Shrinkwell Image Optimizer vs WebP Express

No account. No API. No images leaving your server. Shrinkwell helps you compress images, convert them to modern formats and reduce backup size by finding possibly unused media in your WordPress database. Processing stays local, with no media files uploaded externally for optimization. Run a 5-image test, review the results, then optimize your full media library with more confidence. Built for agencies and freelancers handing off client sites Shrinkwell was designed for the moment before you hand a site back to a client and need to prove the optimization work was actually done. Safe test run — optimize 5 images first and inspect the results before touching the full library. Original backups — keep originals before files are replaced, then restore individual images or the full library when needed. Delivery proof — scan a live page URL and confirm that WebP files are actually being served, not just generated. SEO scan — find missing alt text and weak filenames without auto-rewriting anything. Compression that doesn’t guess Choose a named compression profile or dial in your own settings: Balanced — solid savings with sensible quality preservation. Good for most sites. High — stronger reduction. Best for image-heavy sites where speed matters most. Near lossless — minimal quality change. Useful for portfolios and product photography. Custom — a 1–10 strength slider for full control. Shrinkwell can generate WebP automatically and serve it with a safe JPEG/PNG fallback, with no .htaccess edits and no CDN required. What you get in the free version Convert images to WebP and AVIF within the monthly free limit Manually bulk-optimize JPEG and PNG within the monthly free limit Preserve existing WebP media items instead of recompressing them Resize oversized images to a maximum width and height Strip EXIF/metadata where supported Optimize thumbnails alongside originals Generate and serve WebP with automatic JPEG/PNG fallback Restore individual images or run a bulk restore Run a Media Cleanup database scan and preview possibly unused images Review an optimization log with bytes saved, skipped images, and skip reasons Run a frontend delivery test to confirm active WebP delivery Run a site scan and apply recommended settings in one click Works with GD and Imagick, with no external service required Shrinkwell Pro Shrinkwell Pro unlocks unlimited optimization and safe Media Cleanup. That includes unlimited WebP and AVIF optimization, auto-optimize on upload, background bulk optimization, safe bulk cleanup actions, Shrinkwell Trash and advanced cleanup tools. What Shrinkwell doesn’t do Shrinkwell does not send media files to an external API for optimization, require an account, charge per image, or rewrite alt text or filenames automatically. Privacy Images are optimized on your own server. The free plugin does not transmit media files externally for optimization. License & Assets Shrinkwell is licensed under GPLv2 or later. The included Shrinkwell logo and wordmark are original Levmedia brand assets and are distributed with this plugin under GPLv2 or later.

More than 9 out of 10 users are using a browser that is able to display webp images. Yet, on most websites, they are served jpeg images, which are typically double the size of webp images for a given quality. What a waste of bandwidth! This plugin was created to help remedy that situation. With little effort, WordPress admins can have their site serving autogenerated webp images to browsers that supports it, while still serving jpeg and png files to browsers that does not support webp. The image converter The plugin uses the WebP Convert library to convert images to webp. WebP Convert is able to convert images using multiple methods. There are the “local” conversion methods: imagick, cwebp, vips, gd. If none of these works on your host, there are the cloud alternatives: ewww (paid) or connecting to a WordPress site where you got WebP Express installed and you enabled the “web service” functionality. The “Serving webp to browsers that supports it” part. The plugin supports different ways of delivering webps to browsers that supports it: By routing jpeg/png images to the corresponding webp – or to the image converter if the image hasn’t been converted yet. By altering the HTML, replacing image tags with picture tags. Missing webps are auto generated upon visit. By altering the HTML, replacing image URLs so all points to webp. The replacements only being made for browsers that supports webp. Again, missing webps are auto generated upon visit. In combination with Cache Enabler, the same as above can be achieved, but with page caching. You can also deliver webp to all browsers and add the webpjs javascript, which provides webp support for browsers that doesn’t support webp natively. However, beware that the javascript doesn’t support srcset attributes, which is why I haven’t added that method to the plugin (yet). The plugin implements the “WebP On Demand” solution described here and builds on a bunch of open source libraries (all maintained by me): – WebP Convert: For converting images to webp – WebP Convert Cloud Service: For the Web Service functionality – DOM Util for WebP: For the Alter HTML functionality – Image MimeType Guesser: For detecting mime types of images. – HTAccess Capability Tester: For testing .htaccess capabilities in a given directory, using live tests – WebP Convert File Manager: For browsing conversions and triggering conversions. – Exec With Fallback: For emulating exec() on systems where it is disabled (using proc_open(), passthru() or similar alternatives). Benefits Much faster load time for images in browsers that supports webp. The converted images are typically less than half the size (for jpeg), while maintaining the same quality. Bear in mind that for most web sites, images are responsible for the largest part of the waiting time. Better user experience (whether performance goes from terrible to bad, or from good to impressive, it is a benefit). Better ranking in Google searches (performance is taken into account by Google). Less bandwidth consumption – makes a huge difference in the parts of the world where the internet is slow and costly (you know, ~80% of the world population lives under these circumstances). Currently ~97% of all traffic are done with browsers supporting webp. It’s great for the environment too! Reducing network traffic reduces electricity consumption which reduces CO2 emissions. Limitations The plugin should now work on Microsoft IIS server, but it has not been tested thoroughly. Supporting WebP Express Bread on the table don’t come for free, even though this plugin does, and always will. I enjoy developing this, and supporting you guys, but I kind of need the bread too. Please make it possible for me to continue wasting time on this plugin: Buy me a Coffee Buy me coffee on a regular basis and help ensuring my coffee supplies doesn’t run dry. Supporters of WebP Express Persons who recently contributed with ko-fi – Thanks! 5 Jan: Joel 24 Dec: Patrick Müller 16 Dec: Dragos 9 Aug: Tanzi 3 Jul: Jen 26 Jun: Per 16 May: Erick Danzer 8 May: Mike 31 May: parallactic 14 May: Gitte Rebsdorf 9 May: La Braud Persons who recently contributed on github sponsors – Thanks! * 16 Dec: kcrlost * 16 Dec: Yakovos Frountas (Greece) Persons who contributed with extra generously amounts of coffee / lifetime backing (>80$) – thanks!: Patrick Müller ($250) Max Kreminsky ($115) Justin – BigScoots ($105) Bill Vallance ($102) Joel ($100) Label Vier ($100) Sebastian ($99) Tammy Lee ($90)