Autoptimize

88 Quality Score

Active Installs

26/30

With 800,000 active installs, Autoptimize has a very large user base that signals wide trust in the WordPress community, though it sits well below LiteSpeed Cache's 7 million.

Update Freshness

25/25

A last update on 2026-04-04 and confirmed compatibility with WordPress 6.9.4 shows the developer is actively shipping releases, earning a perfect maintenance score.

User Rating

14/15

A 94 out of 100 from 1,426 reviewers indicates consistently positive experiences, a strong signal given the sample size.

Support Health

8/15

Only 3 support threads with 2 resolved is a thin sample to judge, and the resulting 50 score suggests response volume is low even if resolution rate is acceptable.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Full compatibility marks reflect the plugin's low PHP 7.1 and WordPress 5.3 minimums, plus its tested status on the latest WordPress release.

Scores higher than 98% of indexed plugins

About

Autoptimize speeds up your website by optimizing JS, CSS, images (incl. lazy-load), HTML and Google Fonts, asyncing JS, removing emoji cruft and more.

Active Installs 800k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.7/5

Last Updated 2026-09-26 6:08am GMT

Requires WordPress 5.3+

Tested Up To 7.1.2

Requires PHP 7.4+

Security History

13 known vulnerabilities, all patched

2 Critical 3 High 8 Medium

Most recent: April 27, 2026

View details ▸

Multiple Plugins <= Multiple Versions - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting High

April 27, 2026 Patched in ["3.1.15"] CVE-2026-3220

Autoptimize <= 3.1.14 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'ao_post_preload' Meta Value Medium

March 20, 2026 Patched in ["3.1.15"] CVE-2026-2352

Autoptimize <= 3.1.14 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Lazy-loaded Image Attributes Medium

March 20, 2026 Patched in ["3.1.15"] CVE-2026-2430

Autoptimize <= 3.1.13 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting Medium

December 3, 2025 Patched in ["3.1.14"] CVE-2025-13401

Autoptimize <= 3.1.6 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Critical CSS Rules Medium

April 25, 2023 Patched in ["3.1.7"] CVE-2023-2113

Autoptimize <= 3.0.4 - Sensitive Information Disclosure Medium

December 5, 2022 Patched in ["3.1.0"] CVE-2022-4057

Autoptimize <= 3.1.0 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Critical CSS Settings Medium

July 19, 2022 Patched in ["3.1.1"] CVE-2022-2635

Autoptimize <= 2.8.3 - Stored Cross-Site Scripting Medium

May 7, 2021 Patched in ["2.8.4"] CVE-2021-24332

Autoptimize <= 2.7.7 - Arbitrary File Upload (and Remote Code Execution) via Import Settings Critical

October 9, 2020 Patched in ["2.7.8"] CVE-2021-24376

Autoptimize <= 2.7.7 - Unsafe File Upload to Cross-Site Scripting Medium

October 9, 2020 Patched in ["2.7.8"] CVE-2021-24378

Autoptimize <= 2.7.7 - Race Condition leading to Remote Code Execution High

October 9, 2020 Patched in ["2.7.8"] CVE-2021-24377

Autoptimize <= 2.7.6 - Authenticated Arbitrary File Upload High

August 24, 2020 Patched in ["2.7.7"] CVE-2020-24948

Autoptimize <= 2.1.0 - Unauthenticated Local File Inclusion Critical

June 19, 2017 Patched in ["2.1.1"]

What It Does

Autoptimize is a front-end performance plugin that aggregates, minifies, and defers JavaScript and CSS, removes WordPress emoji cruft, inlines critical CSS, and offers lazy-loading for images along with Google Fonts optimization. It bundles its own CDN options and integrates with caching plugins to push PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores higher without requiring a server-side caching layer.

Who It's For

This plugin is well suited to site owners on shared or managed hosting where server-level caching is unavailable or restricted, particularly content publishers, blogs, and small business sites that need a quick front-end performance win. It also fits agencies that want a lightweight, compatible tool to drop onto existing client sites without re-architecting them.

Who Should Skip It

If you already run LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket, or a full-page caching solution that handles minification and deferral natively, you do not need Autoptimize on top of it, as stacking optimizers usually creates conflicts. Likewise, users on LiteSpeed or managed hosts with built-in optimization (Kinsta, WP Engine) will see little benefit.

The Bottom Line

Autoptimize earns an 88.04 overall score thanks to strong maintenance, high ratings, and broad adoption, making it a dependable choice for squeezing better PageSpeed scores out of standard hosting. Its main weakness is thin support volume, and it is not necessary on hosts or stacks that already include front-end optimization. For the right site, it remains one of the most reliable tuning plugins available.

Related Plugins

LiteSpeed Cache 95/100

Pick LiteSpeed Cache instead if your host runs the LiteSpeed web server, since it offers server-level page caching that Autoptimize cannot match in raw speed.

Jetpack 93/100

Choose Jetpack when you want performance bundled with security, backups, and growth tools in a single subscription rather than just front-end optimization.

Redis Object Cache 92/100

Choose Redis Object Cache when your bottleneck is database query time rather than front-end asset delivery, as it solves a different layer of the stack.

Super Page Cache for Cloudflare 90/100

Pick Super Page Cache when you route traffic through Cloudflare and want edge caching, which Autoptimize does not provide.

WP Fastest Cache 89/100

Choose WP Fastest Cache if you want a simpler, single-purpose page caching plugin with less configuration overhead than Autoptimize's many toggles.