Will HTTP Compression (GZip or deflate) on a low traffic site actually be beneficial?

Question

I have a web application where the client will be running off a local server (i.e. - requests will not be going out over the net). The site will be quite low traffic and so I am trying to figure out if the actual de-compression is expensive in this type of a system. Performance is an issue so I will have caching set up, but I was considering compression as well. I will not have bandwidth issues as the site is very low traffic. So, I am just trying to figure out if compression will do more harm than good in this type of system.

Answer 1

On pretty much any modern system with a solid web stack, compression will not be expensive, but it seems to me that you won't be gaining any positive effects from it whatsoever, no matter how minor the overhead. I wouldn't bother.

Answer 2

When you measured the performance, how did the numbers compare? Was it faster when you had compression enabled, or not?

Answer 3

I have used compression but users were running over a wireless 3G network at various remote locations. Compression made a significant different to the bandwidth usage in this case.

For users running locally, and with bandwidth not an issue, I don't think it is worth it.

Answer 4

Here's a good article on the subject.