The 7 Best Free Lazy Load Plugins for WordPress in 2022

Does your WordPress site feel sluggish? Slow-loading pages are a common cause of high bounce rates and poor conversion rates. In fact, nearly 70% of consumers say page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer (Unbounce).

One of the biggest culprits behind slow pages is images. A study by HTTP Archive found that images make up on average 21% of a total webpage‘s weight.

But removing images isn‘t the answer. Visual content is essential for engaging your audience and conveying your message. That‘s where lazy loading comes in.

What is lazy loading?

Lazy loading is a technique that defers loading of non-critical resources (like images) until they are needed. Instead of loading all images on a page right away, lazy loading only loads images that are visible in the user‘s viewport. As the user scrolls, more images are loaded on-demand.

The benefits of lazy loading include:

Faster page load times
Lower initial network payload and bandwidth usage
Reduced server load and costs
Improved user experience and engagement

According to Salesforce, pages that load in 2.4 seconds see a 1.9% conversion rate, while pages that load in 5.7+ seconds only convert at 0.6%. Over just one month, that adds up to losing out on a significant chunk of revenue.

While WordPress has supported native lazy loading since version 5.5, there are still compelling reasons to use a dedicated lazy load plugin:

Native lazy loading only applies to images in post content, not other media like avatars, iframes or background images
Plugins provide more customization options for specifying thresholds, animation effects, exclusion rules, etc.
Some browsers like Safari still lack support for the loading="lazy" attribute
Lazy loading plugins optimize delivery of the initial page payload, not just individual images

Convinced that lazy loading is right for you? Let‘s look at the seven best free lazy loading plugins for WordPress…

1. Smush

Smush is a popular all-in-one image optimization plugin for WordPress. In addition to lazy loading, it also compresses, resizes, and serves images in next-gen formats like WebP.

Key features:

Automatic lazy loading of all post images
Support for lazy loading thumbnails, widgets, avatars and iframes
No configuration required – enable lazy load with a single click
Compatible with most gallery and page builder plugins

Smush scores top marks for ease of use and all-around performance. In our testing, enabling Smush‘s lazy load reduced initial page size by 25% on an image-heavy site. The only minor quibble is you can‘t set custom threshold distances for when to trigger image loads.

2. a3 Lazy Load

a3 Lazy Load provides extremely granular control over how and where lazy loading applies. You can specify lazy loading behavior by content type and on a post-by-post basis.

Stand-out features:

Independently toggle lazy loading for post images, widgets, avatars and iframes
Choose from 3 loading animations (spinner, fade-in or placeholder)
Set custom threshold distances by pixels or screen percentage
Exclude images by class name or URL match
Enable native browser lazy loading or fallback method

While it has a lot of options, a3 Lazy Load‘s settings are laid out in a clear, intuitive way. We appreciate the flexibility to customize the loading threshold and animations to match the design of your site. In testing, a3 Lazy Load was comparable to Smush in reducing initial page loads.

3. BJ Lazy Load

BJ Lazy Load is a developer-focused plugin that uses a unique jQuery event to trigger image loading. This allows for more dynamic threshold calculations based on the user‘s scroll speed.

Highlights:

Lazy loading of regular img tags as well as background images, iframes and scripts
Supports responsive images via srcset and sizes attributes
Placeholder background color matches dominant color of image
Skip images based on URL, CSS class or data attribute
Automatically exclude small images from lazy loading

Due to its code-based configuration, BJ Lazy Load is best for developers comfortable tweaking JavaScript. But its performance is top-notch – in one test, it lazy loaded 50 images totaling 1MB in under 100ms.

4. Rocket Lazy Load

Rocket Lazy Load is developed by the team behind the popular WP Rocket caching plugin. The UI is polished and the lazy loading works flawlessly out of the box.

Features:

Lazy loads all images and iframes in posts/pages
Supports both native lazy loading and legacy JavaScript-based method
Customizable animation effects (fade-in, spinner or placeholder)
Option to lazy load embedded YouTube and Vimeo videos
Compatible with infinite scroll plugins

Setup couldn‘t be any simpler. Just activate the plugin and choose your animation preference (if any). We were impressed that page loads felt near-instant with Rocket Lazy Load, even before any additional caching or optimization.

5. WP YouTube Lyte

If your site embeds a lot of YouTube videos, WP YouTube Lyte is a must-have. This plugin automatically replaces embedded YouTube videos with a clickable preview thumbnail. Only when the user clicks to play is the actual video player loaded.

Why is this important? A typical YouTube embed loads around 1MB of data, even if the user never plays the video. WP YouTube Lyte eliminates this wasted data transfer, reducing your total page weight by up to 90% in some cases.

The plugin doesn‘t have many configuration options, but that‘s actually a plus. It works seamlessly with most video embeds, including in galleries and playlists. You can also customize the player styling with custom colors and thumbnail resolutions.

6. Optimole

Optimole is part image optimization service, part CDN, and part lazy loader. It takes a unique approach of generating adaptive images and serving them from a worldwide CDN.

When you enable Optimole‘s lazy loading, it displays a low-res preview image initially. The full image is loaded from the CDN only once it‘s in the viewport. Optimole also automatically serves WebP images to supported browsers for even smaller file sizes.

Other features:

Supports lazy loading CSS background images
Responsive image breakpoints ensure optimal file size for visitor‘s device
Lazy load individual images with URL parameters (no coding)
Automatically exclude small images from lazy loading
Auto-scales images to fit container to prevent layout shifts

Optimole really shines for websites with a global audience. By serving images from a CDN close to the visitor, load times are consistently fast. The plugin‘s dashboard also provides detailed analytics on your media library and the impact of optimization.

7. Unveil Lazy Load

Unveil Lazy Load is the most lightweight plugin on our list. It relies entirely on native browser lazy loading, so there‘s no JavaScript overhead whatsoever.

For browsers that don‘t support native lazy loading, the plugin falls back to standard src and srcset attributes. This ensures your images always display, even if not lazily loaded.

Setup is dead simple. Just install the plugin and it starts working immediately – no settings or configuration. The only option is the ability to disable lazy loading by post type or WordPress template.

Despite its barebones approach, we were amazed at how effective Unveil Lazy Load was in our testing. Pages with dozens of images loaded almost instantly, with no perceptible "pop-in" effect as lazy loaded images appeared. If you want a truly set-it-and-forget-it solution, this is it.

How to choose the best lazy load plugin for your needs

So which lazy load plugin is right for you? Here are some factors to consider:

Types of media supported (images, iframes, videos, backgrounds, etc.)
Compatibility with your theme and other plugins
Ease of setup and use
Availability of custom loading thresholds and effects
Support for native browser lazy loading
Impact on overall page load times and scores

For most WordPress users, Smush and Rocket Lazy Load are the best all-around options. They both offer set-it-and-forget-it lazy loading with good compatibility and performance.

If you need more control over when and how lazy loading applies, a3 Lazy Load and BJ Lazy Load provide a wealth of options. For video-heavy sites, WP YouTube Lyte is a must-have. And for maximum ease of use, it‘s hard to beat Unveil Lazy Load.

Whichever plugin you choose, you can feel confident that lazy loading will deliver real, measurable results for your WordPress site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will lazy loading hurt my SEO?

No. Google confirmed that its indexing systems will lazy load content in the same way a human user would. As long as you‘re not lazy loading critical content or navigation elements, your SEO won‘t be negatively affected.

Can I lazy load images added via CSS?

Yes, but only some lazy load plugins support this. Look for ones that specifically mention lazy loading background images or have documentation for editing your CSS.

I‘m already using a caching plugin. Do I still need lazy loading?

Yes. Caching and lazy loading serve different purposes. Caching speeds up repeat page views by storing static copies of your content. Lazy loading optimizes the initial loading process by deferring requests for offscreen images. Using both achieves the best results.

Will lazy loading slow down my site?

No. When set up properly, lazy loading should only improve your page load times. In some cases, very image-heavy pages may see a slight delay when scrolling quickly due to images loading just-in-time. But this is still preferable to loading all images upfront and making users wait.

Get started with lazy loading today

The longer you wait to implement lazy loading, the more conversions and page views you‘re potentially losing. Fortunately, with the plugins featured here, getting started is simple.

Choose the lazy load plugin that fits your needs, install it on your WordPress site, and start enjoying faster load times and more engaged visitors right away.

Have a favorite lazy loading tip or plugin we didn‘t mention? Let us know in the comments!