I Used Squoosh for Years,Until It Started Getting in My Way
If you’ve done any frontend work, chances are you’ve used Squoosh.
Same here.
For years, Squoosh was my default. It’s from Google, runs in the browser, and the quality is honestly hard to beat. If I needed to see how far I could push WebP or AVIF before things started looking bad, Squoosh was the tool.
No complaints there.
But over time, one thing started to annoy me more than I expected.
Squoosh Is Great… As Long As You Only Have One Image
Squoosh is built for single-image optimization.
That’s fine when you’re testing.
Not so fine when you’re actually shipping.
Real projects don’t have:
one image
or two images
They have folders. Lots of them.
Compressing images one by one sounds manageable until you’re 15 images in and wondering why you’re still doing this manually in 2025.
The quality is great.
The workflow is not.
“Just Use Something Else” (Yeah, I Tried)
Over the years, I’ve bounced between pretty much every popular option.
TinyJPG is convenient, but:
you’re uploading assets
there are limits
and you don’t get much control
Desktop apps do batch compression, but:
they’re OS-specific
often paid
and feel weirdly heavy for such a simple task
CLI tools are powerful, but let’s be real:
sometimes you just want to drag, drop, compress, and move on with your day.
None of these felt like a clean replacement for what I actually wanted.
What I Really Wanted (Nothing Fancy)
At some point, my requirements became painfully basic:
let me compress multiple images
keep the quality on par with Squoosh
run everything in the browser
don’t upload my files
don’t make me sign up
That’s it. No AI. No dashboards. No growth hacks.
Surprisingly hard to find.
That’s When I Stumbled Across Squeeze
I wasn’t looking for a “better Squoosh.”
I was looking for something that didn’t slow me down.
Squeeze does one thing well:
batch image compression, fully in the browser.
No uploads. No accounts. No nonsense.
It doesn’t have every codec toggle Squoosh has — and that’s fine. I still use Squoosh when I need to test compression limits on a single image.
But when I have a folder of assets and just want them optimized without babysitting the process, Squeeze gets out of the way.
My Current Setup (No Loyalty to Any Tool)
This is how I actually work now:
Squoosh → testing formats and quality
Squeeze → batch-compressing real assets
TinyJPG → occasional quick fixes when nothing else is open
No tool “wins.” They just solve different problems.
Final Take
Image compression isn’t hard anymore.
Bad workflows are.
If you’re happy clicking through images one by one, Squoosh is still excellent.
If that process annoys you even a little, batching suddenly matters a lot.
Use whatever keeps you moving. Tools should save time, not demand attention.
That’s it.