pngcrush
The facts below are what the maker publishes about pngcrush, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From pngcrush's own pricing page, checked 8 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| pngcrush | Free | Open source; may be used, modified, and redistributed without a fee |
The facts
Each one read from pngcrush's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- API access
- Nochecked 20 Sep 2026
- Batch processing
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
- Build caveat
- The maker warns that compiling with an unpatched libpng earlier than 1.2.7 or 1.0.17 leaves the program vulnerable to overflow conditions fixed in August 2004.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Chunk handling
- It can remove unwanted ancillary chunks or add chunks including gAMA, tRNS, iCCP, and textual chunks.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Compression modes
- losslesschecked 20 Sep 2026
- GUI options
- The maker points to ImageOptim for Mac and Trimage for Linux, Windows, and Mac as free graphical applications that embed pngcrush with other image compressors or optimizers.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Image resizing
- Nochecked 20 Sep 2026
- Interface
- pngcrush is a command-line application that runs from an MSDOS, UNIX, or Linux command line.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Latest version listed
- The SourceForge files page lists pngcrush-1.8.11.tar.xz as the latest version.checked 8 Oct 2026
- License
- The maker says pngcrush is open source and may be used, modified, and redistributed without paying a fee; its license is equivalent but not identical to the libpng license.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Metadata controls
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
- Purpose
- pngcrush optimizes PNG files by trying compression levels and PNG filter methods to reduce the IDAT datastream size.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Security note
- The maker says the build linked statically with the supplied zlib is believed immune to the zlib-1.1.3 double-free bug because it detects and rejects double-free attempts.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Source and dependencies
- The source is available from SourceForge and the pmt git repository, and the distribution includes libpng and zlib.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Supported formats
- PNGchecked 20 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Windows binaries
- The maker links to precompiled Windows binaries that run in an MSDOS window.checked 8 Oct 2026
Alternatives to pngcrush
- 1
imgproxy
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI9.3Free plan - 2
Hive
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI8.6From $5 a month - 3

Kraken.io
Free planWebAPIExtensionLinux8.4From $50 a year - 4
JPEGmini
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS8.3From $199 a year - 5
Optimizilla
Free planWeb7.9From $9 a month - 6
Compressify
Free planAndroidiOSWebExtension7.9From $4.99 a month
