Aerate

Platform: macOS | Original Launch: February 20, 2018 | Retired: July 21, 2025

Launched in 2018 under the name Compress, Aerate was BZG's first foray into the Mac App Store. It was built to solve a common pain point for designers, developers, and digital professionals: making images smaller without sacrificing quality.

What started as a simple, elegant tool for compressing PNG and JPG files quickly grew into a powerful suite for image optimization. With Aerate 2, we introduced multi-core processing, new compression engines, results previews, batch functionality, and a reimagined UI—all while preserving the same focus on simplicity and speed.

This page preserves Aerate's story, feature set, and legacy download links for those who still need it.

Origin Story

Aerate began as Compress, which launched on February 20, 2018. You can view the original launch video here: Watch on YouTube

With Compress, users could:

Quickly compress PNG and JPG files while preserving quality
Convert PSD files to JPG without needing Photoshop
Batch process entire folders of images
Strip metadata from JPGs
Optimize assets for web and email

Compress featured a dark mode, web-optimized outputs, and a clean macOS-native interface. It became a favorite among developers and designers looking for a fast, focused tool.

The Evolution to Aerate

In 2019, we rebuilt Compress from the ground up. Aerate 2 launched on October 8, 2019 with significant performance and design improvements, including:

Core Improvements:

Multi-Core Mode: A first-of-its-kind compression engine built to leverage all available CPU cores
Fast Mode: For lightning-speed compression with excellent results
Extreme Mode: Lossless PNG compression up to 90% reduction
Results View: Preview and save each image individually after compression
New Compression Engines: Including Zopfli and updated OptiPNG

Expanded Functionality:

PSD-to-JPG conversion
PNG-to-JPG conversion
Bulk compression and batch automation
Extension support for custom naming
JPG metadata removal

Aerate supported macOS 10.10 and up, with full Catalina compatibility.

Product Versions & Changelog

Legacy versions of Aerate and Compress can still be downloaded from the changelog for legacy users. Do note that we no longer support these releases and can not guarantee they will work with future versions of macOS.

→ Open Aerate Changelog

Thank you

We’re grateful to the designers, developers, photographers, and creators who used Aerate to streamline their workflows and supported its development. We hope you continue to find value in our newest tools as we expand and grow.

— The BZG Team

Products