Curtail vs imgproxy

Curtail is a free Linux application for compressing PNG, JPEG, WebP, and SVG images. It offers both compression modes and lets users decide whether image metadata is retained. Recursive directory compression supports batch processing across folder contents. When compression would produce a larger file, Curtail restores the original. Actions are provided to open a compressed image and reveal it in its folder. The project is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later and uses open-source components including Oxipng, pngquant, Jpegoptim, libwebp, and Scour. The project recommends installing its Flatpak package from Flathub; unofficial Snap, Ubuntu PPA, and Fedora COPR packages are also listed. Flathub marks the app as potentially unsafe and lists read/write access to the home folder. The GNOME page lists version 1.17.0, released on 2026-10-05, and links to an issue tracker. Curtail is available at no cost, with no trial required.

imgproxy is a self-hosted HTTP server that transforms images on demand using a source URL and processing options. It can resize, crop, trim, rotate, pad, watermark, apply filters and color adjustments, and chain processing steps. Sources include HTTP(S), local files, Amazon S3-compatible storage, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, and OpenStack Swift. Supported formats include JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, GIF, SVG, ICO, HEIC, BMP, TIFF, and animated GIF and WebP. Optimization can remove metadata and ICC profiles, quantize PNGs, and serve WebP, AVIF, or JPEG XL when a browser supports the format. imgproxy can run in Docker, Kubernetes with Helm, cloud environments, or on a local machine. Security options include signed URLs, authorization headers, source and file-size limits, dimension checks, URL expiration, and SVG sanitization. Pro adds video, PDF, and Photoshop previews, advanced compression and watermarking, object detection and cropping, automatic format selection, and priority support. The open-source version uses the MIT license. A free plan and 14-day trial are listed; Pro starts at $49 a month.