ShortPixel Review – Will You Use the WordPress Plugin to Compress Images
Last Updated on September 20, 2025 by Peter Wood
Should you choose ShortPixel to compress images to reduce the image size? If your websites are built with WordPress, increasing the speed and optimizing images should be important for SEO. Does the ShortPixel plugin work to improve your website? Yes, of course. But when you need to know how the photo compressor works, whether the program is worthwhile, or even find the best ShortPixel alternative to compress and enhance images, you can find the answers from the article.
Part 1: How to Compress and Optimize Images with ShortPixel
ShortPixel is a small plug-in for WordPress with image optimization, which reduces image file size without significantly affecting image quality. There are 3 advanced compression methods, lossy compression, lossless compression, and glossy compression. Once you have activated the ShortPixel plugin in your WordPress, it quickly navigates the site content, saves traffic, increases site fluency, and even increases the reading experience while preserving image quality.
Features of ShortPixel WordPress Plugin
1. Compress JPG, PNG, GIF, and PDF files and preserve the quality.
2. Provide an automatic conversion to convert PNG to JPG.
3. Add a powerful background processor via WP-CLI support.
4. Access to website image metadata or even change the file.
5. Powerful algorithm function to ensure smoothness.
6. Support image batch optimization to save time.
7. Support CMYK color mode and RGB color mode conversion.
Simple Review of ShortPixel WordPress Plugin
Pros:
1. Compress images via CDN for saving resources and loading time.
2. Convert JPG, PNG, GIF, and PDF to WebP/AVIF to reduce file size.
3. Provide automatically backed up and image backup file recovery.
4. Support image cropping, resizing, and other adjustment features.
Cons:
1. Still take resource and loading time to run ShortPixel on the website.
2. Uncompressed PNG, GIF, and JPEG still take large sizes in the server.
3. Take much time to optimize the website if you stop subscriptions.
4. Only provide 100-image conversion for free without a subscription.
How ShortPixel Plugin Works for WordPress
Step 1: Search for the ShortPixel plugin from your WordPress, you can find it from the plugin. Once you have installed the ShortPixel plugin for your WordPress, you can go to the Settings menu on the left toolbar. After that, you can select the ShortPixel option to reduce the sizes of images on your website.
Step 2: If it is your first time using the WordPress plugin, you have to enter your email address and the API key from ShortPixel. You can also log in to ShortPixel with the same email and purchase a subscription plan to activate the plugin within WordPress.
Step 3: Go to the ShortPixel Bulk page to find the number of images and thumbnails that need compression from the Media Library table. After that, you can turn on the automated compression option or choose the preferred to compress your images selectively.
Price Structure of ShortPxiel Plugin for WordPress| Monthly ShortPixel Subscription | One-Time ShortPixel Purchase |
|---|---|
| 100 Images / Month Free | 10000 Images US$ 9.99 |
| 7000 Images / Month US$ 3.99 | 30000 Images US$ 19.99 |
| 16000 Images / Month US$ 8.33 | 50000 Images US$ 29.99 |
| 55000 Images / Month US$ 24.99 | 100000 Images US$ 59.99 |
| 100000 Images / Month US$ 41.66 | 170000 Images US$ 99.00 |
| 220000 Images / Month US$ 83.33 | 500000 Images US$ 249.00 |
| More than 2 million / Month US$ 350 |
Part 2: The Best ShortPixel Alternative to Compress Images
Of course, you can subscribe to the ShortPixel plugin service for WordPress to convert PNG, JPEG, and GIF to AVIF. But it still takes a large size of your server and needs to run the WordPress plugin after accessing the URL of the webpage. Moreover, you have to subscribe to the ShortPixel plugin services to enhance the website’s performance.
WidsMob ImageConvert is a versatile method to resize images with the desired width, height, resolution, and more. It enables you to convert JPEG, PNG, GIF, and even different RAW files to WebP and AVIF files with smaller sizes without losing the quality of the ShortPixel plugin. You can use the batch process to save the file size, even on your server. Moreover, you can set up presets to resize, convert, and add watermarks with one click.
1. Resize photos, rotate/flip images, add text/image watermarks, and more.
2. Convert JPEG, JPG, GIF, HEIC, RAW, and more to AVIF or WebP files.
3. Custom presets to convert and enhance photos as ShortPixel in batch.
4. Provide the AI Super Resolution feature to enhance photo quality easily.
Step 1: Download and install WidsMob ImageConvert on your computer, you can launch the program and click the Import button to select the images you want to upload for your WordPress website. Drag a whole folder of images to the program for the batch process.
Step 2: Once you have imported the desired files, you can double-click the file to go to the editing window. When you need to have the same image size for your files, you can enable the Resize option and choose the Free mode to enter the 4 different parameters.
Step 3: As for the watermarks for the WordPress website, you can enable the Text Watermark option. Just enter the desired texts, and choose the fonts, styles, colors, and opacity for the watermark. Moreover, you can also tweak the angle and position.
Step 4: If you need to convert multiple photos daily, you can also customize a preset to process the photos in batches. It enables you to get a large amount of AVIF or WebP files as ShortPixel. Click the Plus button and name the preset to save it for batch processing.
Step 5: When you get everything done, you can click the Batch Convert button to convert PNG, JPG, JPEG, and TIFF to WebP or AVIF. Different from ShortPixel, you can also convert animated GIFs to animated WebP or AVIFs with much smaller sizes.
Note: Moreover, when you have some small blurry images, you can also use the AI Image Upscaler to enhance the image quality, convert images to icons for your website, and apply the batch process easily.
Conclusion
It is the review of the ShortPixel WordPress plugin you should know. When you need to compress the image, convert JPEG/PNG/GIF to AVIF/WebP, and enhance the website performance, it should be a nice choice. But you have to subscribe to the service always or even upgrade to a more expensive one with more photos. When you need to choose a ShortPixel alternative to reduce the file size, WidsMob ImageConvert is the optimal choice.