Which is the Best Image Resizing or Optimization Service?

Introduction:Image Optimizing Service

In this post, I have used 20 different image compression and optimization services and compared their performance over a series of tests. This will help you in finding a possible answer to “Which is the Best Image Optimization Service?” Incidentally, this question came up more than a few times when I was researching to write the post on “7 Ways to Optimize Your Images for Websites“.

Image compression and optimization plugin by 10web

Best is relative

Like all things abstract, “Best” is relative: does it mean:

• How small can the image be compressed
• How cost effective the service is, and
• How many images can be resized at a time and is there a limit to number of images?
• Do they have a web interface or a plugin or a script?
• Finally, what are the type of images or media files that are serviced: jpg, png, PDF, tiff or a host of other formats.

In other words, there cannot be a one size fits all. So let us dive into the best image optimization or resizing services available in 2020.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction: Why should we bother with image optimization at all? II. Image Optimization services III.Comparison of Image Optimization Services IV. Compressing multiple images V. Conclusion

Why should we bother with image optimization at all?

There have been many studies and blog posts that mention the importance of reducing image sizes. The benefits of doing so vary from faster loading time for sites, lower bounce rates, and better seo ranking. For e-commerce sites or sites that offer services, faster loading can lead to higher sales. While it is important to mention this information to set the context, it is not the focus of this blog post. For more reading, you can read this post from google. The advantage to the owner or the operator of the website is that using image compression or a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can reduce the burden on the website. By burden, I mean the resources consumed, such as disk space, memory and bandwidth, etc. You can read my post on CDN that I have published earlier on this blog.

Services that offer Image Compression or optimization

Edit: April 23, 2020. In the original post, I had compared 8 sites. In the two weeks since this post was published, I have discovered many other image optimization sites. The number of sites listed in this post now stands at 25. Of these, I have grown fond of a couple of them, in particular imgbot.ai and Bulk Resize Photos . I am therefore updating this list, and also the comparison table in the following section.

The list of services I have compared has grown to over 25 websites, and that is not even an exhaustive list. Every time I get an alert on this topic, or when I refresh the search on Duckduckgo, I keep getting new names!

Using a sample size of files (jpg, png and in some instances, PDF) I ran the compression test on the sites. WP Beginner has a blog post on image compression services for WordPress. Consider my experiment as an extended version of that post.   The above image was transformed and served from Cloudinary. You can click on my invitation link here to set up a free account and test it yourself.

Taking a step backwards

Before we dive into the world of image optimization or compression services, let us first put them into ‘buckets’. I am not talking about buckets that you create for services such as AWS. There are four main types of compression or optimization services. They are:

• Applications for Desktop or laptop
• Web browser based services
• Plugins or scripts for content management systems like WordPress
• Content Delivery Networks that specialize in image optimization and delivery

In the first type, I will focus on the apps for Mac, and possibly Linux. Sorry Windows users, maybe in a future update I may add resources for you. Ironic as it may seem in 2020 – my list will also exclude apps for smartphones. The main focus of this post will be on Web browser based services such as imgbot.ai and picresize.com. There are sites like shortpixel and tinypng that are a ‘hybrid’ of second and third type, that is, they have a wordpress plugin or javascript, and also have a web interface. Modula, Optimole, Shortpixel Adaptive Images belong to the third category- they primarily exist as plugins for wordpress.In my underworldstartup blog, I have written about Optimole image optimizer. You can read that post here The fourth and the final category includes services like cloudinary, gumlet, publitio, and cloudimage. Because this is a big list in itself, I will cover them services in a separate post. Or update this post at a later date. Image resizing: my testing of seven or eight sites Twenty Five Sites that can compress or resize images. Some of these are free, others follow a freemium model. Some of these sites or services are only reduce the image size, that is, image resolution is not changed. Others offer advanced editing and resizing options – a mini image editor, so to speak. Some of these sites I found through an Internet search, others through blog posts or recommendations on online forums or facebook. I came across 9 25 sites that offer image size reduction, compression or optimizations services. Some services are commercial, Free or Freemium services like Tinypng or Shortpixel, others are freeware, while the rest depend on (and appreciate) donations. The default compression ratios also vary in these services. All the images are loaded from the image CDN. I am testing out for this website, and are the full sized, versions after the compression was run on them.

Sr. No.	Name of the site or service	Link
1	Tinypng	click here
2	Compressor.io	click here
3	Shortpixel	click here
4	PicResize	click here
5	Toolur	click here
6	Image Resizer	click here
7	Simple Image Resizer	—
8	Reduce Images	click here
9	Image Boss	click here
10	Crunch	click here
11	Piio.co	click here
12	Imgbot	click here
13	Bulk Resize Photos	click here
14	Imgix	click here
15	Compresspng	click here
17	Img4	click here
18	Tiny pictures	click here
19	Pypi	click here
20	I Love Img	click here
21	Img2go	click here
22	RedKetchup	click here
23	Birme	click here
24	Resize My Image	click here

Note: Below is a completely random test, in which I have used the same image across 9 services to compress or reduce the size of the image.

Test: Compressing a JPG image file

Image : Photo by Spencer Selover from Pexels Size of the original Image = 4.13 MB. All compression ratios have been rounded off to the nearest whole number. (e.g. 5.6% has been noted as 6%). In a previous version of this post, I had included the compressed image in the below table. I received feedback from some readers that using the same image in the table below does not make sense. They were right. To the human eye, particularly for mobile phone users. Apologies for the same! I will update this post shorty to amend this issue.

Site	Image Size after compression	Reduction by (Percentage)
Tinypng	528 KB	87%
Toolur	931 KB	77%
ImageResizer	230 KB	94%
PicResize	327 KB	92%
ReduceImages	606 KB	85%
Compressor.io	1.2 MB	71%
SimpleImageResizer	1.22 MB	70%
Imagecompressor	1.2 MB	71%
Shortpixel	210 KB	95%
Imgbot.ai	489 KB	88%
BulkResizer	305 KB	92%

Compressing Multiple Images

During my testing, I found that majority of the services allow uploading and compression of multiple images. Below are the screenshot of few such services, like imagecompressor.com, imgbot.ai, and tinypng.com

Video: Using Optimole Plugin for WordPress

Optimole is a CDN and an image compression tool for WordPress. I used it for a week on Underworldstartup.com and also wrote a blog post about my experiences. var myVideo = document.getElementById(“video1”); function playPause() { if (myVideo.paused) myVideo.play(); else myVideo.pause(); } function makeBig() { myVideo.width = 560; } function makeSmall() { myVideo.width = 320; } function makeNormal() { myVideo.width = 420; }

Concluding Comments: What is the Best Image Optimization Service?

As you may see from the results, above, not all services are created equal. And you might have guessed that there is no right or wrong or a unique answer to this question either. Shortpixel and Imageresizer compressed the images the lowest. But size after reduction is just one of the parameters, many of the questions I have posed at the beginning of this post remain un answered. In a subsequent post, I plan run two more series of tests, namely, for a png file and a PDF. Also on the To Do list is a comparison table of the product offerings for the Freemium services. Note: 1.I used the zommy app on the Mac to locate and download the image. In the app, the image is shown to be under Creative Commons Zero License. However, the link to original image tab on Zommy app takes us to Pexels.com. I have added a screenshot from zommy app as the cover image for this post. 2. Appsumo have a blog post comparing Tinypng and Shortpixel, written in 2019 but has a date of April 2020. 3. I have not included services like Cloudinary, Gumlet, etc. in this post. It is by design, and my intention is to write a separate post comparing the three or four services I have used in this segment. Update January 2022: I am working on resolving this pesky issue of images that do not load. This post is a part of an ongoing series on Image Compression and optimization.You can read other posts on this topic by clicking the links below: 7 Ways to Optimize Images for your Website Image Compression Services: Update How to convert images to Webp format using Linux command line

---

_{This post was updated on 2020-04-21}