Open User Map – Interactive Leaflet Maps vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Open User Map is a flexible map plugin for creating custom maps, community maps, directories, store locators and location-based projects. You can add your own markers — or let website visitors submit new markers directly from the frontend. New submissions can wait for your approval before they appear on the map, so you stay in full control. No Google Maps API key is required. Open User Map is based on Leaflet Map JS and includes free OpenStreetMap and MapBox based map styles, marker styles, address search and flexible embed options for Gutenberg, Elementor and shortcodes. Want to test all premium features? Start the 7-day Open User Map PRO Trial — no credit card required. 🚀 Start 7-day PRO Trial (No Credit Card) | 🔥 See Live Demos | 📖 More Info | ❓ Help What can you build with Open User Map? 📍 A simple custom map – Show your own markers on a beautiful interactive map. 👥 A community map – Let visitors add new markers directly from the frontend. ✅ A moderated map – Review and approve new marker submissions before publishing. 📡 A store locator – Showcase business locations and help visitors find nearby places. 🔎 A filterable directory map – Organize markers with categories, search and custom fields. 😎 Personalized user maps – Show individual maps for signed-in users. Why Choose Open User Map? ✅ Beautiful interactive maps – Create modern maps that do not feel like boring default map embeds. ✅ Made for WordPress – Embed maps with Gutenberg blocks, Elementor widgets or shortcodes. ✅ Frontend marker submissions – Visitors can add pins without backend access. ✅ Approval workflow included – Keep control over what gets published. ✅ No Google Maps API key required – Avoid API setup, access tokens and Google Maps restrictions. ✅ Multiple map styles – Use OpenStreetMap, MapBox and other flexible map styles. ✅ Powerful search options – Marker search, address search and category filtering. ✅ Customizable forms & fields – Collect the exact location data you need. ✅ Media-rich markers – Add descriptions, images, audio, videos and more. ✅ Perfect for directories, community maps, travel blogs, events, local guides and business locations. Get a Map in 1 Minute 🍿 Watch Video on YouTube: Getting Started with Open User Map 🌏 How to create a Simple Map Create a clean, customized map that shows only your own markers. This is perfect for business locations, travel spots, event places, real estate listings or any other collection of places you want to display on your website. You can disable visitor submissions and use Open User Map as a simple custom map plugin for WordPress. 🍿 Watch Video on YouTube: How to create a Simple Map 👩🏾‍🚀🤵👩🏻‍🎤👩🏽‍🌾👩🏿‍💻 How to create an Interactive Map Create a community map where visitors can add new markers directly from the frontend. You can receive a notification for new submissions and approve each location before it is published. Your visitors can search for addresses or existing markers worldwide to quickly find the right spot. You can add custom fields and descriptions to the submission form to collect the data you need. Image, video and audio uploads are possible as well. Let your users collaborate and watch your map grow. How your website visitors add new markers to your map: Visitors simply click the “+” button on the map. A form opens where they can enter the location details in a comfortable frontend interface. After submitting, the new marker can be saved as “pending” and wait for your review before it gets published. 🍿 Watch Video on YouTube: Add a new Location 🆕 Regions Add regional navigation tabs and let your visitors fly back and forth between locations that are far apart from each other. This is useful for maps covering multiple cities, countries, regions or large areas. See the Demo Map. 🍿 Watch Video on YouTube: Regions More than 60 options to customize Use the Gutenberg Block, Elementor Widget or shortcode to add your map anywhere on your WordPress site. Nearby markers can be grouped together with marker clustering. You can customize the map size, marker styles, map focus, search options, frontend form fields, text labels, redirects, thank-you messages and much more. Custom fields allow you to adapt the marker submission form to your exact use case. Free Features: frontend adding of markers (can be disabled) frontend editing of locations for registered users admin approval for pending locations based on Leaflet no API keys required multiple map styles including MapBox GDPR-ready map tiles with servers in Germany multiple marker styles Regions as tabs 🆕 full-width map size keep map focus in fixed position (stay in an area) optional scroll wheel zoom 🆕 search for markers 🆕 address search with OSM geosearch auto-generate address from marker location with reverse geocoding 🆕 locations with custom fields 🥳 private custom fields pre-filter locations by custom fields pre-filter locations by date or date range conditional fields (🪄 experimental, please see Help section) “subtitle”, “description”, “image”, “audio” and even “title” fields can be disabled “subtitle” field links to Google route every text bit can be customized locations with images and audio multiple images as slider per location 🆕 shortcode with custom settings Gutenberg Block with custom settings Elementor Widget with custom settings marker clustering fullscreen option refresh, redirect or thank-you message after submit use URL parameter &markerid=123 to highlight a specific marker on the map get a specific value from a location by using the PHP function oum_get_location_value( ‘YOUR VALUE’, $post_id ) use WordPress hooks to extend the plugin functionality with your own code, including a hook to modify location data before rendering 🆕 use shortcode [open-user-map-form] to display the “Add Location” form stand-alone custom JS inputs custom CSS inputs 🚀 PRO Open User Map PRO gives you more control, more automation and more flexibility for advanced community maps, directories and professional map projects. You can try all PRO features for 7 days — no credit card required. 🔥 Start 7-day PRO Trial (No Credit Card) ⭐️ Filterable Marker Categories Organize locations in multiple filterable marker groups. Each group category can have an individual marker icon and will be accessible to visitors. ⭐️ Lines & Areas Add Lines and Areas as additional location types. Visitors can draw routes, paths, zones or boundaries directly on the map. ⭐️ Live Marker Filter Use the search bar to filter markers as you type. Instantly see relevant locations on the map. ⭐️ Advanced Filter Interface Create a filter sidebar next to your map and let visitors filter locations by any custom field you have configured. You can also add custom HTML content sections to display additional information or branding. Video ⭐️ Custom Image Map Style Add a custom image layer to your map or replace the map entirely with a custom image, such as a floor plan, event map, seating plan or fantasy map, while keeping interactions, clustering and popups. ⭐️ Pre-filter locations by user or role Use shortcode attributes to filter locations by current user, user ID or role. This works for maps, lists and galleries. ⭐️ Vote button for locations Add a customizable button for likes, upvotes or flagging, with flexible privacy controls. ⭐️ Star Rating Let visitors rate locations with a customizable star rating system. ⭐️ More custom field types Add custom fields such as links, radio buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns, opening hours and HTML. Social media links can automatically be rendered as icons. ⭐️ Additional geosearch providers Use additional geosearch providers including Geoapify, HERE and MapBox. ⭐️ Videos from YouTube & Vimeo Use videos instead of images to highlight each location. ⭐️ Export & Import locations Already have a list of places you want to show on the map? Use CSV export and import to add, move or bulk edit locations more easily. ⭐️ Email user notification Notify users by email after their location has been approved. ⭐️ Email admin notification Send notifications to an admin email address when new location proposals are submitted. ⭐️ Zapier/Webhook Integration Trigger an external webhook when locations are created or updated. ⭐️ User restriction Restrict the “Add location” feature to registered users only and redirect visitors to your registration form. ⭐️ Auto-publish Let registered users publish directly without admin approval. This can also be enabled for unregistered users. ⭐️ Extend user registration Add the “Add location” feature to the WordPress user registration form. ⭐️ Custom filesizes Customize the maximum filesize for image and audio uploads. The default is 10 MB. ⭐️ Custom marker icons Use your own custom marker icons. ⭐️ Current location Add a button that moves the map to the visitor’s current location. ⭐️ Limit visible locations Limit the locations shown on a map by marker categories or post IDs. This makes it possible to show only locations of a specific type or render a single location. This can be done in the block settings or with shortcode attributes. ⭐️ Single pages for locations By default, locations do not have single pages. This helps prevent large numbers of location posts from negatively affecting your SEO. If you want to add more content to locations, you can enable single pages in Open User Map PRO. ⭐️ Default template for single pages When single pages are enabled, locations automatically get a post thumbnail, an excerpt and a default content template. You can also show locations within query loop blocks to create your own list or grid view. ⭐️ Shortcodes for single location values Use the shortcode [open-user-map-location value=”YOUR VALUE” post_id=”POST ID (optional)”] to display a value from a location. This is useful when creating single pages for locations. You can find all available values in the Help section of the plugin settings under Open User Map > Settings > Help. ⭐️ Show all location images as gallery Use the shortcode [open-user-map-gallery] to display a gallery view of all location images. Each image links to the corresponding location marker on the map. ⭐️ Show all locations as list or grid Use the shortcode [open-user-map-list] to display all locations as a list. Alternatively, you can use native query loop blocks to build a custom list or grid. ⭐️ Allow registered users to edit their locations Open User Map PRO extends WordPress capabilities to allow backend access. If assigned to the user role, registered users can read, edit and delete their own locations from within the map. 🔥 Start 7-day PRO Trial (No Credit Card) Use Cases 🍕 Restaurant & Food Guides Build a collaborative map where visitors can add locations on their own. This is great for travel blogs, city guides, bar maps, restaurant guides or local recommendation platforms. Ask your audience for their favorite food and drink spots. Prepare categories such as food, drinks, music or nightlife and let visitors drop markers directly from the frontend. Watch your map grow fast. 👭👬 Community Building Extend the WordPress user registration form with an “Add location” input. New users can drop a marker on the map to share their location. Use it to build a user map and help your audience connect with each other. 📺 Video Tour Map Bring locations to life with video. Let visitors enhance markers by embedding YouTube or Vimeo videos directly on the map. This could be a video tour of a neighborhood, a restaurant walkthrough, a city guide or a cultural event highlight. Perfect for travel bloggers, city guides and virtual tours. 🎤🎸 Sound Map Create a sound map and let your audience upload audio files to locations. This is useful for documenting soundscapes in urban or remote areas, collecting field recordings, building audio tours or creating creative map-based projects. 🎯 Business Directory List businesses on a map with categories, filters, search and custom fields. 🗺️ Event or Travel Maps Show tour locations, landmarks, event places, routes or recommended spots. 🏠 Real Estate Listings Display properties with images, videos, descriptions and custom details. 📍 Store Locator Make it easy for customers to find physical store locations. 📖 View More Examples & Live Demos The possibilities are endless. We are very curious about what you are building with the help of Open User Map. Please do not hesitate to contact us, share your project or ask for feature requests. This plugin is under constant development and your feedback helps us improve it.

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. 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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.