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"Which is the Best Image Optimization Service?" 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". In this post, I have used 20 different image compression and optimization services and compared their performance over a series of random tests. In other words, on this page you will find a blog post which compares 20 image compression services. This post is a part of the multi part series I am writing about optimizing images for website or blog. You can find the related posts here: a. 7 Ways you can compress images for your website b. How I made a video comparing the image compression services c. My post I compare content delivery networks or CDNs. Best is relative What is the 'best' solution for image optimization? Does it mean: a. How small can the image be compressed b. How cost effective the service is, and c. How many images can be resized at a time and is there a limit to number of images? d. Do they have a web interface or a plugin or a script? e. 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. Before we go further, let us try and answer the question: 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 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 20. 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 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. 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: a. Installing an application on desktop or laptop b. Using a web browser c. Installing a plugins or scripts for content management system like Wordpress d. Using a Content Delivery Network that specializ 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 today's itmes, 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. The fourth and the final category includes services like cloudinary, gumlet, publitio. This is a big list in itself, and I will cover them services in a separate post. Or update this post at a later date. Some of these sites, services or plugins are free, while others follow a freemium model. Some of them only reduce the image size, that is, image resolution is not changed.Others offer a wider array or services including image cropping, changing resolution, and much more.