diff --git a/install/data/defaults.json b/install/data/defaults.json
index ec5137ac49..18dd27f612 100644
--- a/install/data/defaults.json
+++ b/install/data/defaults.json
@@ -134,5 +134,6 @@
     "necroThreshold": 7,
     "categoryWatchState": "watching",
     "submitPluginUsage": 1,
-    "maxUserSessions": 10
+    "maxUserSessions": 10,
+    "useCompression": 0
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/public/language/en-GB/admin/settings/advanced.json b/public/language/en-GB/admin/settings/advanced.json
index a08f863af1..ce0782be9e 100644
--- a/public/language/en-GB/admin/settings/advanced.json
+++ b/public/language/en-GB/admin/settings/advanced.json
@@ -36,5 +36,8 @@
 
 	"analytics.settings": "Analytics Settings",
 	"analytics.max-cache": "Analytics Cache Max Value",
-	"analytics.max-cache-help": "On high-traffic installs, the cache could be exhausted continuously if there are more concurrent active users than the Max Cache value. (Restart required)"
+	"analytics.max-cache-help": "On high-traffic installs, the cache could be exhausted continuously if there are more concurrent active users than the Max Cache value. (Restart required)",
+	"compression.settings": "Compression Settings",
+	"compression.enable": "Enable Compression",
+	"compression.help": "This setting enables gzip compression. For a high-traffic website in production, the best way to put compression in place is to implement it at a reverse proxy level. You can enable it here for testing purposes."
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/views/admin/settings/advanced.tpl b/src/views/admin/settings/advanced.tpl
index cf1934dfc9..eec61df531 100644
--- a/src/views/admin/settings/advanced.tpl
+++ b/src/views/admin/settings/advanced.tpl
@@ -165,4 +165,23 @@
 	</div>
 </div>
 
+<div class="row">
+	<div class="col-sm-2 col-xs-12 settings-header">[[admin/settings/advanced:compression.settings]]</div>
+	<div class="col-sm-10 col-xs-12">
+		<form>
+			<div class="form-group">
+				<p class="help-block">
+					[[admin/settings/advanced:compression.help]]
+				</p>
+				<div class="checkbox">
+					<label class="mdl-switch mdl-js-switch mdl-js-ripple-effect">
+						<input class="mdl-switch__input" type="checkbox" data-field="useCompression">
+						<span class="mdl-switch__label"><strong>[[admin/settings/advanced:compression.enable]]</strong></span>
+					</label>
+				</div>
+			</div>
+		</form>
+	</div>
+</div>
+
 <!-- IMPORT admin/partials/settings/footer.tpl -->
diff --git a/src/webserver.js b/src/webserver.js
index bf347b1d38..87f5cf654d 100644
--- a/src/webserver.js
+++ b/src/webserver.js
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ var server;
 var winston = require('winston');
 var async = require('async');
 var flash = require('connect-flash');
-var compression = require('compression');
 var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
 var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
 var session = require('express-session');
@@ -134,7 +133,10 @@ function setupExpressApp(app) {
 		app.enable('minification');
 	}
 
-	app.use(compression());
+	if (meta.config.useCompression) {
+		const compression = require('compression');
+		app.use(compression());
+	}
 
 	app.get(relativePath + '/ping', pingController.ping);
 	app.get(relativePath + '/sping', pingController.ping);