TinyPNG vs Squoosh vs DevOkk: Image Compression Compared

The three products overlap on “make this image smaller.” They do not overlap on where the bytes go, how much control you get, or what the next click is. That is the comparison.

What each product is for

TinyPNG / TinyJPG is a cloud service. The famous path is: upload, wait, download. Smart lossy compression on PNG and JPEG is the brand. Teams wire it into build pipelines and CMS plugins. You are choosing a vendor that will see the image. For a product screenshot that will be public anyway, that is often acceptable. For a photo of a passport or a whiteboard of an unreleased roadmap, it is not.

Squoosh is a lab. You pick a codec, drag quality, compare pixels, and learn why AVIF beat JPEG on this particular picture. It is the right tab when the question is “what format should this hero be?” not “I have 40 PNGs and a deadline.” Features change; treat the live app as the source of truth for which codecs are in the current build.

DevOkk is a utilities site. Compression is one page. The reason to use it is the same reason as the rest of the catalog: no account, and the file is processed in the browser for that job. After compress you can convert HEIC from a phone, wrap JPGs into a PDF, or strip metadata without creating a TinyPNG account. The image roundup is Best free image converter and compression tools.

The overlap: making JPG and PNG smaller

All three will reduce bytes on a typical photo or UI screenshot. None of them is a print RIP.

Quality. TinyPNG is opinionated: you get their compression, which is usually good enough for blogs and product grids. Squoosh puts the trade-off in your face - you can over-crush. DevOkk’s compressor is the everyday pass: shrink for a CMS or email, then look at the result at 100%. Banding on a sky and muddy text on a screenshot are the two failure modes. If either shows up, back off and use How to compress images for the web as the checklist, not a second cloud vendor as a superstition.

PNG vs JPG. PNG is for UI, type, and transparency. JPG is for photos. Compressing a screenshot as JPG will smear the text. TinyPNG’s PNG path exists because PNG is often fat; that does not mean every file should become JPG. Format choice is JPG vs PNG vs WebP. DevOkk’s Convert to JPG and Convert to PNG hubs are for when the container is wrong, not when you only needed a quality slider.

Transparency. Flattening a PNG logo onto white by accident is a classic TinyPNG-adjacent mistake when someone “just converted to JPG.” Check the alpha. Squoosh will show it. A local converter will too if you look.

Privacy and the photo you should not upload

TinyPNG’s model requires the upload. Their policies describe retention; you still created a copy on their infrastructure. Event photography, IDs in the EXIF thumbnail, hospital screens, and Slack screenshots of customer PII do not belong there.

Squoosh’s selling point is local processing. Use it when you want that model and codec toys.

DevOkk’s compressor and converters are built to stay in the tab. Metadata Viewer and Metadata Remover sit on the same site if GPS or camera serials are the next problem. Stripping EXIF is not anonymization of faces.

DevOkk still loads analytics like any marketing site; that is not the same as uploading the image to complete compress. Networking tools on DevOkk send a hostname by design. Image tools are not networking tools.

Volume, pipelines, and “I have a folder”

TinyPNG’s paid tiers and plugins exist because agencies compress in bulk. If that is your job and the images are public marketing assets, arguing about browser tabs is a distraction. Use the pipeline.

Squoosh is a one-image (or small set) decision tool. It is slow as a folder workflow on purpose.

DevOkk is also one-file-at-a-time in the browser. It will not replace ImageOptim, a CI step, or TinyPNG’s API. It will replace “I uploaded a private screenshot to TinyPNG because I did not want to install anything.”

If the folder is HEIC from iPhones, the bottleneck is often format, not TinyPNG’s PNG algorithm. HEIC to JPG is the Windows-compatibility job. TinyPNG does not make HEIC open in Paint.

PNG, JPEG, and the mistakes that look like “the compressor is bad”

UI screenshots as JPEG. TinyPNG’s JPEG path will smear 1px type. Keep PNG (or SVG) for interface chrome. Compress PNG instead of converting. DevOkk’s compressor will make the same mistake if you feed it a screenshot and ask for a photo setting - look at the preview.

Photos as uncompressed PNG. A 12 MP PNG from a “download image” button is a waste. JPG or WebP belongs here. TinyPNG’s PNG optimizer is the wrong first click; convert, then compress.

Animated GIF. TinyPNG has historically had GIF/PNG animation products; do not assume a still compressor preserves frames. DevOkk’s GIF to JPG takes a still. Squoosh is a still-image lab. If you need animation, use a dedicated GIF/video path, not a photo compressor.

EXIF and color profiles. Cloud compressors often strip or rewrite metadata. That can be what you wanted (GPS off) or a color shift you did not. Check a skin-tone photo before/after. Local Metadata Viewer tells you what was there. Stripping is Metadata Remover.

Retina and 3x assets. Compressing a 3x PNG until it is 80 KB can still be the right call if CSS displays it at 1x and the detail died. Squoosh’s side-by-side is how you see that. TinyPNG’s “it got smaller” is not that view.

CI, plugins, and the “we already have TinyPNG” argument

If the marketing site pipeline already calls TinyPNG’s API, adding DevOkk in the middle of that pipeline is theatre. Keep the API for public assets.

If a designer drops a Slack screenshot of an unreleased dashboard into TinyPNG because the plugin is in Photoshop, that is the case the local compressor exists for. Two tools can coexist: API for the bucket of public images, browser for the image that should not enter the bucket.

Squoosh in CI is uncommon; it is a human UI. ImageOptim, sharp, and squoosh’s libraries are the engineer versions. This article compares the websites a non-engineer will open.

SVG and vectors

TinyPNG is a raster product. Squoosh is a raster lab. An SVG logo should not be run through JPEG compression. Rasterize only when a CMS forbids SVG: SVG to PNG. Then compress if the PNG is fat. That chain is a DevOkk-shaped workflow, not a TinyPNG-shaped one.

When to pick which

Use TinyPNG when the images are destined for a public page, you already pay for or trust the service, and you want their defaults.

Use Squoosh when you are choosing WebP vs AVIF vs JPEG and you care about the slider.

Use DevOkk when the image might be sensitive, when you also need HEIC/WebP/SVG/PDF on the same visit, or when you refuse an account for a 200 KB shrink. Start at Online Image Compressor or the image tools hub.

CloudConvert is a different comparison (many formats, cloud). That write-up is DevOkk vs CloudConvert.

A worked example: hero image vs Slack screenshot

Hero. A 4000px product photo destined for the marketing site. If TinyPNG is already in the build, use it. If you are choosing AVIF vs WebP for the first time, Squoosh’s comparison view is the teaching tool. Then lock the decision in sharp or the CMS. DevOkk’s compressor is optional here.

Slack screenshot. A cropped dashboard that includes a customer email in the corner. Do not TinyPNG it. Open Online Image Compressor if you only need bytes down for a ticket, or crop the PII out first in any editor. If the screenshot must become a PDF handoff, PNG to PDF after compress. That chain never needed a cloud image CDN.

Phone photo of a whiteboard. HEIC plus maybe EXIF GPS of the office. Convert with HEIC to JPG, strip metadata, then compress. TinyPNG would both upload the board and not fix HEIC on a PC that cannot open it.

Three images, three architectures. The mistake is using TinyPNG for all three because it was the first bookmark.

If you only needed a 10% shrink on a public JPG, any of the three will do. The comparison exists for the cases where the architecture is the product.

TinyPNG taught the web to compress. Squoosh taught developers to look at codecs. DevOkk is the option that keeps the file in the tab and does not pretend to be either company’s product roadmap.