LazyLoad by WP Rocket vs WP Smush
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| Feature | LazyLoad by WP Rocket v2.4.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details | WP Smush v4.3.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 100,000+ | 1M+ |
| Last updated | October 6, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Editions | Lazy Load - Optimize Images | Smush · Smush Pro ($) |
| Pros | Three simple toggles: images, iframes/videos, YouTube thumbnails; Small script with no jQuery dependency; Filters and data-no-lazy attribute for fine-grained exclusions | Bulk and on-upload image compression at no cost; Lazy loading for images and embedded video; Works with common page builders, WooCommerce and caching plugins |
| Cons | Lazy loading only; no caching or file optimisation; Native browser lazy loading only through a code filter; Shows an Imagify promotion notice in the admin | WebP, AVIF, resizing and the image CDN need Smush Pro; Images are sent to the WPMU DEV API for compression |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 3 |
| Features (Speed Optimization plugins checklist) | ||
| Page cache | No | — |
| Browser cache | No | — |
| Minify CSS/JS | No | — |
| CDN | No | Yes |
| Object cache | No | — |
| Database cleanup | No | — |
| Free version | Yes | Yes |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Lazy load images, Lazy load iframes and videos, Replace YouTube iframes with a preview thumbnail, Lazy load inline background images, Exclusions via data-no-lazy, skip-lazy and filters, Native lazy loading via filter, Disabled on AMP pages | Bulk compression of the media library, Lazy loading for images and embedded video, WebP and AVIF conversion (Pro) ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Social | YouTube | — |
| E-commerce | — | WooCommerce |
| Plugins | AMP | WP Rocket, Elementor, Divi, Gravity Forms |
| Other | — | WPMU DEV Smush API |
| Requires WordPress | 4.9 | 6.4 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | i.ytimg.com | smushpro.wpmudev.com |
| Custom tables | — | 1 |