ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

175 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 20 listed. 144 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 3 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 74% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 2.4 years ago; the previous band took 3.6 years to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ splet99

   4mo ago

   could not have wished for something different….

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ spinquads

   9mo ago

   As the title says, Pagespeed Insights gave a score of 92 on mobile and 99 to 100 on desktop with no visible loss of quality on the web page. What I also like is the very reasonable one time pricing and the fast CDN. Shortpixel also gives 100 free credits a month!

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ jeremywardkcc

   12mo ago

   I’ve recently added SPIO across all our WordPress sites. (I work for a NFP managing 10 of their sites.) I’m impressed by ShortPixel’s compression and performance. Adrian and the team have offered great support. And they’ve offered discounts/bonus credits for us as a NFP organisation!

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ Tamhas

   1.7y ago

   Not here to diss you guys. Your image optimiser plugin is great!! But this one, it didn’t speed up my site, but rather made it super slow on first load. Maybe my error even. BUT when I turned off plugin and checked the inbuilt delete DB tables option, the site was still slow. I had to download WP Optimize and delete the inactive DB tables of the ShortPixel Adaptive Images plugin, then the site was instantly fast again. Probably a rare problem, but if this happens to you, that’s the fix.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ kolicoski

   1.7y ago

   Absolutely fantastic plugin! Support is also very helpful.

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ lprwebdude

   1.8y ago

   No muss. No fuss. No twisting knobs. ShortPixel just works. Great product and support.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ sosfactory

   2.0y ago

   After A LOT of research on my side (support was responsive but unfortunately not helpful), I have found that cdn.shortpixel.ai is blocked by Google Search Console. How it affects your SEO may be subject to discussion, but definitively, the facts I’m going to expose are not a good sign. I have read the documentation regarding indexing, and while I understand the theory, the truth is Google disagrees: kb.shortpixel.com/knowledge-base/article/will-my-sites-images-be-indexed-as-coming-from-shortpixel/ Signs that Google disagrees: In Search Console>live test >Screenshot diplays broken images (all of them). “More info” tab on url inspector live shows cdn.shortpixel. ai urls not being loaded. “Other error” Even my favicon is blocked on the results in Google search images. I can’t affirm that my Google Images traffic has dropped because of this plugin, but the truth is that my Google Image traffic has decreased dramatically since I activated it a few months ago. A dramatic amount of images have been deindexed since I installed the CDN. The images that are currently indexed contain a link to the original image on my server (featured images on posts or pages that link to the original image via meta tags, product images, or widgets that, on click, serve the original image from my own server). So my guess is that Google is crawling the urls of the original image. Dramatic traffic drop since I’m using short-pixel CDN. Few posts lately point to the same issue. How did I arrive at the conclusion that Shortpixel AI is the problem? I have tried deactivating all plugins but Shortpixel. Problem persist. I deactivated my theme and activated the WordPress default theme. Problem persist. Deactivating Cloudflare. Problem persist. I deactivated all Hotlink protection. Problem persist. I activated the new AI engine and the problem persist. Only when I deactivate Shortpixel, magic… it works! I use my theme + Cloudflare + Hotlink protection and a bunch of plugins, and the Search Console url inspector loads all the resources; there are no broken images in the screenshot, and the favicon appears on Google Images results. Support apparently has no idea about what is going on, even when there are actually a couple of recent threads pointing to the same problem. So up to date I assume there is NO SOLUTION. MY SOLUTION: I had another website that uses a different plugin developed by another company that also uses Shortpixel server, and it has the ability to serve images via CDN. Just by chance, I decided to switch the license to this website, and I found out that everything works fine in Search Console!!! This plugin uses sp-ao.shortpixel.ai server and it seems Google likes it while Shortpixel AI uses cdn.shortpixel.ai and Google doesn’t, for reasons that I don’t know and that I won’t explore so support can do some work 😉I took the time to write this long post for you, that, like me, has probably been hurt in your SEO (I’m an illustrator, so imagine how much damage it may have caused). I hope those insights point you in the right direction. All the best!Sergio This topic was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by sosfactory. This topic was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by sosfactory. This topic was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by sosfactory.

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ sarahalexander

   2.2y ago

   I have just found shortpixel image optimization and I am so glad! The support team went out of their way to help me understand how to best optimize my images and answered all of my questions with great detail and patience 😀 Super grateful!

   Read on wp.org ↗

Recent releases and news for this plugin

1. — Version 3.11.5 🛡️ The Security Hardening Update Release Date: June 19, 2026 🔒 Security Fix Arbitrary File Deletion Vulnerability Patched: Fixed an Arbitrary File Deletion vulnerability, responsibly and safely disclosed by the PatchSt 3.11.5
2. — Version 3.11.4 🔐 The Hardened Settings Update Release Date: May 18, 2026 🛡️ Security Improvements Additional XSS Protection: Escaped another set of settings fields to further harden the plugin against potential XSS vulnerabilities. A 3.11.4
3. — Version 3.11.3 🔒 The Secure Exclusions Update Release Date: May 12, 2026 🛡️ Security Fix Security improvements: Improved auth/nonce validation on excluded selectors and properly escaped exclusions to prevent a potential stored Cross- 3.11.3
4. — Version 3.11.2 🛡️ The Compatibility & Security Update Release Date: March 19, 2026 🛠️ Fixes open_basedir Warning Fix: Resolved cases where open_basedir restrictions triggered PHP warnings, including when using the “Replace in CSS” op 3.11.2
5. — Version 3.11.1 🔧 The Compatibility & CDN Sync Update Release Date: September 24, 2025 🛠️ Fixes & Improvements PHP 8.4 Compatibility: Fixed a deprecation warning that appeared when running the plugin on PHP 8.4, ensuring smooth operat 3.11.1
6. — Version 3.11.0 🌩️ The S3 & Speed Boost Update Release Date: August 6, 2025 ✨ New Features Amazon S3 Integration: Images stored on Amazon S3 can now be seamlessly served through the ShortPixel CDN — faster delivery, no matter where you 3.11.0

All 11 disclosed vulnerabilities are patched in the current version (3.11.6). Sites still on an older version should update.

1. Patched Medium · 4.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.11.5 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Third-Party Plugin Option Modification via 'causer' Parameter ↗
   2026-08-15 CVE-2026-15345 Missing Authorization Affects <= 3.11.5 Patched in 3.11.6
2. Patched Medium · 6.4 ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization <= 3.11.3 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting ↗
   2026-06-29 CVE-2026-57342 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 3.11.3 Patched in 3.11.4
3. Patched Medium · 5.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization <= 3.11.4 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Deletion ↗
   2026-06-25 CVE-2026-56066 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory Affects <= 3.11.4 Patched in 3.11.5
4. Patched Medium · 4.4 ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization <= 3.10.4 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via API URL ↗
   2025-08-01 CVE-2025-6626 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 3.10.4 Patched in 3.10.5
5. Patched Medium · 4.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.10.0 - Missing Authorization ↗
   2025-04-01 CVE-2025-30853 Missing Authorization Affects <= 3.10.0 Patched in 3.10.1
6. Patched Medium · 5.5 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.8.3 - Authenticated (Admin+) Server-Side Request Forgery ↗
   2024-05-10 CVE-2024-35172 Server-Side Request Forgery Affects <= 3.8.3 Patched in 3.8.4
7. Patched Medium · 4.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.8.3 - Cross-Site Request Forgery ↗
   2024-05-09 CVE-2024-4689 Cross-Site Request Forgery Affects <= 3.8.3 Patched in 3.8.4
8. Patched Medium · 5.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.8.2 - Missing Authorization in activate_ai_handler and deactivate_ai_handler ↗
   2024-04-02 CVE-2024-31230 Missing Authorization Affects <= 3.8.2 Patched in 3.8.3
9. Patched Medium · 5.4 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.7.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery via shortpixel_ai_handle_page_action ↗
   2023-05-08 CVE-2023-32512 Cross-Site Request Forgery Affects < 3.7.2 Patched in 3.7.2
10. Patched Medium · 6.1 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.6.1 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting ↗
    2023-02-02 CVE-2023-0334 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 3.6.1 Patched in 3.6.2
11. Patched Medium · 4.3 ShortPixel Adaptive Images <= 3.3.1 - Subscriber+ Arbitrary Settings Update ↗
    2022-04-25 CVE-2022-29417 Improper Access Control Affects <= 3.3.1 Patched in 3.4.0

Translated into 6 languages, 5 at 90% or more

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2024-05-29 20K+ → 10K+ down after 1309 days in tier
2. 2020-10-28 10K+ → 20K+ up after 351 days in tier
3. 2019-11-12 7K+ → 10K+ up

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization: 10K+ active installs, 4.8★ (145 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/shortpixel-adaptive-images