ShortPixel Review 2024: Pricing, Performance, Pros, & Cons

No one likes slow-loading websites. When it comes to WordPress speed optimization, high-quality unoptimized Images are one of the biggest drains on page load time. Studies show that Website speed is crucial for SEO and overall site revenue. 

Even just a one-second delay in website loading time will Reduce page views by 11%, Decrease customer satisfaction by 16%, and Reduce conversions by 7%. An unoptimized image will still drag down your page loading time even if you use premium CDN and cache plugins like WP Rocket or FlyingPress. That’s why we need to use an Image Optimization plugin. 

There are quite a few image optimization plugins available on the WordPress repository. In this article, we share ShortPixel Review from our own experiences to find out if the ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin is the right choice for you or not.

We’ll take a deep look into the inner workings of the ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin, examine the features it offers, real-world performance test, look into the pricing, and finish up by giving you our opinion on whether or not it’s worth the investment.

ShortPixel Review 2024

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is an image optimization plugin with over 7,258,234+ downloads, 300,000+ active installs, and over 550+ 5-star ratings on the WordPress repository. 

I’m very picky about my WordPress theme and plugin choice for my website. Back in 2020, I decided to give ShortPixel Image Optimizer a try, and let me say; it’s by far the best Image Optimization plugin I’ve found in the last couple of years.

ShortPixel has different types of image compression, original image file backup, EXIF data erase, image resizer, etc. With ShortPixel, you can convert any image format to .webp or .avif format ( .webp format is the next-gen image format developed by Google that is much smaller and faster than PNGs or JPGs image formats).

ShortPixel is free to use, and with their free version, you get to optimize 100 images/month; with the premium version, you can optimize an unlimited number of images. 

That’s why in this article, I will cover it in the premium version of ShortPixel Image Optimizer because it’s worth every penny. I’ll go into that more below, but let’s first look at the ShortPixel features, pricing, and my website performance. So, you can decide if it is worth using it or not.

ShortPixel Features

Uploading full-resolution unoptimized images onto your WordPress website hurts your website performance. Significantly, if you use shared web hosting plans, unoptimized images will instantly slow down your website’s total load time and increase TTFB (first time to byte).

After using ShortPixel, you would be surprised to see your site’s compressed images without quality degradation and overall website performance.

Here’s a list of ShortPixel features you need to know:

• NextGen Image Format Support.
• Automatic Backup of your original images.
• Batch image optimization.
• ShortPixel removes the EXIF tag from images automatically.
• Cloudflare Integration for better performance.
• Automatic Image Resizer for larger size images.
• Different Image compression levels: Loosy, Glossy, and lossless.
• Automatic Wp retina image optimization.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Unlimited website usage with a single API key.
• Compatible with WPML, watermarking, and NextGEN Gallery plugins.
• No file size limit.
• Works with WooCommerce sites.
• Automatically convert .png to .jpg
• Convert any image format to .webp or .avif format.
• Automatic PDF compression, & many more.

Now, let’s take a look at the ShortPixel image compression types.

ShortPixel Image Compression & Optimization

Compression is the easiest way to make your image files smaller by removing data. Image compression is a way to decrease your website’s total size and HTTP requests, and it makes your website faster than ever.

ShortPixel offers three main types of image compression: lossy, glossy, and lossless. 

1. Lossy Compression (Recommend): Lossy compression permanently removes some data from the original image file, resulting in a significantly reduced overall image file size. Lossy compression also degrades your image quality. However, you can’t distinguish between the original and the lossy compressed photo.
2. Glossy Compression: Glossy Compression allows you to maintain a balance between decreasing file sizes and optimal quality of images. Glossy compression reduces image file size not as much as lossy compression and can’t preserve Image quality as high as lossless compression. This image compression option is only available on ShortPixel.
3. Lossless Compression: Unlike Lossy compression, Lossless compression won’t reduce image quality. This compression only removes additional, non-essential EXIF data and does not compromise image quality.

Which Image Compression is Best For You?

Well, It depends on your website needs. 

With lossy compression, you end up with the highest image compression possible, but it will decrease the quality of your images (most of the time, you won’t notice it). I recommend using Lossy compression if you run an e-commerce site, blog, or portfolio site.  

And with lossless compression, you get high-quality images with low image compression. As a result, you end up with a high image file size. If you run Photography showcase sites, I suggest you go with lossless or Glossy compression.

If you’re curious, I use lossy compression on all of my sites because this is an easy win for performance and overall on-page SEO. Note: The lossy compression process is irreversible, meaning all image file information will be removed permanently (Don’t worry, ShortPixel keeps a backup of all your original image files).

ShortPixel Pricing in 2024

ShortPixel has both free & premium plans. With the ShortPixel free plan, you get 100 free credits/per month. (PS: Credit implies a number of images). With the ShortPixel premium plan, you can optimize from 100 images to an unlimited number of images per month. They offer two types of premium plans: unlimited subscription and one-time subscription.

ShortPixel Unlimited Plan

ShortPixel unlimited plan starts at $9.99/month or $99.90/year. As the name suggests, with this plan you can optimize an unlimited number of images. Along with usage ShortPixel also offers 500GB CDN traffic/month for faster image loading time.

ShortPixel One-time Plan

If you need to optimize a large number of images but do not feel the need to invest in a monthly or yearly subscription, ShortPixel offers one-time payment plans. ShortPixel one-time plans start at $19.99 to $99.

ShortPixel’s $19.99 plan lets you optimize 30k images. However, after some negotiation with the ShortPixel team, our website visitor will get an extra 50% image credits bonus.

Note: ShortPixel’s one-time plan doesn’t offer CDN services. However, your credits you’ll never expire with a one-time plan. ShortPixel’s one-time plan is more than enough for small business owners and bloggers (I’m also using this plan). You can easily add more images to your account if you exhaust all your images. 

DEAL ALERT: With our unique ShortPixel coupon code, you get an extra 50% credit with all premium plans. If you want a ShortPixel yearly subscription, you’ll also get two months free.

ShortPixel Performance

I always test performance when installing a new theme or a speed optimization plugin. I prefer to use Kinsta or CloudWays hosting with the GeneratePress theme & WP Rocket cache plugin to test my website performance. Here’s the result of my website performance before and after using ShortPixel:

As you can see, After installing and optimizing all of my website images, ShortPixel can reduce website loading time and reduce overall page size and HTTP requests.

ShortPixel premium allows you to transfer any image format .webp format. So, when you test your website performance on Google PageSpeed Insights, you will not see the “Serve images in next-gen formats” error. It’ll help you to pass new Core Web Vitals results.

Best ShortPixel Image Optimizer Settings

Setting up ShortPixel on your WordPress website is relatively easy; you need to follow our guide below, and then ShortPixel works on auto-pilot. For this guide, I assume you are using ShortPixel Premium. If you haven’t used it yet. I recommend you buy the ShortPixel One-time plan at $19.99. With our coupon code, get an extra 50% image credit.

ShortPixel Installation Guide

First, install “ShortPixel Image Optimizer” from your WordPress dashboard. Then open it from the WordPress Dashboard » Settings » ShortPixel.

Then enter your ShortPixel API key and click on the validate button. If you don’t have the Key, open your ShortPixel dashboard and copy your API Keys. After entering the API key, click on the validate button to connect with the ShortPixel account.

ShortPixel General Settings

ShortPixel general settings are pretty straightforward. As you can see here you’ve to select your image compression type, backup, Image EXIF, etc.

• Compression type: I recommend choosing Lossy compression; select Lossless compression if you have a photography website.
• Thumbnail compression: Yes, enable this option. It optimizes your blog post thumbnails and makes the site faster. ShortPixel also recommends you enable it.
• SmartCrop: No. ShortPixel uses AI to generate thumbnails. It’s completely up to you whether you want to use AI-generated thumbnails on your blog posts.
• Backup: Yes, enable this option. In the future, if you want to restore the optimized files to the originals or re-optimize the images using a different compression type this option is a lifesaver.
• Remove EXIF: Yes, enable this option. ShortPixel automatically removes image meta tag information. 
• Resize image option: Depends, It automatically crops every large image on your website and sets it in aspect ratio. If you have large images uploaded on your website, ShortPixel automatically resizes those images without cropping.

ShortPixel Advanced Settings

Here you can select which type of Next-gen image format you want to use on your website and a few more advanced settings you’ll never need.

• Next Generation Images: Yes, enable this option. If you want to use Webp image format, enable it. Also, enable “Deliver the next generation versions of the images in the front-end” with “Using the <PICTURE> tag syntax” option and “Only via WordPress hooks”.
• Optimize media on upload: Yes, it automatically optimizes images when you upload.
• Background mode: Yes, when you optimize the bulk number of images you don’t need to keep a browser window open. I usually don’t need to use this feature.
• Optimize PDFs: Yes, If you upload PDF files on your website.
• Optimize Retina images: Yes. If you don’t know what retina images are, it allows the screen to show more detail and improves the viewing experience.
• Optimize other thumbnails: No. it’s up to you, enable it if you have too many image thumbnails.
• Convert PNG images to JPEG: No. I don’t use this option because I already convert all types of image formats to WebP format.
• CMYK to RGB conversion: Yes. It depends on you. If you’re a photographer don’t use this option.
• Exclude thumbnail sizes: Depends if you want to exclude certain sizes of image from optimized.
• Custom Media folders: depends, if you have custom folders for images and PDF files.
• HTTP AUTH credentials: If you don’t know what is this then just leave the fields empty.

ShortPixel Cloudflare API

If you use Cloudflare on your website, you can easily configure Cloudflare CDN with ShortPixel. You only need your Cloudflare Zone ID and Cloudflare Token for Direct integration with ShortPixel.

You’ll get Zone ID from your Cloudflare overview section, and for Cloudflare Token, you have to open the Cloudflare profile section and create a new token. Read this official guide for more information. After getting your Cloudflare Zone ID and Token, enter the ShortPixel Cloudflare API section and click on Save Changes.

ShortPixel Statistics: As the name suggests, this section only shows you ShortPixel usage statistics like Average file compression, plan details, total credit consumed number, Original image backup folder size, etc.

FAQs about ShortPixel

Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about ShortPixel that we hear from our users.

If you have any other questions about ShortPixel and image optimization features, let me know in the comment section, or you can contact ShortPixel customer support.

Best ShortPixel Alternatives

Almost a hundred options are available if you search image optimization plugins on the WordPress repository. You can use any plugin on your website, but the main question is: is that plugin reliable and secure? Are they collecting your site information? If you are not interested in ShortPixel, there are a few WordPress image optimization plugins that help you with similar features.

1. Imagify
2. Optimole
3. Smush

Now, it’s up to you to select which Image Optimization plugin is best for you. As you already know, I use ShortPixel, and I also recommend you use it on your website.

Conclusion on ShortPixel Review

After reading the ShortPixel review, you might wonder, Is the ShortPixel image optimizer worth using?

The answer is: YES, the ShortPixel is worth every single penny. I think ShortPixel takes the #1 rank in the image optimization plugins list. Most importantly, they offer affordable one-time plans that fit any budget requirement. 

If you are unsure about the ShortPixel premium plans, use their free version to optimize your website’s first 100 images. All ShortPixel plans include expert customer support from knowledgeable staff. Ready to optimize your website images with ShortPixel? Click here to select your ShortPixel plan.

ShortPixel Discount Coupon 2024

With our exclusive ShortPixel Discount coupon code, you get 50% Extra credits with all plans. It means if you want to buy 30k image credits at $19.99 for a lifetime, you get an extra 15k image bonus with our coupon code. 

All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The ShortPixel discount will be applied automatically.

Remember to use the link above to get the exclusive ShortPixel discount. If you visit the ShortPixel website directly or use another link, you won’t get the special image credit offer.

That’s it. I hope you received our exclusive ShortPixel discount. If you have any problem with the ShortPixel coupon or have any queries related to ShortPixel, please let me know in the comment section.

Thank you. Have a nice day.