Best File Compression Software for Developers in 2026

CLI-First Tools

These tools are designed for command-line use and integrate directly into shell scripts, makefiles, and CI pipelines. They process files locally without uploading to external services.

1. ImageMagick

ImageMagick is the Swiss Army knife of image processing. It handles over 200 image formats and provides extensive command-line options for resizing, converting, and compressing images.

# Compress JPG with quality 85
magick input.jpg -quality 85 output.jpg

# Batch convert PNG to WebP
magick mogrify -format webp -quality 80 *.png

# Resize and compress in one pass
magick input.png -resize 1200x -quality 85 output.jpg

• Formats — 200+ image formats including HEIC, WebP, AVIF
• Performance — Single-threaded by default; use -limit thread for parallelism
• Memory — Can be memory-hungry on large images; use -limit memory
• License — Apache 2.0

Best for: General-purpose image manipulation when you need maximum format compatibility. Not the fastest option, but the most versatile.

Website: imagemagick.org

2. Sharp / libvips

Sharp is a high-performance Node.js image processing library built on libvips. It's significantly faster than ImageMagick—typically 4-5x faster with lower memory usage. libvips itself has bindings for Python, Ruby, Go, and other languages.

// Node.js with Sharp
import sharp from 'sharp';

await sharp('input.jpg')
  .resize(1200)
  .webp({ quality: 80 })
  .toFile('output.webp');

// Batch processing with streams
const files = await glob('images/*.png');
await Promise.all(files.map(file =>
  sharp(file)
    .jpeg({ quality: 85, mozjpeg: true })
    .toFile(file.replace('.png', '.jpg'))
));

• Performance — 4-5x faster than ImageMagick, low memory footprint
• Formats — JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIF, TIFF, GIF
• Streaming — Supports streaming for large files
• License — Apache 2.0 (Sharp), LGPL (libvips)

Best for: Node.js applications, build pipelines, and any project where performance matters. The go-to choice for web developers.

Website: sharp.pixelplumbing.com

3. Squoosh CLI

Squoosh CLI brings the same codecs from the Squoosh web app to the command line. It excels at modern format conversion (WebP, AVIF) and uses WebAssembly-compiled codecs for consistent cross-platform behavior.

# Convert to WebP
npx @aspect-build/squoosh-cli --webp '{quality: 75}' input.jpg

# Batch convert to AVIF
npx @aspect-build/squoosh-cli --avif '{quality: 60}' images/*.png

# Resize and convert
npx @aspect-build/squoosh-cli --resize '{width: 800}' --webp auto input.jpg

• Modern Formats — Excellent WebP and AVIF support with fine-grained controls
• Codecs — MozJPEG, OxiPNG, WebP, AVIF, JXL
• Cross-Platform — WebAssembly codecs work identically everywhere
• License — Apache 2.0

Best for: Modern format conversion and when you need identical compression behavior across different operating systems.

Website: GitHub

4. FFmpeg

FFmpeg is the definitive tool for video and audio compression. It handles virtually every codec and container format, with extensive options for quality, bitrate, and encoding speed.

# Compress video with H.264 (CRF 23 is visually lossless)
ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

# Convert to WebM for web
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus output.webm

# Extract and compress audio
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3

# Batch compress videos
for f in *.mov; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 "${f%.mov}.mp4"; done

• Formats — Virtually all video/audio formats and codecs
• Hardware Accel — NVENC, VideoToolbox, VA-API for GPU encoding
• Filtering — Extensive filter graph for processing
• License — LGPL/GPL depending on configuration

Best for: Video and audio compression. There's no real alternative—FFmpeg is the industry standard for media processing.

Website: ffmpeg.org

API-Based Services

When you need to offload compression to a service—either for simplicity, for formats you don't want to handle locally, or for browser-based uploads—these APIs provide reliable endpoints.

5. TinyPNG API

TinyPNG's API uses the same smart lossy compression as their web tool. It's well-established, reliable, and has extensive documentation with libraries for most languages.

# cURL example
curl --user api:YOUR_API_KEY \
     --data-binary @input.png \
     -o output.png \
     https://api.tinify.com/shrink

// Node.js
import tinify from 'tinify';
tinify.key = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

await tinify.fromFile('input.png').toFile('output.png');

// With resize
await tinify.fromFile('input.png')
  .resize({ method: 'fit', width: 800, height: 600 })
  .toFile('output.png');

• Formats — PNG, JPG, WebP (input and output)
• Pricing — 500 free compressions/month, then $0.009/image
• Libraries — Official SDKs for Ruby, PHP, Node, Python, Java, .NET
• Features — Resize, preserve metadata, S3/GCS storage

Best for: Established projects needing reliable image compression with good SDK support.

Website: tinypng.com/developers

6. CloudConvert

CloudConvert supports 200+ formats including document conversions, video transcoding, and image optimization. It's a general-purpose conversion API rather than a compression specialist.

// Node.js with CloudConvert SDK
import CloudConvert from 'cloudconvert';

const cloudConvert = new CloudConvert('YOUR_API_KEY');

const job = await cloudConvert.jobs.create({
  tasks: {
    'import-file': { operation: 'import/upload' },
    'compress': {
      operation: 'optimize',
      input: 'import-file',
      quality: 75
    },
    'export': {
      operation: 'export/url',
      input: 'compress'
    }
  }
});

• Formats — 200+ formats across images, documents, video, audio
• Webhooks — Event notifications for async processing
• Pricing — Free tier (25 conversions/day), then pay-per-conversion
• Data Residency — EU (Frankfurt) or US servers

Best for: When you need format conversion alongside compression, or when you need video/audio transcoding.

Website: cloudconvert.com/api

7. Kraken.io

Kraken.io focuses on image optimization for web performance. It offers both lossy and lossless compression, with additional features like image resizing and WebP conversion.

# cURL with URL fetch
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "auth": {"api_key": "YOUR_KEY", "api_secret": "YOUR_SECRET"},
    "url": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
    "lossy": true,
    "quality": 80
  }' \
  https://api.kraken.io/v1/url

• Compression — Lossy and lossless modes
• Formats — JPEG, PNG, GIF, SVG, WebP
• Features — Resize, crop, rotate, WebP auto-conversion
• Pricing — Plans from $5/mo (500 MB) to $79/mo (25 GB)

Best for: Web performance optimization with a focus on image delivery.

Website: kraken.io/docs

Desktop Tools with Automation

These tools have GUIs but also provide CLI interfaces or scripting capabilities, making them suitable for local automation workflows.

8. 7-Zip

7-Zip's command-line interface (7z) is fully-featured and scriptable. It's the standard choice for creating archives in build scripts and deployment pipelines.

# Create 7z archive with maximum compression
7z a -t7z -mx=9 archive.7z folder/

# Create ZIP for compatibility
7z a -tzip archive.zip folder/

# Extract with progress
7z x archive.7z -o./output

# Encrypt archive
7z a -p"password" -mhe=on encrypted.7z folder/

• Compression — LZMA2 (7z), Deflate (ZIP), BZip2, etc.
• Encryption — AES-256 with header encryption
• Exit Codes — Proper exit codes for scripting (0=OK, 1=Warning, 2=Fatal)
• License — LGPL, free for commercial use

Best for: Creating archives in build scripts. Use 7z format for size, ZIP for compatibility.

Website: 7-zip.org

9. ImageOptim CLI

ImageOptim is a macOS app that bundles multiple optimization tools (pngquant, MozJPEG, SVGO). The CLI version allows automation while using the same optimization pipeline.

# Install via Homebrew
brew install imageoptim-cli

# Optimize single image
imageoptim image.png

# Batch optimize directory
imageoptim --directory ./images

# Use with specific quality (via pngquant config)
imageoptim --quality 60-80 *.png

• Platform — macOS only (CLI requires the GUI app)
• Formats — PNG, JPEG, GIF, SVG
• Tools Used — pngquant, MozJPEG, Zopfli, SVGO, Gifsicle
• License — GPL (CLI), free app

Best for: macOS developers who want local optimization without configuring individual tools.

Website: imageoptim.com/mac

10. PeaZip

PeaZip is a cross-platform archiver that can run in console mode. It supports 200+ formats and provides a portable version that requires no installation.

# Create archive from command line
peazip -add2archive archive.7z folder/

# Extract archive
peazip -ext2here archive.7z

# Using the command-line backend directly
pea a archive.7z folder/ -compression=ultra

• Formats — 200+ archive formats including RAR, 7z, ZIP, TAR
• Portable — Runs from USB without installation
• Encryption — AES-256, Twofish, Serpent
• License — LGPLv3, free and open source

Best for: Cross-platform archiving when you need format support beyond 7-Zip.

Website: peazip.github.io

11. HandBrake CLI

HandBrake's CLI (HandBrakeCLI) provides the same video transcoding capabilities as the GUI. It's useful for batch video encoding with consistent settings.

# Encode with Fast 1080p30 preset
HandBrakeCLI -i input.mkv -o output.mp4 --preset="Fast 1080p30"

# Custom encoding settings
HandBrakeCLI -i input.mov -o output.mp4 \
  -e x264 -q 22 -E aac -B 160 \
  --width 1920 --height 1080

# Batch encode
for f in *.mkv; do
  HandBrakeCLI -i "$f" -o "${f%.mkv}.mp4" --preset="Fast 1080p30"
done

• Presets — Built-in presets for common devices and platforms
• Codecs — H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, AV1
• Hardware — Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC, AMD VCE support
• License — GPL, free and open source

Best for: Batch video encoding when you want preset-based workflows. For advanced control, use FFmpeg directly.

Website: handbrake.fr

Build Pipeline Integration

Here's how to integrate compression tools into common build systems and CI/CD pipelines.

Vite Image Optimization

Use vite-plugin-imagemin or vite-imagetools to optimize images during build:

// vite.config.js
import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import { imagetools } from 'vite-imagetools';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    imagetools({
      defaultDirectives: (url) => {
        if (url.searchParams.has('hero')) {
          return new URLSearchParams('w=1200&format=webp&quality=80');
        }
        return new URLSearchParams('format=webp&quality=85');
      }
    })
  ]
});

Webpack with Sharp

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [{
      test: /\.(png|jpe?g|webp)$/i,
      use: [{
        loader: 'responsive-loader',
        options: {
          adapter: require('responsive-loader/sharp'),
          quality: 85,
          format: 'webp'
        }
      }]
    }]
  }
};

GitHub Actions Workflow

Automate image optimization on pull requests:

# .github/workflows/optimize-images.yml
name: Optimize Images
on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - '**.png'
      - '**.jpg'
      - '**.jpeg'

jobs:
  optimize:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install Sharp CLI
        run: npm install -g sharp-cli

      - name: Optimize images
        run: |
          find . -name "*.png" -exec sharp -i {} -o {} \;
          find . -name "*.jpg" -exec sharp -i {} -o {} --quality 85 \;

      - name: Commit changes
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v5
        with:
          commit_message: "chore: optimize images"

Make/Shell Script

# Makefile
.PHONY: optimize-images optimize-videos build

IMAGES := $(wildcard assets/images/*.{png,jpg})
WEBP := $(IMAGES:.png=.webp) $(IMAGES:.jpg=.webp)

%.webp: %.png
	sharp -i $< -o $@ --format webp --quality 85

%.webp: %.jpg
	sharp -i $< -o $@ --format webp --quality 85

optimize-images: $(WEBP)

optimize-videos:
	@for f in assets/videos/*.mov; do \
		ffmpeg -i "$$f" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 "$${f%.mov}.mp4"; \
	done

build: optimize-images optimize-videos
	npm run build

Speed vs Privacy Comparison

Here's how the 11 tools compare on key developer considerations.

* FFmpeg speed depends on codec and hardware acceleration. GPU encoding (NVENC) is fast; CPU encoding with x265 is slow.
** 7-Zip speed depends on compression level. Fast ZIP is quick; ultra 7z is slow.
*** Video encoding is inherently slow; HandBrake uses presets optimized for quality over speed.

Choosing by Workflow

Match the tool to your specific development workflow:

Web Development

Mobile Development

CI/CD Pipelines

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common developer questions about file compression tools.