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LazyLoad Plugin – Lazy Load Images, Videos, and Iframes

By WP Media

Performance & Optimization / Caching Solutions

LazyLoad Plugin – Lazy Load Images, Videos, and Iframes Review - In-Depth Analysis

The best free lazy load plugin for WordPress. Lazy load images, videos, and iframes to improve performance and Core Web Vitals scores.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.66/10

User Rating

4.2/5 (based on 139+ reviews)

Active Installations

100,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

LazyLoad is the best free lazy load plugin for WordPress to lazy load images, videos, and iframes on WordPress. In a nutshell, LazyLoad displays images, videos, and iframes on a page only when they are visible to the user – that’s one crucial way to speed up your WordPress site and optimize images for Google PageSpeed.

You can lazy load images in post content or widget text, plus thumbnails, avatars, and smilies. LazyLoad takes care of iframe lazy load, too: you’ll easily replace Youtube iframes with a preview thumbnail to further speed up the loading time of your website.

No JavaScript library such as jQuery is used, and the script weight is less than 10KB.

Lazy loading is a key performance technique to make your site faster. You’ll reduce loading time, improve your Lighthouse performance score and optimize your Core Web Vitals grades.

Lazy loading your images on WordPress will help you achieve a better PageSpeed Insights score for three main reasons: You’ll address a specific PageSpeed Insights recommendation: Defer offscreen images, which means image lazy loading. You’ll improve the performance of two key metrics: First Input Delay (Core Web Vital) and Total Blocking Time (Lighthouse metric). You’ll make fewer HTTP requests – that is another way to boost your site speed and improve the Largest Contentful Paint score (another Core Web Vital).

Take a look at our complete list of reasons why you should use lazy loading. Then, turn on LazyLoad and make your WordPress website faster!

Dependencies: LazyLoad script: https://github.com/verlok/lazyload

Comparing to Alternatives

LazyLoad Plugin offers a straightforward solution for lazy loading images, videos, and iframes, positioning itself among several similar plugins with varying features and complexities.

Top alternatives

a3 Lazy Load
Lazy Load
BJ Lazy Load

Strengths

Simple and easy to configure with minimal settings.
Supports lazy loading for images, videos, and iframes.
Lightweight and does not add significant load to the site.

Weaknesses

Limited customization options compared to some competitors.
Occasional compatibility issues with certain themes or content layouts.
No premium version to access advanced features or support.

User Sentiment Analysis

User feedback highlights both the plugin's effectiveness and some challenges encountered during use.

Positive highlights

"Excellent plugin thank you very much" - equiroz2023
"This plugin works great." - netpotion
"Worked like a charm on my custom WordPress theme." - Artneo
"Works fine for me." - nextthemes

Common complaints

Causes content to disappear after activation in some cases.
Issues with padding and layout, especially with embedded YouTube videos.

Weaknesses

Lack of advanced settings to resolve layout conflicts.
No official support or updates for complex issues.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a simple, no-frills lazy loading solution for images, videos, and iframes on their WordPress site without needing extensive customization.

Not ideal for

Users who require advanced configuration options, guaranteed compatibility with all themes, or professional support for complex site setups.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes basic lazy loading functionality for images, videos, and iframes with straightforward settings suitable for most users.

Final Verdict

LazyLoad Plugin is a lightweight and easy-to-use option for adding lazy loading to WordPress sites, particularly effective for users with simple needs.

However, it may cause layout issues in some cases and lacks advanced features or premium support, making it less suitable for complex or highly customized websites.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free LazyLoad Plugin – Lazy Load Images, Videos, and Iframes plugin.

Defer Offscreen Images

Lazy Load

Lazy Load Images

Lazy Load Plugin

Lazy Loading

FAQ

To use native lazyload on browsers supporting this feature, you need to use the following line:

add_filter( 'rocket_use_native_lazyload', '__return_true' );

Browsers that do not support native lazyload will use the JS-based solution as before.

You can use the do_rocket_lazyload filter.

Here is an example to put in functions.php files that disable lazyload on posts:

add_action( 'wp', 'deactivate_rocket_lazyload_on_single' ); function deactivate_rocket_lazyload_on_single() {     if ( is_single() ) {         add_filter( 'do_rocket_lazyload', '__return_false' );     } }

You can use the rocket_lazyload_threshold filter.

Code sample:

function rocket_lazyload_custom_threshold( $threshold ) {     return 100; } add_filter( 'rocket_lazyload_threshold', 'rocket_lazyload_custom_threshold' );

The plugin will automatically lazy load background-images set with a style attribute to a div element:

<div style="background-image: url(image.jpg);">

You can also apply it manually. The element you want to apply lazy load on must have this specific markup:

<div class="rocket-lazyload" data-bg="url(../img/image.jpg)"></div>

The element must have the class rocket-lazyload, and a data-bg attribute, which value is the CSS url for the image.

Contributors and developers

“LazyLoad Plugin – Lazy Load Images, Videos, and Iframes” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

WP Media

WP Rocket

Free Version Docs

WPS

6.66

Average

Pro version

Ratings

4.2 out of 5 | 139

Version

2.4.0

Last updated

6 months ago

Active installations

100,000+

WordPress version

6.8.5 or higher

PHP version

7.3 or higher

Languages

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LazyLoad Plugin – Lazy Load Images, Videos, and Iframes Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (139)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (0)

WPS

6.66

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