Large images slow down WordPress.
A photo uploaded directly from a phone or camera can be much larger than the website needs. The page still works, but visitors download more data and performance suffers.
Image compression helps — but it does not always need an external service.
If the server supports GD or Imagick, JPEG and PNG files can be compressed locally. No cloud API. No third-party upload. No external image processing service.
For many sites, that is the cleaner approach.
The best case is simple: find oversized images, review them, compress them in place, keep the same format, keep the same URL, and regenerate thumbnails.
That avoids broken layouts, changed image paths, or unexpected format conversions.
This is the idea behind atec Image Compressor by atec Plugins.
It scans the media library for oversized JPEG and PNG uploads, shows preview, dimensions and file size, then compresses selected images in the background. Files are overwritten in place, thumbnails are regenerated, and URLs stay the same.
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