Similar to DNS prefetching, image preloading/prefetching with JavaScript to get faster page loading experience.
As of April 2026, Preload Images is a WordPress preload plugin with 1.0K+ active installations and a 4.6/5 rating from 8 reviews. It has been downloaded 12K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.8+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2019. Last updated 3 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are down 30% this week. Top alternative: Preloader.
Preload images to get faster page loading experience. Preload Images plugin supports unlimited image urls, good for photo galleries and other image-heavy sites where you want to deliver the photos as seamlessly as possible.
I wanted to trigger an animated GIF on hover. To implement this, I followed a simple online guide to *swap* an image on hover – set initial image as the first frame of your GIF, and the second image as the animated GIF itself.
This worked perfectly on desktop, but there was a small but very annoying flash on mobile (on touch).
Enter this plugin!
I enabled the plugin for pages (setting), then copy/pasted the URL of my GIFs in the ‘Image URLs’ field on my specific page … and voila! The flash is history!
Thanks to the plugin author – Ravikumar Patel (@ravipatel) – for such a simple and neat solution for my unique case.
5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PS: it took me longer to write a Support question followed by this review, than it did to actually apply the fix! 🙂
I run a photo gallery website for hobby using fancybox, and I’m happy to find this plugin! Initially I was searching for a solution with JavaScript, etc., but this is much easier way to preload images with relatively large file sizes. Thank you for the developers behind this!
Sadly, the plugin does not work to preload a site’s background image when that image is specified in common image urls.
Plus, when there is no image specified in the common image urls, the site loads as a blank page with what I can only describe as a spinning waiting icon. Once the spin is done the site does load smoothly with the background image. But, who wants clients seeing a site that loads with a spinning icon for 3 seconds?
Hopefully they’ll update so that the background image can be specified in the common image urls, because it does seem an easy to use plugin.
I found myself needing to pre-load some images and started to figure out how to do it by hand when I thought “If you have a need in WordPress, there’s probably a plugin for it.” So I went hunting and found this plugin.
Gutenberg made it a little hard to see the meta box on Pages at first, but I found it.
I REALLY like that you can preload per page/post, or have them global. Nicely done.
The plugin fix divi image loading error and glitches, and give for your website a speed boost helping in Google SEO.
| WordPress | 3.8+ requiredTested up to 6.1.10 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.