Howdy,

I started work on Pixy Image Optimizer late last year and it has landed in the WordPress plugin directory today. It requires no registration, works across Apache, LiteSpeed and Nginx without configuration, and will convert and compress AVIF and WebP in bulk or on demand (real time). It’s free to use and the goal is a faster website. Here is what it has to offer:

• Speed Mode: it’s toggled ON by default and will rewrite image links on the site. Optimization happens on the go, and the format (AVIF, WebP, or fallback to MozJPEG) is selected in real time. Toggle OFF if you prefer serving images locally. Works on any server or hosting account that can run Wordpress regardless what image manipulation libraries are available.
• Bulk Optimize: Convert your entire library to AVIF, WebP, or both. Works on any server or hosting account that can run Wordpress regardless what image manipulation libraries are available. In this case optimized versions are saved next to the originals and served locally via rewrite rules in .htaccess (Not working with Nginx in this mode).
• Lazy Load + LQIP

In both modes AVIF is the preferred format, WebP is served as a fallback, and if WebP is also not supported by the browser, compressed images in original formats are served.

The primary goal is site speed, so the plugin probes random mobile and desktop visitors asking them to compare optimized vs. unoptimized images anonymously. The RUM data is reported directly to the stats dashboard for convenience. So is the PageSpeed Insights score which is tested and updated every now and then, so you can have a more complete picture of your site’s performance without running tests manually.

For now Pixy won’t delete the originals, thus at the time it can’t help if the goal is to free up space, but it will also not occupy space with optimized versions unless you use the bulk optimizer.

It also won’t work on LocalWP and other local installations.

Here it is: https://wordpress.org/plugins/pixy-image-optimizer/ and should you give it a go, I’d be thankful for your feedback and your ideas.