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Facts checked against WordPress.org and each vendor’s pricing page on 25 September 2026.
Imagify is a good plugin — more than 1 million active installs, and WebP and AVIF included even on the free plan. People usually start looking for an Imagify alternative for one of three reasons: they hit the free 20 MB monthly limit, they have images larger than 2 MB, or they realise compression isn’t what’s holding their images back in search. The right alternative depends on which one applies to you.
| You want… | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A free alternative with no monthly volume cap | EWWW Image Optimizer | Unlimited local optimization on your own server, images of any size |
| A simple free plugin with lazy load built in | Smush | Free compression, bulk optimization and lazy load |
| Pricing by traffic instead of megabytes, plus a CDN | Optimole | Free up to 2,000 visits a month; CloudFront CDN |
| Compression and AI alt text in one plugin | ShortPixel | 100 free credits a month; AI alt text via AI credits |
| Alt text, file names and social cards for SEO | ImageSEO (alongside Imagify) | Writes the text Imagify doesn’t |
Imagify’s free plan allows 20 MB of images per month, which Imagify estimates at about 200 images, and a maximum of 2 MB per image. Paid plans start at $5.99 a month ($4.99 billed yearly) for 500 MB, and the Infinite plan at $11.99 a month ($9.99 yearly) removes the limit.
Because Imagify counts megabytes rather than images, your quota depends on how heavy your originals are. Photos straight from a modern phone or camera are often several megabytes each, so a batch of product or travel photos can use a month’s free quota much faster than the “about 200 images” estimate suggests — and anything over 2 MB needs a paid plan. If most of your uploads are small screenshots and logos, the free plan goes much further.
| Plugin | How the free tier is limited | Max image size on free | WebP / AVIF | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imagify (baseline) | 20 MB / month | 2 MB | Both, free | $5.99 / month |
| EWWW Image Optimizer | Unlimited (local mode) | Any size (local mode) | WebP free; AVIF with Easy IO (paid) | $8 / month or $80 / year |
| Smush | Free plugin features only | Check current limits | Pro only | $50 / year (1 site) |
| Optimole | 2,000 visits / month, unlimited images | Yes | Both, served automatically | €19.08 / month (48,000 visits, yearly) |
| ShortPixel | 100 credits / month | Yes | Both | $9.99 / month unlimited image credits |
| ImageSEO | 10 images / month | Not a compressor | — | €4.99 / month (100 images) |
Prices are entry plans as shown on each vendor’s pricing page in September 2026. Limits change, so confirm on the vendor’s site before you migrate.
EWWW is the most generous free option: its WordPress.org listing promises unlimited image optimization, for images of any size, in local mode on most web hosts. Lossless compression is the default (EWWW quotes an 8% average saving for lossless), and WebP conversion is free. The trade-off is that stronger compression, AVIF and the Easy IO CDN are paid. If Imagify’s 20 MB cap is your only problem, EWWW is usually the first thing to try. More in ImageSEO vs EWWW.
Smush’s free plugin includes compression, bulk optimization and lazy load, and is rated 4.8/5 from more than 6,000 reviews. You give up free WebP and AVIF, which Smush reserves for Pro. See ImageSEO vs Smush.
Optimole’s free plan optimizes unlimited images for sites with up to 2,000 monthly visits and delivers them from a CloudFront CDN. It suits small, image-heavy sites; once you pass the visit limit you’ll need a paid plan. See ImageSEO vs Optimole.
Imagify doesn’t write alt text, and neither do EWWW, Smush or Optimole. There are two ways to add it:
Why bother? Google’s documentation names alt text “the most important attribute” for image metadata. In our 2026 crawl of the 10,000 most-visited homepages, 11.3% of images had no alt attribute and fewer than half (46.4%) had a descriptive file name. A faster image with no description is still an image Google has to guess about.
Before switching, take ten minutes to measure. Every vendor counts differently, so the same site can be “free” on one plugin and “paid” on another.
Also check how each plugin treats thumbnails. WordPress creates several sizes for every upload, and compression plugins may optimize each size separately, which affects quota usage.
wp-content/uploads) before switching.Adding ImageSEO needs none of this: it doesn’t touch compression, so it runs alongside Imagify or any replacement.
For volume, EWWW Image Optimizer: its free local mode has no monthly cap. For small sites that want a CDN, Optimole is free up to 2,000 monthly visits. Smush is free if you can live without WebP/AVIF.
No. ImageSEO doesn’t compress images or create WebP files. It adds alt text, titles, captions, file names and social cards, and works alongside Imagify. See ImageSEO vs Imagify.
Because it’s measured in megabytes, not images. Large originals use more of the 20 MB free quota; resizing images before upload makes it last longer.
Among compression plugins, ShortPixel. ImageSEO is a dedicated image SEO plugin that also renames files and creates social cards. Its free plan covers 10 images a month; see pricing.
