Imagify Review: The Perfect Solution for Image Optimization?

As a website owner, you know that having high-quality images on your site is crucial for attracting and retaining visitors.

However, large image files can slow down your website’s speed and negatively impact user experience.

That’s where image optimization tools like Imagify come in handy.

In this review, I’ll take a closer look at Imagify and its features to see if it truly is the perfect solution for image optimization.

I’ll also discuss the compression technology they use (and which one you should use), how it works, pricing, customer support, and much more so you can decide if it’s worth the investment.

By the time you finish reading this article, you will have a complete understanding of this plugin and know exactly how to set it up step by step.

Before getting straight into this complete Imagify review, let’s look at why it’s beneficial to optimize images for your blog.

Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, and if you decide to buy any of the promoted products, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. By doing this, I might feel more inspired to continue writing on this blog. Read more.

Why Image Optimization is Important?

Image optimization is essential for various reasons, some of which are:

• Faster loading times: Optimized images tend to have smaller file sizes, which means they load faster on your website. This can significantly improve the user experience and decrease bounce rates.
• Improved SEO: Search engines consider loading speed as a ranking factor, so optimizing your images can help improve your website’s search engine rankings.
• Reduced bandwidth usage: Smaller file sizes also mean that your server doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver the images to your visitors, reducing bandwidth usage.
• Better user engagement: High-quality images that are optimized for web use can enhance the overall look and feel of a webpage, leading to increased engagement with users.
• Boost sales and conversions: As your number of visitors and engagement increases, you can expect a natural boost in subscribers and sales.

Now that we understand some of the advantages of image optimization, let’s get into the review of Imagify, beginning with its introduction.

What Is Imagify? And Who Are They?

Imagify is an image optimization WordPress plugin that makes your website load faster by reducing the size of your images. It’s free to use, but there are also some premium features available for a price.

With this plugin, you can choose how much to compress your images, optimize them all at once, and even resize them. Their dashboard is user-friendly and you don’t need any technical skills or coding knowledge to use it.

They have also added an option for converting images to WebP format. This newer format can reduce the file size of images by 30% or more without sacrificing visual quality. Furthermore, Imagify supports the optimization of various picture formats including PNG, PDF, JPG, and more.

In case you didn’t know, the plugin was developed by WP Media in 2016 and their headquarters are located in France. The same team behind WP Rocket, which is known as the best caching plugin for WordPress.

Installed on 700K+ active installations, Imagify is one of the top plugins for optimizing WordPress images, along with EWWW Image Optimizer (1M+ active installations) and ShortPixel (300K+ active installations).

How Does Imagify Work?

Imagify uses advanced algorithms to resize, compress and optimize images without losing quality. It works by reducing the size of the image file, which in turn reduces the loading time of your website.

To use Imagify, simply upload your images to its online platform or install the plugin on your CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress.

After uploading, you can select the compression level and let it do its magic. The plugin will automatically optimize all your images and replace the original ones with smaller versions that are optimized for web use.

(I’ll discuss more about how you can compress your images in WordPress in a later section of my Imagify review).

The best part about Imagify’s optimization technique is that it uses smart and lossless compression techniques that retain the quality of your images while significantly reducing their size. This means that your website will load faster and perform better without compromising on visual content.

Imagify key features

Apart from this, Imagify also provides a number of other features such as:

• Smart Compression: This feature makes your pictures smaller without making them look worse. You don’t have to do anything. Imagify will figure out the perfect way to shrink your images while keeping them nice and clear.
• Lossless Compression: Imagify also uses lossless compression techniques to ensure that your images are optimized without losing any quality. However, it doesn’t make the files as small as the Smart Compression setting does.
• Automatic image compression: Imagify automatically compresses images as soon as they’re uploaded to your WordPress website, so you don’t have to do it manually.
• Optimization modes: It offers three different optimization modes including Normal, Aggressive, and Ultra which allows users to choose the level of compression they need for their images.
• WebP Format Support: Imagify can also convert your images to the WebP format, which is optimized for the web and provides better compression than other formats.
• Image Resizing: With the Imagify optimization tool, you can resize images or set limits for maximum width and height.
• Bulk Optimization: If you have a bunch of images that need resizing or compression, Imagify can do it in bulk. This saves you time and effort by processing multiple images at once.
• Backup and Restore: Before any changes are made, Imagify creates a backup of your original images so that you can restore them at any point if needed.

If you want to learn more about Imagify, you can watch this informative video.

How To Set Up Imagify On Your WordPress Site

Imagify is a free WordPress plugin that can be found on WordPress.org. But to make it work on your website, you need to follow some extra steps because it uses an API to connect your WordPress site with Imagify’s servers.

Here’s how you can do that —

Step 1: Install and activate the Imagify plugin

To begin, you can install and activate the free Imagify plugin on your WordPress website, just like you would install any other plugin from WordPress.org.

Step 2: Enter your Imagify API key

Next, go to Settings → Imagify.

Then, enter your API access token in an API Key box as shown below. You can get this code from your account on the Imagify website.

Step 3: Configure Imagify Settings

After adding your API key, it is necessary to configure some settings before you start using the plugin, so let’s focus on those eight options under the main settings page.

#1. Auto-optimize images on upload

This setting will optimize all the images you upload to WordPress automatically. I recommend that you leave this function enabled.

#2. Backup original images

By selecting this option, the plugin will save both the uncompressed original image and the optimized version.

It is advisable to keep this setting enabled unless you have limited storage capacity with your hosting provider (though this is typically not an issue with hosts like Bluehost, which provides unlimited storage).

#3. Lossless compression

By default, Imagify uses smart compression to optimize your images. However, lossless compression can be turned on to maintain superior image quality while keeping file sizes low.

If you’re a photographer or care a lot about image quality, you might find this option useful. It ensures that every pixel in the optimized image looks exactly the same as the original one.

#4. Optimization (WEBP format)

I recommend enabling the “Create WebP versions of images” option because WebP images are usually smaller in size but maintain the same image quality as regular images.

When you enable this option, you’ll have optimized versions of the original images (JPG/PNG) as well as WebP versions.

Having both types of images is beneficial because it provides support for users whose browsers don’t yet support WebP. The “Use <picture> tags” and “Use rewrite rules” options are used to display WebP images if the browser supports them, and if not, it will display the original format version.

The “<picture>” tags option is the default and recommended setting. However, if you experience any layout issues after enabling this option, you can try using the rewrite rules option. Keep in mind that the rewrite rules option should not be used if you are using Cloudflare or a CDN.

#5. Resize larger images

This option is recommended if you want to reduce the larger images on your site. When you resize them, you can save up to 80%.

Remember that the new width should be at least 2048 pixels, which is the size of your biggest thumbnail. Image resizing happens when you upload the image or during the optimization process.

#6. Custom Folders

In this part, you will see that the plugin will automatically find your theme name and add the folder where your theme’s images are saved. Typically, it looks like this: wp-content/themes/kadence (I’m using the Kadence theme for the demo site).

By default, Imagify optimizes images in your Media Library. However, if you have images stored in different folders on your server, you can add them here. There is also an option to optimize your theme’s images.

It is recommended to add any folders that contain images displayed on your site so that they can all be optimized. Once you add the folders and run the Bulk Optimizer, you will be able to find these custom folder images in the “Media → Other Media” section.

#7. File Optimization

When you upload images to WordPress, it automatically generates different sizes of those images. You have the choice to selectively optimize those various sizes or optimize all sizes together.

But, it’s important to note that optimizing different sizes of the same image will affect your Imagify monthly usage.

I suggest choosing the first four options (thumbnail, medium, medium_large, and large) for optimization. However, you have the freedom to select all sizes if you prefer.

Personally, I opt for optimizing all sizes since I have a subscription that allows for unlimited image optimization. If you have a similar plan, there’s no problem with optimizing all image sizes.

#8. Display Options

You can activate a quick access menu in your admin toolbar from this location. If you prefer not to have this quick access menu, you can deselect the checkbox in the settings section.

Lastly, don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to save your settings. And that’s all you have to do in the Imagify main settings.

How To Compress WordPress Images With Imagify Plugin

After you set up the plugin, Imagify will make your pictures better without you doing anything. It will do this for any new images you add to your media library.

If you want to optimize old images of your site as well, you can do it in a bunch. Just go to the Media → Bulk Optimization and it will automatically start compressing all the images on your site.

If your goal is to optimize a single image, you can easily achieve it by navigating to the regular WordPress media library. Simply select the desired image from the gallery and click on the optimize button.

After that, you can sit back and wait for the optimization process to complete (it will only take a few minutes to optimize your images).

You can see an example of one of my demo sites here;

That’s it and there’s nothing more to do with the Imagify image optimizer plugin. It’s really that simple.

Imagify Performance: How Well Does it Optimize Your Images?

So, how well does Imagify perform when put to the test?

According to the results, it performs admirably! My before-and-after tests revealed significant reductions in file size with no noticeable loss in image quality.

Let’s look at the original photo and the optimized one side by side.

The original photo is 1.8 MB in size, but after compressing it using Imagify, the size is reduced to 333.09 KB. This means the image is now much smaller, only 77.34% of its original size.

The best part is that even though the image is smaller, its quality remains just as good as before.

Imagify Help and Customer Support

Imagify has an awesome support team that is really good at helping users. That’s why we are giving them a special mention in this Imagify review.

When you reach out to them for help using a support ticket system, they usually respond within an hour from Monday to Friday during normal business hours, which is pretty quick.

The Imagify team also offers a comprehensive knowledge base and FAQ section on their website, which can help you troubleshoot common issues on your own.

They cover everything you need to know about using their plugin. And if you ever have any trouble and can’t figure it out, they will be there to help and guide you in the right direction.

A lot of people have said really good things about their support team. In fact, they have more than 700,000 active installations and received over 1,000 reviews on WordPress.org with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5.

Imagify Pricing Review: How Much Does It Cost?

Alright, so you might want to know how much does it cost to optimize your images? Well, Imagify offers three pricing plans based on the number of images you want to optimize.

Here’s a pricing table chart of Imagify:

As you can see from the above image, it has a free starter plan that allows you to optimize up to 20MB of images per month (approx 200 images), but if you need more than that, there are premium plans available.

The prices for Imagify’s paid plans start at $4.99/month for up to 500MB of image optimization (approx 5000 images) and go up to $9.99/month for an unlimited number of image optimization (per their fair use policy).

They also offer custom plans for those with higher image optimization needs.

Check out their website for more details on the pricing and features offered and keep in mind that Imagify offers discounts if you choose an annual subscription over monthly payments.

Imagify Pros and Cons 2024

Now that we have discussed the features and pricing, let’s take a look at the main strengths (pros) and weaknesses (cons) of Imagify.

Pros:

Cons:

The Final Verdict: Should You Get Imagify?

Yes, you should use Imagify.

But you might be wondering why I think it’s a good idea.

Let me explain.

Images are usually the heaviest part of any website, which means they can slow it down. When a website takes longer to load, people may leave and you might lose customers.

That’s why it’s worth using a plugin like Imagify.

The installation process is simple, and you don’t need any technical skills to use it. Plus, if you ever decide to revert back to your original images, you can easily do so by uninstalling the plugin.

Imagify also has a great support team, as many users have mentioned on wordpress.org. It’s a useful plugin because it not only improves your website’s speed but also helps your website rank higher on Google and attract more visitors.

If you use it along with good hostings like Hostinger (best for new websites) or Cloudways (best for high performance), the results will be even better.

So why not try it out with their free plan before deciding to become a paid customer?

It won’t cost you anything, and you don’t need to provide any credit card information when signing up. Simply click the link below and start compressing your images.

Here’s an official website homepage link: https://www.imagify.io

Imagify Alternatives for Image Optimization

If you are still not satisfied with Imagify even after going through my in-depth review or want to explore a few more options, I highly recommend taking a look at my top five recommendations.

• EWWW Image Optimizer
• ShortPixel
• Optimole
• reSmush.it
• WP Compress

These tools have been tried and tested by many users (including me) and offer similar features as Imagify. Do give them a try!

Frequently Asked Questions

Here, I’ll answer all your frequently asked questions about Imagify — the top tool for image compression.

And that’s it!

Hopefully, this review helped you decide if Imagify is a good WordPress image optimization plugin to make your site super-fast. If you have any more questions that you want to ask, feel free to use the comment box below. I’ll get back to you with a reply soon.

Looking for more in-depth reviews? Take a look at my OptinMonster review to find out what I think about this amazing lead generation toolkit.

Thanks for reading my Imagify review.