Perfmatters vs WP Smush
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Perfmatters v2.6.8 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Paid Visit Details | WP Smush v4.3.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | — | 1M+ |
| Last updated | — | October 20, 2026 |
| Editions | Perfmatters ($) | Smush · Smush Pro ($) |
| Pros | Per-page control of scripts and styles; Lazy loading, minification and CDN rewrite included; Database cleanup built in | Bulk and on-upload image compression at no cost; Lazy loading for images and embedded video; Works with common page builders, WooCommerce and caching plugins |
| Cons | Paid product, updates need a licence key; Not a page cache or object cache; pair it with one; Many options can change how pages behave, so testing is needed | WebP, AVIF, resizing and the image CDN need Smush Pro; Images are sent to the WPMU DEV API for compression |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 3 |
| Features (Speed Optimization plugins checklist) | ||
| Page cache | No | — |
| Browser cache | No | — |
| Minify CSS/JS | Paid | — |
| CDN | Paid | Yes |
| Object cache | No | — |
| Database cleanup | Paid | — |
| Free version | No | Yes |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Per-page script and style control ($), Lazy loading for images, iframes and assets ($), Remove unused CSS and inline stylesheets ($), Resource preload hints ($), Google Fonts handling ($), Local copy of Google Analytics scheduled daily ($), WP-CLI commands ($), Safe mode notice for testing ($) | Bulk compression of the media library, Lazy loading for images and embedded video, WebP and AVIF conversion (Pro) ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Analytics | Google Analytics ($) | — |
| E-commerce | — | WooCommerce |
| Plugins | — | WP Rocket, Elementor, Divi, Gravity Forms |
| Other | Google Fonts ($), Perfmatters license server ($) | WPMU DEV Smush API |
| Requires WordPress | 5.5 | 6.4 |
| Requires PHP | 8.1 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | perfmatters.io | smushpro.wpmudev.com |
| Shortcodes | 1 | — |
| Custom tables | — | 1 |