – Intelligent classification of bots vs. humans with configurable score thresholds GeoIP Access Control – Block or allow traffic by country (whitelist/blacklist modes) Cloudflare Turnstile – CAPTCHA challenge for borderline bot scores with precision analytics Browser Fingerprinting – Advanced client-side fingerprinting (Canvas, WebGL, Audio) Honeypot Detection – Hidden links to catch AI crawlers Real-Time Analytics – Live feed, traffic statistics, and Turnstile precision metrics Under Attack Mode – Emergency mode to challenge all visitors during attacks IP Whitelist – Bypass firewall for trusted IPs Form Protection – Protect login, registration, and comment forms with Turnstile Bot Score System: 0-39: Likely human (allowed) 40-70: Borderline (optional Turnstile challenge) 71-100: Likely bot (blocked) Performance: Minimal overhead (~1ms with page cache, ~30-50ms without) APCu + file-based caching for GeoIP lookups Compatible with all major caching plugins External Services This plugin connects to the following third-party services: Cloudflare Turnstile When Turnstile is enabled, the plugin loads JavaScript from Cloudflare’s servers to display CAPTCHA challenges: Service URL: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/api.js Verification API: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/siteverify Data sent: Turnstile token, visitor IP address Purpose: Human verification to prevent bot access Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Terms of Service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Turnstile is only loaded when you enable it in plugin settings and provide your Cloudflare API keys. MaxMind GeoIP Database When you use the one-click GeoIP database installer, the plugin downloads the GeoLite2-Country database from MaxMind: Database download URL: https://download.maxmind.com/ Data sent: Your MaxMind license key (required for database download) Purpose: Determine visitor country for geo-blocking features Privacy Policy: https://www.maxmind.com/en/privacy-policy Terms of Service: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geolite2/eula The installer also downloads the MaxMind PHP libraries from GitHub: GeoIP2 PHP API: https://github.com/maxmind/GeoIP2-php/archive/refs/tags/v2.13.0.zip MaxMind DB Reader: https://github.com/maxmind/MaxMind-DB-Reader-php/archive/refs/tags/v1.11.1.zip These are open-source libraries used to read the local GeoIP database. No visitor data is sent to GitHub. GitHub Terms of Service: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service GitHub Privacy Statement: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-general-privacy-statement The database is stored locally on your server. No visitor data is sent to MaxMind during lookups. Privacy Data Collected This plugin collects and stores the following visitor data locally in your WordPress database: IP addresses Browser fingerprints (Canvas, WebGL, Audio hashes) User agent strings Country codes (derived from IP) Bot scores and classifications Timestamps of visits Data Retention Statistics are automatically deleted after the retention period you configure (default: 14 days). You can adjust this in Settings > Baskerville > Settings. GDPR Compliance All data is stored locally on your server No visitor data is shared with third parties (except Cloudflare when Turnstile verification occurs) Data retention is configurable Consider adding disclosure to your site’s privacy policy

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.