Gumlet vs External Images Plugin

Dave Hilditch •

Want faster results? Try External Images on your store.

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Comparing Gumlet with External Images? This page breaks down the key differences and similarities so you can find the best fit for your WordPress or WooCommerce store.

Overview of Gumlet

Gumlet is an image optimisation and CDN service that compresses, resizes, and converts images to modern formats on the fly via a proxy CDN. For WordPress, it integrates as a plugin that rewrites image URLs to route requests through Gumlet's processing network, delivering optimised images without modifying source files on your server.

Visit Gumlet →

How External Images differs from Gumlet

All plugins from Super Speedy Plugins share a SQL-first architecture and an uncompromising focus on performance — and External Images is no different. Here is what sets it apart:

If a supplier, merchant or CDN already hosts your images, downloading copies into WordPress wastes import time, CPU and disk. External Images lets WooCommerce use those remote URLs without creating local attachments or thumbnails.

Gumlet optimises the delivery and format of images that are hosted on your server, applying compression and format conversion at the CDN layer. External Images does not optimise existing images but removes the need to host product images on your server at all — storing only the external URL reference and pointing WooCommerce at the original source. For large imported product catalogues, eliminating hosting entirely is a different class of solution from delivery optimisation.

How to choose between Gumlet and External Images?

Gumlet's image processing is valuable for optimising images you host yourself. External Images solves a different problem — eliminating server-hosted product images entirely for stores where images live at external source URLs. SQL-first, one-million-product tested, free trial available.

What do others say about External Images?

★★★★★
Gary C — July 2022

I have been looking a very long time for a plugin that does what this plugin does! Amazing support and answers to my questions. Thank you!

★★★★★
MARCUS FLETCHER — September 2022

Purchased the external images plugin which was superb. Needed some bespoke work so it was compatible with a third party plugin and Dave was only to happy to help and in record time. Very happy.

★★★★★
Mark — May 2023

I'm impressed. I wasn't sure I would be able to accomplish what I needed with my images. I'm hosting images on my site for SEO purposes. On product upload, I don't need WP to download those images and create multiple versions that a browser could serve (more images served = slower website load). Since I've optimized my images I want WordPress to use those images. With the external images plugin, I'm able to upload my images via FTP. Then I upload a reference to those images in the product upload file. Also, support is fantastic. My theme had a slight issue with external images. Dave personally looked into it and was able to quickly resolve the issue for me.

What's new in External Images?

3.43.11 (20th October 2026)

  • Faster first page views of products sharing images, because unchanged image attachment details are no longer rewritten

3.43.10 (20th October 2026)

  • Fixed first page views of products that share an image with other products being slow behind nginx-helper and other cache purgers, because unchanged image attachments are no longer re-saved
  • Tested up to WordPress 7.1

3.43.9 (22nd August 2026)

  • Updated super-speedy-settings to the latest version

3.43.8 (21st August 2026)

  • Hardened the shared settings module and removed its Jetpack Autoloader dependency
View full changelog →

Want faster results? Try External Images on your store.

Get External Images →

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