Imgzen Media Converter – WebP for CDN

Description

Most WebP plugins break behind a CDN.

Plugins that serve WebP conditionally (based on browser support) rely on the HTTP Accept header to decide which format to deliver. CDNs like CloudFront cache responses aggressively — and unless explicitly configured to vary the cache by Accept header, the CDN will serve the same cached format to every visitor, regardless of their browser.

The result: your images stay as JPEG even though WebP conversion is enabled.

Imgzen Media Converter solves this differently.

Instead of conditional serving, it permanently replaces the uploaded image with a WebP version at upload time. The attachment itself becomes WebP — WordPress, your CDN, and your visitors all see one format with no negotiation required.

That means zero-configuration CDN compatibility. There is no need to touch
CloudFront cache policies, server rewrite rules, or .htaccess delivery logic.
Install it, enable it, and new uploads are handled automatically.

This makes it the right choice when:

• Your site runs behind CloudFront, Fastly, or any CDN with aggressive caching
• You manage sites for non-technical clients who upload images without optimization
• You want uploads handled automatically with no per-image manual steps

Features

• Permanent WebP Conversion
  Replaces uploaded JPEG/PNG with WebP at upload time. No dual-format serving.

• CDN Compatible
  Works behind CloudFront and any CDN without cache policy changes,
  rewrite rules, or special server configuration.

• Optional Physical Cleanup
  Removes original JPEG/PNG files and intermediate sizes from the server
  after successful WebP conversion (can be disabled).

• Safety Guard
  Skips conversion when the WebP output would be larger than the original,
  and guards against images that are still oversized (over 15MB or 6000px)
  after WordPress’s standard upload scaling.

• Suppress Intermediate Size Generation
  Choose which intermediate sizes WordPress generates at upload time.

• Storage Saving Statistics
  Displays the total amount of disk space saved through cleanup,
  so you can see exactly how many megabytes have been reclaimed.

• Flexible Quality Control
  Adjustable quality settings for JPEG and PNG,
  including optional PNG lossless conversion and EXIF stripping.

• Dual Engine Support
  Supports both Imagick (recommended) and GD libraries,
  automatically selecting the available engine.

Why not other WebP plugins?

Most WebP plugins use browser detection to serve WebP or the original image
conditionally. This approach breaks with CDN caching (CloudFront, Fastly, etc.)
unless the CDN is configured to vary its cache by the Accept header — a setting
most users are not aware of or cannot easily configure.

The result: the CDN caches whichever format was requested first, and all
subsequent visitors receive that version regardless of their browser’s WebP
support.

Imgzen Media Converter takes a different approach: images are permanently converted
to WebP at upload time. The attachment itself becomes WebP — no conditional
serving, no browser detection, no CDN configuration needed. It just works.

For teams and client sites, this also reduces operational friction. There are no
CloudFront policies to explain, no server rules to maintain, and no image workflow
for editors to remember.