I took one photo —a 5.2MB JPEG, 4000×3000 pixels, shot on a phone —and ran it through 5 different free image compressors. Same input, same target quality (80%), same photo. Here's what happened.
| Tool | Output size | Upload required? | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| TinyPNG | 1.1 MB | Yes | 4s |
| Compressor.io | 980 KB | Yes | 6s |
| ILoveIMG | 1.3 MB | Yes | 5s |
| Image Compressor (this site) | 1.0 MB | No | 1s |
| Squoosh (Google) | 950 KB | No | 1s |
The file sizes were close enough that you wouldn't notice the difference in practice. All of them did a decent job.
But here's what stood out: the ones that required upload had me waiting for the file to transfer before I even got started. On a slow connection, that's real time. The ones that ran locally (Squoosh and mine) were instant —click, done, download.
What bugged me more was what happened after. I read each site's privacy policy. Yeah, I actually read them:
Two of them said uploaded files are deleted after processing. One said "may be retained for up to 30 days for quality improvement." One didn't mention it at all. I can't know what happens to my photo after I close the tab, and I don't like that.
That's the part that doesn't show up in the file size comparison.
I'm obviously biased, but the data is what it is. You decide what matters more.