ShortPixel
by ShortPixel
Remote image compression with AVIF delivery and safe originals.
This link may earn us a commission. It does not affect the score. Last tested 2 September 2026.
Measured result
ShortPixel on bench-01
Performance score
Measured on a 2 vCPU reference host
- LCP
- 1.38 s
- CLS
- 0.01
- TTFB
- 190 ms
- Page
- 398 KB
- Requests
- 29
- Impact
- Light
Median of 3 cold-cache runs, 2 September 2026.
How we tested
Try ShortPixel live
Press play to start a private, throwaway WordPress site in your browser with ShortPixel version 6.5.6 already installed. Nothing is saved and nothing touches your own site: close the page and it disappears.
Where ShortPixel ranks elsewhere
ShortPixel does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
- Hardened Content Replacement: The content replacer now blocks PHP object instantiation when processing serialized data, preventing potential object injection through crafted content, resposibly disclosed by the WordFence and PatchStack t...
- Automatic Backup Removal: Fixed an issue that prevented the automatic removal of old backups from ever running, even when the option was enabled.
- CDN Links & Crawlers: Changed the parameter separator in CDN links from a comma to a plus sign, preventing some crawlers and SEO tools from misreading srcset URLs and reporting false 404 errors.
- Download Error Handling: Fixed a fatal error that could occur when ShortPixel was unable to download an optimized file from the API, with clearer error messages now shown instead. Thanks to Tremi Dkhar for the contribution!
- Queue Robustness: Fixed a PHP warning that could occur when processing queue items without a remote ID.
- AJAX Response Fix: Fixed a possible issue when sending array-based responses during optimization processing.
- Smarter Credit Handling: Automatic image optimization will now continue even if AI credits are exhausted, as long as image optimization credits are still available.
- AVIF Loop Prevention: Fixed a rare case where PHP limitations could not identify the MIME type correctly and could cause an infinite optimization loop for some AVIF files received from the optimization API.
- Cleaner Browser Console: Removed optimization-related console logs from production. They are now only shown when plugin debug mode is enabled, with an additional filter available to disable them completely if needed.
- Queue Stability: Fixed a rare error that could occur under specific conditions within the optimization queue.
- Better Bulk Error Help: Bulk processing errors now link directly to the ShortPixel Knowledge Base search, making it easier to find the most relevant solution.
- WordPress 7.0 UI Tweaks: Updated the Bulk Processing interface to better match the layout and styling changes introduced in WordPress 7.0.
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
Pros & cons
- Compression happens off your server
- AVIF and WebP delivery without theme edits
- Keeps a restorable copy of every original
- Monthly credit model needs watching on large libraries
- Bulk runs on big media libraries take hours
The full review
Images are still the largest single payload on most WordPress sites. On our reference gallery page, ShortPixel's lossy setting reduced total page weight from 2.1 MB to 398 KB with no visible degradation at 100% zoom.
Because compression runs on ShortPixel's servers, the plugin adds effectively nothing to your own response time - the main reason it scores above self-hosted alternatives on shared hosting.
Compared with close alternatives
| Plugin | Score | LCP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShortPixel | 92 | 1.38 s | Freemium |
| Imagify | 89 | 1.44 s | Freemium |
| EWWW Image Optimizer | 81 | 1.66 s | Freemium |
Frequently asked
Lossy or glossy?
Use lossy for photography and glossy where fine detail matters, such as product shots with text. Both keep the original file so you can re-run the other mode later.