Image to WEBP: When to Use Squoosh, CloudConvert, or MyTools

You need WEBPs. Maybe Lighthouse is yelling about your hero image, maybe your client suddenly requires WEBP for every logo in the brand kit, maybe you're under a CDN quota and need to shrink six years of JPGs. The question isn't really "which is the best WEBP converter?" — it's "which one is the right fit for this job?" This article puts the two names that come up most often, Squoosh and CloudConvert, side by side with the MyTools converter, with the goal of making the choice obvious by the time you reach the bottom.

What an Image-to-WEBP Converter Actually Does

WEBP is the format the modern web settled on for photo and graphic delivery. At the same perceived quality, a WEBP is typically 25–35% smaller than a JPG and handles transparency without the bloat of a PNG. Every current browser supports it, which is why so many performance audits and design systems now expect WEBP assets by default.

People end up needing a converter for three pretty specific reasons:

A performance audit caught a heavy PNG or JPG and the obvious fix is to swap in a WEBP that looks the same but weighs a third as much.
A brand kit, CMS, or upload form now requires WEBP and the source files are PNGs with transparency, HEIC straight off an iPhone, or AVIFs that came out of an editor.
An image library has outgrown its hosting tier and re-encoding the back catalogue to WEBP buys back the headroom without paying for the next plan.

Desktop tools can do this, but installing ImageMagick or Photoshop for a one-off swap is overkill — and on a work laptop where you can't install anything, it's not even an option. Online converters fill that gap.

The Three Tools, Briefly

Squoosh is Google's browser-based image compressor and converter, beloved by web developers for its real-time quality preview. CloudConvert is a long-standing online conversion service that supports 200+ formats and handles uploads server-side. MyTools is the converter on this site — also browser-based, like Squoosh, but with batch processing as a first-class feature.

Squoosh

Squoosh is the tool every front-end developer has bookmarked at some point. It's open source, free, runs entirely in your browser via WebAssembly, and was originally built by Google's Chrome team as a showcase for browser-based image processing.

What it gets right

The side-by-side preview is unbeatable. A drag slider in the middle of the canvas lets you compare the original against the WEBP at any quality setting, in real time. For decisions like "is 75 good enough, or do I need 85?" nothing else in this lineup comes close.
Encoder controls are deep. You can fiddle with effort, method, and the exact quality value, plus toggle alpha quality separately. If you care about squeezing every kilobyte while keeping a particular detail crisp, Squoosh hands you the knobs.
Everything is local. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is logged. For sensitive or pre-release imagery this matters.

Where it falls short

One image at a time, full stop. Squoosh has no batch mode. If you have thirty product photos to convert, you drag, encode, save, and repeat thirty times. The GitHub issue requesting batch is years old.
Development has slowed dramatically since late 2020. The CLI was deprecated; the web app still works but isn't actively gaining features.
No HEIC input. Photos straight off an iPhone need a separate conversion step first.

CloudConvert

CloudConvert is a Swiss-army conversion service that has been around for over a decade. It supports 200+ formats — not just images, but documents, audio, video, archives — and lives entirely on its own infrastructure. You upload, it converts, you download.

What it gets right

Format coverage is enormous. Beyond the usual suspects, CloudConvert ingests obscure raw formats, DNGs, PSDs with layers flattened, and almost anything else you'd plausibly have.
Batch is supported out of the box. You queue multiple files, set the target format once, and download the whole set when it's done.
Encoder options are visible. Quality, dimensions, fit mode, strip metadata — all exposed for each file in the queue.

Where it falls short

Files are uploaded to a server. That's how the conversion happens. CloudConvert is transparent about it and deletes inputs after a window, but if your imagery is sensitive or under NDA, an uploaded copy is still an uploaded copy.
The free tier is rationed. Anonymous use is capped at roughly 25 conversion minutes per day; heavier use needs a paid plan. For a one-time batch this is fine; for a daily workflow it's friction.
Larger files are gated. The free tier handles modest sizes; raising the limit means a Pro plan. For multi-hundred-megabyte TIFF scans this matters.

MyTools

The MyTools converter is browser-based like Squoosh, but designed around the batch case Squoosh ignores. Drop up to thirty mixed-format images, pick a quality, hit Convert, and download the whole set as a ZIP.

What it gets right

Batch is the default, not the exception. Thirty files per run, mixed formats fine, single ZIP download at the end.
The format range on the input side is wide: JPG, PNG, HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF, SVG, ICO — and WEBP itself, for re-encoding at a different quality. HEIC support is the one that quietly saves the most time for iPhone users.
Processing runs in your browser. Files are never uploaded, so there's no daily cap, no server retention, and no signup gate. Free with no watermark on the output.

Where it falls short

No side-by-side quality preview. You pick from four presets (Low, Medium, Default 85, Max) and convert — you don't get the live A/B that Squoosh offers. For most production work the 85 default lands in the right place, but you can't visually tune mid-flight.
Animated GIFs collapse to the first frame. WEBP supports animation, but multi-frame export isn't implemented yet — for now, animated input becomes a single-frame WEBP. If you're converting motion, this is a real limitation.
Hard ceilings: 50 MB per file, 30 files per batch. Fine for a typical photo library; a multi-gigabyte archive of TIFF scans needs to be split into runs.

At a Glance

	Squoosh	CloudConvert	MyTools
Free tier	Fully free	~25 conv. min/day	Fully free
Batch mode	No	Yes	Yes (up to 30)
Files uploaded to server	No (browser)	Yes	No (browser)
Quality preview	Real-time side-by-side	None	Preset only (no live A/B)
HEIC input	No	Yes	Yes
Animated WEBP output	No	Yes	First frame only
Signup required	No	No (until limit hit)	No
Best for	One image, careful tuning	Mixed formats, big files	Batches of photos and logos

Which One Should You Pick?

If you're optimising a single hero image and want to dial the quality with your eyes, use Squoosh. Nothing in this comparison matches its preview slider, and for a one-off decision the lack of batch doesn't matter.

If you need to convert a few huge files — a 300 MB TIFF scan, a stack of raw camera files, anything well past 50 MB — CloudConvert is the realistic option, especially if you can spare a Pro plan or your batch fits within the daily free minutes. Same answer if your source format is obscure enough that browser-based tools choke on it.

If you're doing the normal version of this job — a batch of photos, screenshots, logos, or iPhone HEICs, all under 50 MB each, and you don't want to upload them — the MyTools converter is the most direct fit. You skip the per-image grind of Squoosh, you skip the upload and the daily cap of CloudConvert, and you get a ZIP at the end.

The Bottom Line

Squoosh is the right tool when the job is "tune one image carefully." CloudConvert is the right tool when the job is "convert files that exceed what a browser can chew on." MyTools is the right tool when the job is "convert a pile of normal photos to WEBP without uploading them anywhere."

Need to do that last one? Open the MyTools Image to WEBP converter →