Ewww Image Optimizer vs WP Compress vs ShortPixel: Which Image Optimizer Is Best? 

In this review, we’ll be looking at three different image optimization tools that you can use for your website or blog. 

An image optimization tool helps speed up your website by compressing the size of image assets that you upload on your website. A smaller file size will mean lower loading speed for the pages of your site.

We’ll be diving into EWWW Image Optimizer, and Shortpixel to find out which is the best among the three. We’ll look into their performance, features, deals, limits, UI/UX and their potential to be used in an agency. Let’s get started.

Compression & CDN Quality (based on GTMetrix)

I chose one of my slowest site with a ton of images on the homepage for this test (30+ images)

Without CDN

WP Compress

EWWW Image Optimizer

ShortPixel

There is only so much image optimization can do to help with your page speed, there are other aspects that are more important.

Such as reducing the number of requests, scripts and more.

But based on this short test, we can see that EWWW Image Optimizer is taking the lead.

I would argue that the results are quite similar and the differences are not big enough to conclude that one is better than another.

Why?

If you run GTMetrix several times, you’ll notice that the performance scores fluctuate.

Even though EWWW takes the lead most of the time, there are times when ShortPixel or WpCompress comes up on top.

I wouldn’t switch to another tool because of this factor alone.

🏆 Winner: EWWW Image Optimizer

Features

All of them have the important core features you would expect from an image optimization tool. (in the green shaded area above).

ShortPixel allows more control over their image optimization. For example, you can choose between “Lossy”, “Glossy” and “Lossless” depending on the image quality you want.

There’s also the “Behavior” & “Area” section to fine tune your choices.

WP Compress doesn’t have detailed controls like ShortPixel, but has agency features that are very useful if you plan to use it for clients.

The most important feature of all is the ability to allocate credits to different domains and send whitelabel reports.

Here are some screenshots of WPCompress’ backend settings:

Like WPCompress, EWWW Image optimizer does not have the advanced image optimization settings like ShortPixel.

But the Appsumo deal comes with a WordPress plugin called SWIS Performance (Pro version) that has WPRocket-like features to further optimize your images and website.

Here are some screenshots of EWWW Image Optimizer’s backend settings:

🏆 Winner: ShortPixel

Which Has Better Limits?

I will only compare WPCompress and EWWW here.

Both use very different approaches to restrict their customers.

WPCompress uses the no. of optimization credits.

& EWWW Image Optimizer uses CDN traffic.

Here are screenshots of both their Appsumo deal limits.

First, what can an optimization credit be used for?

According to WPCompress, every local optimization will cost 10 credits.

In comparison, EWWW offers unlimited local optimization credits for all their plans.

🏆 So for local optimization, EWWW Image Optimizer wins.

What about live optimization? (that means delivering the images via CDN and adapting the images based on each visitor’s screen size)

For WP Compress, each live optimization will take up 1 credit.

So if your homepage is like mine that has 34 images, it’ll take up 34 credits for 1 homepage visitor.

To compare it with EWWW, let’s find out the average image size for most websites.

Based on some Google searches and getting some examples from the Appsumo homepage, I find that the average image size for websites are around 200 KB.

If you are running a photography website that requires HD images, the image size will obviously be larger.

Since we know that each image takes up 200 KB, we divide that by the total bandwidth to see how many images (or credits) we can get.

2TB = 2,000,000,000 KB (total bandwidth for Tier 3 plan ).

2,000,000,000KB/ 200KB (1 image) = 10,000,000 images/credits for EWWW.

For the same price, we can only get 5,000,000 images/ credits at WP Compress.

Not to mention the fact that local optimizations also take 10 credits.

Here’s a summary:

🏆 Local Optimization Winner: EWWW Image Optimizer

🏆 Live Optimization Winner: EWWW Image Optimizer

Which is agency-friendly?

There’s no question about this.

Wp Compress Agency is made for agencies.

Here are 3 core features that are important for agencies but lacking in other tools.

Monthly Quota Assignment — assign credits to different domains.
Central Management Portal — remote manage all websites from the centralized portal to configure settings, optimize images and view reports.
Automated Reporting — that is whitelabeled too!

🏆 Winner: WP Compress

Which has better UI/UX?

EWWW looks the most old school here (ewww :p)

Here’s a screenshot of the main dashboard:

It looks the same on the web app too. Old school.

And here’s a screenshot for ShortPixel:

The usage graphs are missing on the dashboard.

One has to go to the web app to be able to see.

WP Compress in my opinion looks the best:

A usage graph along with the most important settings are right on the dashboard.

Aside from the look and feel, the user experience for WP Compress is also the best.

When setting up, there is no confusion about what to do next as the onboarding guides you every step of the way.

With EWWW, I have to guess and find my way around.

Not a big problem for WP veterans. But if you’re just starting out, you might get lost.

🏆 Winner: WP Compress

Conclusion

As we have seen, each software tool has its own strength and weaknesses, some hits and misses. 

It all comes down to what you need in an image optimization tool. As per the  performance and features, it seems like EWWW Image Optimizer got most of the accolades. 

What are your thoughts about this review?