Imagify vs Smush

Imagify and Smush are both WordPress image-compression plugins from established plugin companies - Imagify from WP Media, Smush from WPMU DEV - but they're sold in very different ways. Imagify is priced as a standalone product with its own tiers; Smush Pro is only available bundled inside the wider WPMU DEV membership.

Both compress images and convert them to WebP and AVIF. The difference shows up at checkout: Imagify scales its price to how much you compress, while Smush Pro rides along inside a subscription that also covers dozens of unrelated WPMU DEV tools.

Quick verdict: Choose Imagify if you want a dedicated compression tool with pricing that scales cleanly to usage. Choose Smush if you're already a WPMU DEV member, since Smush Pro effectively comes with that membership rather than as a separate purchase. Buying Smush Pro alone, outside a membership, isn't an option.

Imagify vs Smush at a glance

Numbers above are StatWP's own estimates, derived from WordPress.org's bucketed reporting rather than an exact figure the directory publishes, and update automatically rather than reflecting a fixed snapshot.

Feature and starting price at a glance

Pricing and feature claims above are each vendor's own, pulled from their pricing and product pages rather than StatWP data. Imagify's cheapest paid plan is a standalone $5.99/month; WPMU DEV's cheapest membership tier that unlocks Smush Pro costs a bit more at $7.50/month for one site - but that price buys access to WPMU DEV's entire plugin and hosting catalog, not just Smush, which makes a direct price-per-plugin comparison misleading.

What does Imagify actually do?

Beyond the install and ratings numbers, Imagify's own site positions it around a few specific mechanics:

• Smart compression that the company says automatically balances performance and quality without requiring a manually chosen compression level.

• WebP and AVIF conversion, formats Imagify's site calls “the next-generation formats recommended by Google.”

• Bulk optimization of an entire media library in one click.

• On-the-fly image resizing.

• Version restoration, to revert to an original image if a compression pass turns out too aggressive.

Imagify's own marketing leans on ease of use over a deep technical feature list, citing a stat that 93% of its users find it easy to use.

What does Smush actually do?

Smush's plugin listing and product pages describe a different mix of mechanics:

• Lossless and lossy compression modes, so site owners choose how aggressive the optimization gets.

• Lazy loading, deferring offscreen images until they're needed.

• Directory Smush, which optimizes images sitting in theme and plugin folders, not just the media library.

• Automatic resizing that fits images to their containers and adds missing width/height attributes.

• WebP/AVIF conversion and an image CDN, both gated to Smush Pro.

Smush's free tier covers meaningfully more ground than Imagify's - lazy load and directory scanning are free - while WebP/AVIF and CDN delivery are held back for Pro.

What features does each one have that the other doesn't?

Imagify's real edge is a pricing model built for exactly one job - image compression - so a site owner never pays for capacity in unrelated plugins. Its on-the-fly resizing and version-restoration tools are also more explicitly part of Imagify's own paid path than Smush's.

Smush's real edge shows up for sites already inside the WPMU DEV ecosystem - Smush Pro effectively rides along at no separate line item. Its free tier's lazy load and Directory Smush also go further than Imagify's free tier before any payment is required.

Which should you actually use?

If image compression is the only thing you need and you'd rather not commit to a broader plugin subscription, Imagify's standalone pricing is the more transparent buy. If you're already using - or planning to use - other WPMU DEV tools, Smush Pro effectively comes bundled in, and its free tier alone covers more ground than Imagify's free tier does.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Imagify and Smush?

Imagify is a standalone image-compression plugin priced by how many megabytes of images you process each month. Smush is a WPMU DEV plugin whose Pro tier - adding WebP/AVIF conversion and a CDN - is only available through a WPMU DEV membership rather than as an individual purchase. Both compress and convert images; the buying model is the bigger difference.

Is Smush better than Imagify?

Not universally. Smush's free tier includes lazy loading and Directory Smush, which go further than Imagify's free tier. Imagify's paid plans are cheaper if compression is all you want. Which is “better” depends on whether you value Smush's broader free feature set or Imagify's simpler, dedicated pricing.

Can I buy Smush Pro without a full WPMU DEV membership?

No - Smush Pro's premium features are only unlocked through a WPMU DEV membership, which also includes the company's other plugins and hosting tools.

Does Imagify's free plan expire?

No - Imagify's free tier is ongoing, capped at roughly 20MB (about 200 images) of processing per month rather than a time-limited trial.

Do both plugins support WebP and AVIF?

Yes, though Smush gates both formats to its Pro tier while Imagify includes them on every plan, including free.

See the live, current numbers for either plugin any time on StatWP's Imagify page or StatWP's Smush page, or run this comparison yourself with StatWP's compare tool.