ShortPixel Plugin Review: Is this Image Optimiser of any good?

ShortPixel is considered to be one of the powerful image optimizer plugins to be used on WordPress. So what makes it different than the others? Well, with the help of this ShortPixel review, you will know how it is differentiated from the other plugin and what makes it better for your use.

What it ShortPixel?

ShortPixel is an image compression or image optimization plugin that compress the images of your websites without losing the quality. They claims it compress the images size up to 90%, I know that’s huge but I’ve tested this on this website and it’s true.

Images are mainly responsible for a website performance, if the images are properly optimized for web, your site will load fast and search engines would love you and if not it might impact your search ranking as Google recently told page speed will be a ranking factor in their mobile-first index. It’s more important now than ever to increase your site’s page speed.

Do you know?

The average web page is about 2 MB. 2/3 of that weight comes from images. (credits to this Google Developers page).

How does ShortPixel Work?

This image optimizer is powered with the help of smart algorithms, which can reduce your image, compress it to the given requirement, helping the web pages to load, and at the same time, makes them faster. When you have an increased page loading speed, then it will not only help you in better ranking but users also will prefer you to consume your content. No one likes the slow websites in 2020.

Short Pixel optimizes all the images in the cloud, and then you can choose between three compression methods that are present here. One is the lossy, glossy, and the lossless. If you wish, then Short Pixel helps you to test all the optimization method before you implement it on your image. 

Short Pixel can work with anyone of the following,

1. PNG.
2. JPG.
3. GIF.
4. PDF.
5. Even WebP Images.

It can also assist you to convert the PNG to the JPG and then better size reduction, and you can convert them to the web images using your Google Chrome.

Features of Short Pixel

ShortPixel plugin has a tons of features related to all optimization of images on your WordPress as well as php websites. As of now, they’ve all the essential features and they keep adding new features in the updates.

Automatic image optimization

Unlike the other image compression tools present on WordPress, you don’t have to manually compress and optimize all the images that you use on your site. ShortPixel will do the work for you. It helps you in optimizing the images on your website automatically so that you don’t have to ask for it. This can save your time and effort, and the same way, you can more time to focus on your content rather than your images.

Takes care of the image formats

The best thing about ShortPixel is that it will take care of your image formats. There is no file size limit present here in ShortPixel, and it can process every single type of image which are present. For example, you can go with PNG, GIFs, etc. to make sure that your site is working fine. You can even create a custom folder for the images that you will like to be compressed. ShortPixel will do the work and compress the images which are present on your envelope. You can even optimize the retina images with it.

Quality of the images are never compromised

The one thing that you will get from other tools is the quality of the image is compromised, but the same does not happen with ShortPixel. ShortPixel is a fantastic image compressor that will optimize all the images without messing with the quality. This plugin is really very efficient as it can reduce the size of the image without actually breaking it or losing their picture stance. 

Multiple compression at a time

The best thing about Short Pixel is the many compression that you will get at a single time. There are the three compressions that you can try calling the lossy, glossy, and lossless.

Lossy: It is the type of compression which comes with size improvement for your image. So you might need this type when you want to increase the website speed.

Glossy: It is a perfect compression mode where you can keep the image quality and at the same time, optimize it to the correct size. This is a useful mode for all the photography intended blogs. 

Lossless: This one is used for the Pixel to pixel transformation of your image. You can have this mode so it does not mess with the original picture quality and can optimize it better.

Better speed

There is a lot of image compressor present on WordPress, which does not give you enough speed, but ShortPixel is not one of them. This fantastic image compression plugin can work very quickly on the images that are there on your site. The compression ratio which comes with ShortPixel is very faster. As soon as you upload the image, the compression will be done in a jiffy. 

How to setup & Configure ShortPixel?

1: Install and activate free ShortPixel plugin by going to plugins and search for ‘ShortPixel’. 

2: Go to settings > ShortPixel and request for your API keys by entering your active email address.

3: Once you click, Request key, the page will reload and take the API keys automatically.

If you wants to use shortpixel image optimizer plugin on multiple sites then save this API key somewhere. You would even receive the API key in the mail. You also have the option of getting the API keys directly without installing the plugin, for this you just need to go ShortPixel website here.

Once you get your API keys it’s time to configure the plugin.

First and most important is Choose the Compression type. As I’ve mentioned it earlier ShortPixel provides 3 options – Lossy, Glossy and loseless. Most of the time you can keep the settings to Lossy, unless you’re having a wallpaper or photography blog where image quality is more important then you might want to go with Glossy.

Also, check the other self-explanatory options shown over there. Go with the recommended options as shown by the plugin. Few thing to note, if you’ve got limited images plan, don’t go for compressing thumbnail as they’ll finish off your credits.

How to bulk Compress Image with ShortPixel Plugin

Once you finish configuring the plugin, ShortPixel will automatically start optimizing any new images that you upload to your media library.

If you want to bulk optimize older images on your site, you can go to Media → Bulk ShortPixel.

Then, click the Start Optimizing button to start compressing all the old images on your site.

You can also manually compress and optimize images by going to your WordPress library.

Pros of using Short Pixel

1. Short Pixel is an automatic image compressor, which means that it would be running in background and you can focus more on what’s important, Content.
2. It manages all your images on the cloud and makes the changes there.
3. You can compress a variety type of images as you like. Old and new images compressed automatically.
4. It is compatible with the WP Retina 2x, and this is why all the retina images can be compressed as well.
5. It is easy to use.
6. It comes with optimized thumbnails for better understanding.
7. Short Pixel optimizes the images on the website with the help of the NextGEN gallery or the other sliders. 
8. 24×7 technical support is present without any inconvenience.
9. You can deactivate it easy as you wish.

Cons

To be honest, I didn’t find any. Do let me know in the comments, if you find any cons of this wonderful image optimizer plugin.

Short Pixel Pricing and Plans

As of writing this, ShortPixel has both free and paid plans. In the free plans you can compress and optimize 100 images per month without any file size restrictions. In the paid plans, they’ve got two options, monthly subscription plans and one-time plans for bulk images compression. Let’s get into detail of these:

The monthly plan

The pricing for the monthly plan of the Short Pixel Plugin starts from around $4.99 for 5000 images compression. And it can range to $29.99 for 55,000 images.

One time plan:

For the monthly plan, you have to require to change the option all the time.

1. For the onetime 10000 images, you have to pay $9.99.
2. For the onetime 30000 images, you have to pay $19.99.
3. For the onetime 50000 images, you have to pay $29.99.
4. For the onetime 170000 images, you have to pay $99.

Wrapping it up

If you go for PageSpeed insights for your website and I’m pretty sure you would see the Image Compression as one of the top recommendation by this Google tool. So, as I’ve mentioned earlier, Compressing and Optimising WordPress images is very necessary for the growth of website or blog. It’s something you should not ignore.

You can start compressing your images using free credits from ShortPixel and see yourself if it impacts your website speed. Kindly make a note of loading speed before and after optimizing your WordPress Images.

If you run a big Website or blog having a tons of Images, grab ShortPixel one-time plans and let the plugin handle the compression and optimization automatically.  You never have to touch the images for compression ever. Best part about this plugin is, same API key on multiple websites; that means you can grab just one time plan and just install the plugin on all of your websites. Coming to pricing of ShortPixel, I think the money that you are paying for this image compressor is worth the service and features you’ll get.