Here at TechLegends, we usually don’t write anything related to WordPress plugins. But, we couldn’t help ourselves from sharing this with you. Say what? Yes, unquestionably our site runs on WordPress. However, this time, we’ll be reviewing an image compression and optimization product by KeyCDN – Optimus plugin for WordPress.
For a reader, the load time of a webpage matters a lot. If a web page takes a lot of time to pull up, visitors are more likely to leave the site at once. Of course, unless the content they’ve come for isn’t that compelling. So, there are a lot of tools and services available to calculate a website’s speed score. And, this helps a webmaster to analyze the website and optimize as much as possible.
All things considered, images are the most vital elements which impact the load time of the site. Therefore we need to optimize and compress the images in order to give a faster experience to our visitors. We can manually compress the images and optimize our website, but that requires some time. And, manually doing it requires tweaking the correct compression ratio for each image. Instead, we found out about Optimus plugin for WordPress. It’s an impressive image compression plugin and we find it to be the best of ’em.
Let’s get to know more about the plugin (reviewing it!) and why should you consider using it as well on your WordPress powered sites.
How Does It Work?
It uses lossless image compression technique which means that there would be no absolute loss in the quality of the image after compressing it. The visual appearance remains the same after compression.
It does compress the original image uploaded and also reduces the size of the possible thumbnail preview images generated. It does the work as expected. The Optimus plugin transfers the uploaded image to Optimus server in order to optimize it. While in transit, it uses an SSL connection (that’s encrypted!). And, as mentioned in their data protection policy, they delete every image on their server as soon as they’re done optimizing.
Features
Lossless image compression
Intelligent Automatic optimization
Choose to keep EXIF / IPTC files
Compatible with WordPress Multisite
Continued Updates
WebP Image Conversion Support
Supports HTTPS connection
Developer API
The Most Important Feature
There’s actually a lot more to talk about when it comes to benefits of using it. Yes, it supports lossless image compression and so on. And, you can find some similar features on other plugins as well. So, why do we still choose this?
The answer – WebP image conversion support. Long story short, WebP is considered as the successor of JPEG. It’s an image format that has been developed by Google to enhance compression of images. I’m sure you won’t believe it if I say that whenever you convert an image from JPEG/PNG to WebP, you might achieve up to 80% of reduction in file size. That’s insanely crazy! (Of course, JPEG/PNG compression techniques aren’t capable of that without losing the quality). However, there are rare exceptions when a PNG file doesn’t get compressed as you’d expect.
And, not a single plugin supports this feature as of yet. Well, surely you have a manual method to follow to add WebP support on your website, but it’s not feasible for everyone to follow.
Analyzing Image Optimization
Here’s what you should be waiting for now – How well does the plugin compress? Does WebP conversion work as expected?
Normal Image Compression
The basic image compression results in a reduction of up to 30-50% compared to the original file size. For instance, you upload an image of 70 KB, you’ll get an end result of 40 KB. It would definitely vary according to the image you upload. The compression ratio won’t be same every time you upload a new image.
WebP Image Conversion
To check with the WebP conversion, let’s take a sample image from our recent post about the best budget gpu.
Here’s the image below:
Here, if you’re viewing this on a Google Chrome browser (both mobile and desktop) you’ll be delivered the WebP image format automatically. Opera browser supports WebP as well. However, other browsers are yet to introduce the support for WebP images. If you want to check the JPG format image you can click here.
To be exact, the WebP version is of 51.2 KB and the JPG version is around 102 KB. Here, we’ve got an incredible 50% image compression just by delivering WebP image format.
Note: We try to minimize the file size even before compression. So, it’s basically converting an already compressed JPEG image to a WebP image format. You can try compressing the JPG format of the above image, and I’ll bet you would loose the quality of the image if you try reducing it to 51 kB in size. It’s only possible when you convert it to WebP image format. (Magic! isn’t it?)
Pricing
If you’re totally shocked by the pricing plans of WP Smush Pro and Kraken, then do relax now. The Optimus plugin is now available for just $19 per year, compared to WP Smush Pro and Kraken available for around $10-$60 (depending on the plan) per month and with additional restrictions as well. It’s definitely impressive!
You can head on to Optimus plugin official site for more details about it.
Summing Up
Finally, you can say that the plugin is really affordable, feature-rich, and is future-ready. You won’t have to jump for the products which feature bigger brands on their portfolio site. You can relate it well if you have watched “Real Steel” movie (kudos Atom!). And, more pricing doesn’t necessarily mean better quality. You must give it a try! We did, and we’re happy enough according to our requirements!