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

PatchOn is an AI service that runs your WordPress plugin, theme, and core updates for you. It reproduces your production site in a staging environment, lets AI verify whether each update can be applied safely, and applies only the updates that pass every check to production. If an update ever fails, one click restores your site. This plugin acts as the agent connecting your WordPress site to PatchOn. Getting Started This plugin requires the PatchOn service (patchon.jp) and does not function on its own. Activation alone performs no external communication and does not redirect you. Clicking “Start PatchOn” on the welcome screen opens a consent dialog describing the data that will be sent; confirming it with “Agree and Start” registers your site anonymously and, if updates are available, starts the first inspect-and-update run. No account is required to get started — you need one only to: view detailed inspection results configure automatic updates use paid features Main Features Pre-inspection — in a staging environment, AI compares before / after screenshots of your site to detect layout breakage and fatal errors Inspect and update — a manual run goes from inspection to production rollout in one action, applying only updates that passed every check Automatic updates with inspection — the site is inspected on a schedule and only updates that passed every check are applied Backups — taken automatically right before each update and downloadable for a plan-based retention period One-click restore — if an applied update fails, one click puts your site back to the pre-update backup This plugin (the free distribution on WordPress.org) does not write patched code to your site files, even when it detects a problem. AI auto-repair, which fixes the code causing a problem found during a pre-inspection, is provided by the separately distributed PatchOn Agent Pro extension plugin (available to paid plan subscribers). This plugin writes to your site files in only two cases: applying the updates themselves through the standard WordPress upgrader, and the one-click restore, which runs only on your explicit request and writes your own backed-up plugins, themes, MU plugins, and wp-content drop-ins (and your database) back to the site. Data Sent Once you have consented on the consent screen, running a “Pre-inspection” or “Apply update” sends the following data to PatchOn and related external services. See the Privacy Policy for details. Site URL / WordPress version / PHP version / DB version List and versions of installed plugins, themes, and MU plugins List of available updates (names and versions of plugins, themes, and WordPress core). While the site is connected, this is sent automatically once a day Site files prior to update application, used for the pre-update backup: wp-config.php, active and to-be-updated plugins and themes, MU plugins, and wp-content drop-ins (such as object-cache.php) Contents of WordPress debug.log (used to detect issues) A full copy of your site’s database, taken during a pre-inspection and reused as the pre-update backup. It may include personal data stored on your site, such as member accounts or contact-form submissions External services This plugin depends on the following external services. No external communication is performed merely by activating the plugin; it starts only after you explicitly click the “Agree and Start” button on the consent screen shown on first use. PatchOn API (https://patchon.jp and its subdomains) The backend for all inspection, repair, update, and database-dump operations. Two host names are used, both operated by Rocketa Inc. and routed to PatchOn’s infrastructure: https://patchon.jp/api/* — site registration, pre-inspection control, apply-update control, billing https://dump.patchon.jp/* — database-dump control endpoints and signed-URL chunk uploads for pre-inspections and pre-update backups Provider: Rocketa Inc. (rocketa.co.jp) When data is sent: On click of the “Agree and Start” consent button (one-time): anonymous site registration and UUID issuance Once a day while connected (daily check-in): the list of available updates and plugin version When the user runs a “Pre-inspection”, or when automatic updates run their scheduled inspection: list of plugins / themes, debug.log, full database copy When the user runs an “Apply update”, or when automatic updates apply an update that passed every check: a backup (site files and a full database copy) and the application result When the user runs the one-click restore after a failed update: restore control requests and progress status (the backed-up files and database themselves are downloaded from cloud storage at that time, not sent) What is sent: see the “Data Sent” section above Terms of Service: https://patchon.jp/terms Privacy Policy: https://patchon.jp/privacy-policy Subprocessors: https://patchon.jp/subprocessors AWS S3 (Tokyo region, accessed via PatchOn) Storage destination for the site backup (zip) and the database copy (uploaded in chunks). Uploads and downloads are performed only against pre-signed URLs issued by PatchOn on a per-request basis. The customer site does not hold any S3 credentials. During a one-click restore, the backed-up site files and database chunks are downloaded from S3 in the same way. Provider: Amazon Web Services, Inc. Endpoint: https://*.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com (pre-signed URLs only) When data is sent: when the user runs a “Pre-inspection” (database copy) or an “Apply update” (backup: site files and database copy) What is sent: site files (zip) and a full copy of the database AWS Privacy: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

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.