Managing your site’s media files might not seem crucial, but it can bolster any WordPress website’s performance and scalability. As your site grows, your Media Library will too—along with your load times and hosting costs. Storing that media on another server can mitigate these issues, but you’ll need a suitable media offload plugin to help.
As such, I’ll examine and compare five leading WordPress media offload plugins to help you choose the right solution for your needs. Throughout, you’ll also learn which solution will suit specific jobs.
Before I get into each plugin, you might not realize that offloading your media can have some fantastic positive benefits. A primary consideration will be over server storage, especially if you host a lot of media.
While images can take up space, video is a big driver of traffic. There are billions of video viewers across the globe, and the ad spend for business is astronomical. All of this video footage—even six-second bumpers—can quickly eat up your hosting storage space. If you choose to work in high-resolution formats such as 4K, this will be even more pertinent. Offloading these files to cloud storage can free up valuable resources.
Speaking of which, the offload process will typically include access to a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This can ensure your video will reach almost everywhere on the planet and provide a consistent User Experience (UX). The foundational performance this can give your site means media files will load fast, with a distributed approach being an improvement over other methods.
Finally, storing media on your own servers could come with a data privacy and security risk. Typical media offloaders handle this aspect for you. Most will provide some compliance and guarantee that the media will be safe and secure.
It’s time to get into each of the five plugins to help you offload your WordPress media! At the core, these plugins will move your Media Library offsite and serve the files through its own architecture.
However, each plugin will also come with its own unique blend of features and functionality. As such, there are typical use cases for them all—and I’ll look to point this out for every solution.
1. Infinite Uploads
I’m not a spoiler sharer (promise!), but I’m going to start with my favorite plugin of the moment: Infinite Uploads. This stands out to me as an all-in-one solution for WordPress media management because it provides cloud storage, a CDN, and a customizable video player in one package.
On the surface, the plugin is straightforward. Digging into its functionality though, you will find depth in its offering:
- A super-quick and intuitive cloud storage setup process without the need to sign up for third-party accounts.
- There’s integrated video streaming and a customizable player that includes adaptive bitrate technology.
- For the CDN, you can leverage more than 110+ Points of Presence (PoPs), so there should be no issues with accessing your media across the world.
- You can connect as many sites as you need and upload as much media as you have available.
I’m a fan of Infinite Uploads’ usability. This is something I talk about in the plugin’s review elsewhere on WP Mayor. The plugin excels in simplicity and offers a straightforward setup process that takes only a few clicks. I was able to go from zero to full functionality—cloud storage and video player—within about five minutes maximum.
Part of the functionality I’m sure relates to the companion Big File Uploads plugin, which simply lets you upload large media files! Regardless, agencies will like the interface for managing multiple sites as it offers analytics, options, and more:
In a nutshell, Infinite Uploads is ideal if you host extensive video content in particular. Aside from this, it’s a friction-free cloud storage solution for your WordPress media and one I can recommend—it’s certainly my current favorite.
Pricing
Infinite Uploads’ pricing is clear and easy to understand. One of my favorite aspects is that you get almost the full functionality of the premium plugin regardless of the tier you choose. There are two available:
- Starter. For $192 per year (or $16 per month), you get 50 GB of storage and 100 GB of CDN bandwidth.
- Business. For $288 per year (or $24 per month), you get double the storage and bandwidth. In addition, you can also use custom CDN domain names and access credentials for S3-compatible services.
Even better, every plan lets you upload as much as you need across all of your sites. This is perfect for agencies in particular.
2. WP Offload Media
Only zombies and WordPress users unite when it comes to loving Delicious Brains! The developer has a titanium-strength portfolio of products, and WP Offload Media is one of its best offerings.
The focus here is on integrating with major cloud storage providers, alongside a heaving feature set that developers will love:
- There’s support for storage providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, and other S3-compatible cloud hosts.
- You’re able to restrict access to certain file types, which is perfect for e-commerce stores or subscription sites.
- WP Offload Media doesn’t only work with images and video. It also lets you offload CSS, fonts, JavaScript, and other site files.
While the plugin is powerful, the setup process requires more technical knowledge. For instance, you’ll need to access the wp-config.php file and add a snippet:
As such, WP Offload Media suits developers who already have some comfort with cloud services. In comparison to the simple implementation of Infinite Uploads, WP Offload Media does provide more granular control over how you deliver your media. If this is you, or you require integration with a specific cloud hosting provider, the plugin might be the one to opt for.
Pricing
My one gripe with Delicious Brains’ pricing model is how it restricts functionality to its higher tiers. This is a legitimate business model, but as other media offload plugins show, it’s not always the most customer-centric.
$39-59 nets you the core functionality and a 2,000–6,000 image offload allowance across however many sites you need. This might only represent a couple of gigabytes of media, which seems low in comparison to Infinite Uploads. What’s more, a $249 Platinum tier purchase only represents maybe six gigabytes worth of optimized media.
Of course, this is my super-rough guesstimate, which also shows that setting offload caps can be confusing when using storage allowances might be better. When it comes to value, Infinite Uploads has the edge for me.
3. Advanced Media Offloader
Competition is good, and there’s a media offload plugin I like that has a small, yet dedicated fan base. Advanced Media Offloader does what it says on the tin, although there’s nothing complex about the functionality.
The workflow for this plugin gives you more automation in a number of ways:
- It will upload any new media you add to your site to your choice of storage. On this point, the plugin supports Amazon, DigitalOcean, MinIO, or Cloudflare.
- You’re also able to offload media in bulk, which is a handy timesaver.
- Advanced Media Offloader will rewrite the URLs for your image and video files without the need for your input.
In comparison to Infinite Uploads and WP Offload Media, this plugin is more functional and basic. For a start, there’s no built-in CDN. What’s more, you have a few more steps to take when it comes to uploading existing media. However, there are developer hooks available if you have that knowledge, which I always appreciate seeing in a WordPress plugin.
Because of this, I’d suggest that if you have familiarity with S3 storage and are a developer, Advanced Media Offloader could be ideal. It’s a lightweight plugin that serves as a foundation, but in contrast to Infinite Uploads (or WP Offload Media), it may not be suitable for typical ‘plug-and-play’ situations.
Pricing
The best feature of Advanced Media Offloader is the price! There’s no premium version, which means the full functionality is available for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
4. Offload, AI, and Optimize with Cloudflare Images
Much like the Model T-Ford, this plugin can connect with any cloud storage provider as long as it’s Cloudflare! Of course, the name gives it away: Offload, AI, and Optimize with Cloudflare Images does those three things for Cloudflare customers.
Despite the blunt plugin name, you might have some confusion about what it helps you achieve. A run through the feature set should help explain:
- At the base, the plugin offloads your site’s images and video to the Cloudflare Images storage solution and CDN.
- It ensures that media is secure within the bucket.
- The plugin optimizes each piece of media to reduce the file size, which includes resizing to your specifications.
- There’s also Artificial Intelligence (AI) for tagging and captioning. The model can generate new images for you.
I like the usability of this plugin, as it uses a clean interface with toggle switches. This means you can click away and set up the offload and delivery of your media within minutes:
You’ll need to know how to connect your Cloudflare account to the plugin, but I’d argue that existing users would be able to do this without breaking a sweat. Of course, current Cloudflare users will gravitate towards this plugin, as will sites that need more optimization than what the competition provides.
It could be that AI media management is important for you, too, as it can carry out automatic tagging and captioning. A project with lots of media files will benefit from this.
Pricing
As with Advanced Media Offloader, this plugin is completely free to use. However, I did notice a Pro Features label within the plugin’s dashboard but no mention of an upgrade path. It could be that this is on the roadmap for the future.
5. VideoPress
The final WordPress media offload plugin on this list is arguably the ‘official’ solution for the job, but it’s not an exact fit either. VideoPress is an Automattic ‘joint’—the video hosting solution integrates with Jetpack and WordPress.com’s services.
A few years ago, I was a premium customer of Jetpack’s backup solution and video hosting—and I have a fond recollection of the package. As with other Automattic products, you get rich, essential functionality:
- The integration with WordPress is arguably the best on the market, as it lives within the existing Media Library.
- You can take advantage of a global CDN and reliable video hosting, and set adaptive bitrates for users.
- The video player offers some customization, and you have the option to make videos private too.
- For embedding videos into posts and pages, you can use a number of dedicated Blocks for the task.
Usability-wise, VideoPress is comfortable and familiar. Automattic always provides the greatest integration, and I’d suggest this is often better than the direct competition—even if it does lack flexibility when it comes to options.
However, as the name suggests, there’s one big drawback. VideoPress doesn’t handle images on your site, only video. This could be an issue, as not many sites will need a video-only solution—if anything, it would be the other way around. While there are other Jetpack solutions for this, it’s worth noting that you’d likely have a clear need to host video to look at VideoPress.
Pricing
If you’re a Premium WordPress.com user, you already have access to VideoPress as part of your plan. For everyone else, you’ll need an account that starts from $10 per month based on annual billing. It’s a cheap price, but you may not need all of the other functionality on offer. What’s more, there’s no free version available.
I’ve been a user of both VideoPress and WP Offload Media in the past, and the latter is one of the best solutions around. However, Infinite Uploads is a fantastic WordPress media offload plugin that might usurp it as the champion.
Its combination of functionality, usability, and price is attractive—and it would be for both individual site owners and agencies. In fact, I’d argue that Infinite Uploads is a top all-around tool for offloading your media files. There’s a seven-day trial available, too, that doesn’t restrict the functionality if you want to test it out.
Do you agree that Infinite Uploads is a standout WordPress media offload plugin? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
