Toolkiya vs TinyPNG — image compressor Compared in 2026

TinyPNG (and its sibling TinyJPG) is the classic web-developer tool for image compression. The compression engine is excellent — perceptually lossless at meaningful size reductions — and the simple drag-and-drop UI made it the default for years. The constraint that pushes users to alternatives is the limit: 20 images per batch, 5 MB per image on the free tier.

For a small team optimising a few hero images, the limit is fine. For anyone preparing assets in bulk — a product catalog, a photo gallery, a documentation site — the limit becomes a friction every single session. The paid Developer API plan removes the limits but starts at $25/month for 500 images, scaling up from there.

Toolkiya's image compressor uses MozJPEG, oxipng, and libwebp running in the browser via WebAssembly. The compression quality is comparable to TinyPNG on most inputs, the limits are removed entirely, and the images never leave your device.

Verdict: matched quality, very different limits

On a per-image basis, TinyPNG's compression engine is excellent and slightly edges out the open-source encoders Toolkiya uses for some content. For a hero image where every byte matters, you might see a 3–5% size advantage with TinyPNG.

Choose Toolkiya if: you process more than 20 images per session, you want WebP or AVIF output without paying for the API, you have files larger than 5 MB, or you want to compress images locally without uploading. For most web-development workflows this covers all the friction TinyPNG creates.

Choose TinyPNG if: you specifically need the compression-quality edge for a small set of hero images, you need their developer API for build-time automation, or you are already on a paid plan and the workflow is integrated with your tooling. Their API has been the de-facto standard for build-time image optimisation for almost a decade.

A common workflow: run a bulk pass with Toolkiya during asset preparation, then re-process the most prominent images with TinyPNG's API in a build step for the final 3–5% squeeze.