External Images is a lightweight WordPress plugin that lets you use images hosted anywhere on the web without storing them in your Media Library. Save disk space, speed up your site, and manage visuals from CDNs, cloud storage, or remote URLs while keeping full control of SEO, performance, and presentation.
- Load images from external URLs, CDNs, and cloud storage
- No local uploads required—save hosting disk space
- Works with posts, pages, custom post types, and products
- Set remote images as Featured Images/Thumbnails
- Keeps original image URLs intact for faster delivery
- Add alt text, title, and captions for SEO and accessibility
- Lazy loading support to improve performance and Core Web Vitals
- Supports WebP, AVIF, JPG, PNG, GIF, and SVG (where allowed)
- Compatible with popular caching and optimization plugins
- Flexible shortcodes and blocks for easy placement
- Customizable image sizes, srcset, and responsive attributes
- Fallback handling if a remote image is unavailable
- Multisite and WooCommerce friendly
- Developer hooks/filters for advanced integrations
- Clean UI that fits the native WordPress experience