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

CheckoutGuard is a WooCommerce plugin that helps store owners recover lost sales by tracking incomplete checkouts and providing tools for follow-up. It also includes fraud prevention, courier analytics, and an automatic success-ratio blocker to protect your store from high-risk orders. Checkout records and customer data are stored locally in your WordPress database. Limited site, administrator, environment, license, and plugin-usage telemetry is sent to CheckoutGuard Headquarters for licensing, usage limits, settings synchronization, and plugin analytics. Appsero diagnostic tracking is separate and is sent only after an administrator opts in. Customer checkout records are not sent to our licensing service; courier phone-number lookups are sent to the selected courier provider only when Courier Analytics is used. Incomplete Checkout Tracking CheckoutGuard captures customer information and cart contents in real-time as shoppers fill in the checkout form, even if they never click “Place Order”. Data is collected via debounced AJAX calls (800ms delay) to avoid excessive requests. Tracked fields include: Billing name, email, phone, and full address Order comments Cart items (product name, quantity, line total) and cart total Customer IP address and WooCommerce session ID Once captured, each incomplete checkout appears in the Incomplete Checkouts list where you can: View full details in a modal popup (customer info, cart items, timestamps) Recover the checkout by creating a real WooCommerce order with one click Mark as Hold for future follow-up, with an optional follow-up date (YYYY-MM-DD) Mark as Cancelled if the checkout is no longer relevant Re-open a cancelled checkout back to incomplete status Edit follow-up dates on held checkouts Completed orders are automatically cleaned up: when a customer finishes checkout, their incomplete record is deleted. Dashboard Overview The main dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view of your checkout performance with: Pie chart showing the distribution of incomplete, recovered, hold, and cancelled checkouts Count cards for each status with clickable links to the detail pages Value cards showing the total monetary value for incomplete, recovered, hold, and cancelled checkouts Date range filters: Today, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, or a custom date range picker WordPress Dashboard Widget – a compact summary widget on the main WP dashboard showing the same stats and chart Fraud Blocker Prevent unwanted orders by maintaining blocklists for: IP Addresses – block by customer IP Email Addresses – block by billing email Phone Numbers – block by billing phone When a blocked customer attempts to checkout, WooCommerce displays an error message and the order is not processed. Each blocklist supports: Adding items with an optional reason Searching/filtering the list Deleting items Custom block message (configurable in Settings) You can also block or unblock directly from a WooCommerce order page using the “Fraud Blocker Actions” meta box in the order sidebar, which shows the customer’s IP, email, and phone with one-click Block/Unblock buttons. Success Ratio Blocker (Automatic) This feature automatically blocks checkout attempts from customers with a poor delivery success history. It works by: Checking the customer’s phone number against courier delivery data during checkout If their success ratio falls at or below the configured threshold, the order is blocked The blocked attempt is logged with full details (cart, ratio, threshold, IP) Configurable settings: Block Threshold (%) – orders are blocked if the success ratio is at or below this value (default: 20%) Grace Period – new customers are not blocked until they have more than this many total orders (default: 5) Custom Blocked Order Notice – the message shown to the customer, supports {ratio} placeholder All blocked attempts are logged in the Blocked Orders Log page where you can view details and delete log entries. Courier Analytics Check the delivery success and return ratio for any customer phone number across different courier services (Pathao, RedX, Steadfast, Paperfly, Carrybee). This feature provides: Standalone Courier Analytics page – enter a phone number and get a full breakdown WooCommerce Order List column – “Success Ratio” column added to the orders table showing a compact ratio badge per order Order Detail meta box – “Customer Success Ratio” sidebar box on individual order pages with a “Check Full Ratio” button Live ratio check on checkout – real-time feedback shown below the phone field as the customer types (triggers after 10+ digits) Doughnut chart visualization for the overall success rate Per-courier breakdown by courier service Ratio data is cached on each order via post meta to avoid redundant API calls. Invoicing, Packing Slips & Shipping Labels CheckoutGuard generates professional PDF invoices and printable courier shipping labels directly from your WooCommerce orders: Automatic PDF invoices – generated when an order reaches Processing or Completed, with sequential invoice numbering, your company name/logo header, and the invoice attached to the customer’s order emails Invoices admin page – a searchable, paginated list of every invoiced order with quick access to view, print, or download each invoice Packing slips – the same invoice layout with all pricing and totals omitted, for including in the shipping package Interactive Print page – preview and print an A4 invoice or a courier shipping label (A4, 2×3 in, or 3×3 in) with barcode, QR code, a Cash-on-Delivery box, and a courier badge, sized to match the physical paper exactly Blank manual invoices (Pro) – create a fully custom invoice and shipping label with no WooCommerce order behind it, using freeform line items or products picked from your catalog; these never touch stock, the Orders list, or sales reports Pro invoice options – custom invoice numbering prefix and reset period (never/yearly/monthly), Bangladesh VAT/TIN/BIN tax fields, editable footer text, bulk ZIP download of invoices, and courier shipping labels Customers can always download a plain PDF copy of their invoice from the My Account page Order Status Manager Create and manage custom WooCommerce order statuses from a dedicated admin page. This feature allows you to: View status overview cards showing live order counts for every status (default and custom) Create custom statuses with a label, color, description, and icon from a visual picker with 30+ order-management icons Edit any status including default WooCommerce statuses (Pending, Processing, On Hold, etc.) — change labels, colors, and icons Delete any status with automatic order migration — if orders exist on a status being deleted, you are prompted to choose a target status Reset to defaults from Settings to restore the original 7 WooCommerce statuses if any were accidentally deleted Custom statuses automatically appear in the WooCommerce order status dropdown Toggle the feature on/off from Settings > Module Toggles Checkout Status Management Each incomplete checkout flows through a clear lifecycle: Incomplete – captured but not completed Recovered – converted into a WooCommerce order Hold – flagged for follow-up with an optional date Cancelled – dismissed by admin Each status has its own dedicated list page with date range filters (Today, 7 Days, 30 Days, All Time, or Custom Range). WooCommerce Integration CheckoutGuard integrates deeply with WooCommerce: Order list column – adds “Success Ratio” column to both classic and HPOS order lists Order sidebar meta boxes – “Customer Success Ratio” and “Fraud Blocker Actions” boxes on every order HPOS compatible – works with both classic post-based orders and High-Performance Order Storage Checkout hooks – integrates at woocommerce_checkout_process for fraud blocking and woocommerce_thankyou for cleanup Admin Pages CheckoutGuard adds the following pages under its own top-level menu: Dashboard – overview with chart and stats Follow Up – checkouts marked as hold, ordered by follow-up date Incomplete – all incomplete checkouts Recovered – checkouts that were converted to orders Blocked Orders – log of automatically blocked checkout attempts Cancelled – dismissed checkouts Fraud Blocker – manage IP, email, and phone blocklists Courier Analytics – check delivery success ratios Invoices – searchable list of invoiced orders, with print/download access and (Pro) blank manual invoices Order Statuses – manage all WooCommerce order statuses with overview cards Settings – configuration and account management Third-Party Services This plugin connects to the following external services: CheckoutGuard Headquarters (li.czbd.app / Coder Zone BD) Used for license validation, usage tracking, settings synchronization, and plugin analytics. The plugin sends the site domain, a stable domain hash, administrator email, site name, WordPress/WooCommerce/PHP/MySQL versions, active theme, plugin version, selected plugin settings, feature-usage summaries, license status, and timestamps. Service URL: https://li.czbd.app Privacy Policy: https://coderzonebd.com/privacy-policy Terms of Service: https://coderzonebd.com/terms Appsero Appsero provides optional diagnostic and usage insights. It may receive the site name and URL, administrator name and email, server environment details, WordPress version, site language, user count, active and inactive plugin information, and plugin version. Appsero tracking is disabled by default and is sent only when an administrator selects Allow in the Appsero insights notice. It can be declined from that notice. Service URL: https://appsero.com Privacy Policy: https://appsero.com/privacy-policy/ Courier APIs (Pathao, RedX, Steadfast, Paperfly, Carrybee) When the Courier Analytics feature is enabled, customer phone numbers are sent to third-party courier service APIs to retrieve delivery success statistics. This only occurs when explicitly triggered by an admin or during checkout (if the live ratio check is enabled). Privacy Policy CheckoutGuard stores personal data locally in your WordPress database. The following data is collected: Customer Details: First name, last name, email, phone, billing address (address 1, address 2, city, state, postcode, country) Technical Information: Customer IP address, WooCommerce session ID Cart Information: Product ID, name, quantity, line total for each item, and total cart value Tracking Status: Checkout status (incomplete/recovered/hold/cancelled), follow-up dates, admin notes, recovered order ID Blocked Items: IP addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers on the blocklists, with reason and the admin who added them Blocked Order Logs: Phone number, email, cart details, cart value, success ratio, threshold at time of block, IP address, customer name, and timestamp This data is used exclusively within your WordPress admin area for checkout recovery and fraud prevention purposes. Data is not transmitted to external servers except in the following cases: * Limited site, administrator, environment, license, and plugin-usage telemetry is sent to the CheckoutGuard Headquarters API (li.czbd.app) * Optional diagnostic and usage data is sent to Appsero after administrator opt-in * Courier delivery ratio checks when the Courier Analytics feature is enabled (phone numbers are sent to courier APIs) GDPR Compliance: CheckoutGuard supports the WordPress personal data export and erasure tools (Tools > Export Personal Data / Erase Personal Data). When a valid request is made, all incomplete checkout records and blocklist entries associated with the requested email address will be included in exports or deleted upon erasure. Data retention is configurable in Settings (30 days, 90 days, 1 year, or indefinite). If the “Delete all data on uninstall” option is enabled, all plugin tables and options are permanently removed when the plugin is deleted. A suggested privacy policy text is automatically added to your site’s Privacy Policy page (Settings > Privacy) when the plugin is active.

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.