Web Hosts GZIP support
What is GZIP? If your web host supports it, it's web site speed and performance! GZIP is a data compression utility. Virtually all current Web Browsers make web page requests with a GZIP compression option selected. When your browser sends a request for a web page, it says to the Web Host please provide a GZIP compressed version of the web page to me.
What does that mean to you the web user? The web page content should be compressed typically to about a size 4 times smaller than the original before it is transmitted by the Web Host to your ISP and then to you. Web pages can open 4 times faster with GZIP compression. But the request is optional, and the Web Host can simply send the uncompressed version of the web page.
Gee you say all web sites should support GZIP compressed content if its so much faster. Well surprisingly, probably 80% of the web hosts out there don't directly support GZIP compression! Google supports GZIP compression, but many many web hosts don't. Port 80 software surveys many sites evaluating their GZIP capability:
Port80software.com Top 1000 compression sites
I surveyed 10 Web Hosting providers and only 2 provided direct optional support for GZIP compression. At least one other allows for GZIP compression only through the "back door" secret way.
Well why don't they support GZIP compression?
- Some web hosts mistakenly believe their servers CPU will be overloaded. At some point in the past they looked at application CPU usage and saw it rise when they enabled GZIP compression. If they'd just looked at SYSTEM CPU usage they would have seen only a small increase.
- Additional memory usage is a legitimate argument against providing GZIP compression, but it really doesn't use that much.
- In many cases Web Hosts make money based upon bandwidth usage, so, if they support GZIP compression their customers bandwidth usage drops by a factor of 4, and therefore the web host simplistically assumes bandwidth income reduces by a factor of 4. They could just charge two different rates depending upon the use of GZIP or not. Most web site owners probably wouldn't mind too much as long as their bottom line remained the same.
A tool to test for a Web Host that provides GZIP compression.
This is a great utility. You'll find it at:
http://leknor.com/code/gziped.php
This test defaults to foxnews.com, that is not compressed. Leknor.com provides you with a lovely table indicating the byte savings and time savings you can expect for various Internet connection speeds.
Here is a test of the Google website:
http://leknor.com/code/gziped.php?url=www.google.com
You'll see Google is GZIP compressed, BUT, I had to know the secret "back door" trick to get my site compressed. My site is hosted by Powerful Hosting - $7.95 - Free Setup. Their support is good, but you do have to know the secret. I'll let you know a little later in this article.
My survey
My survey was simple. I just checked the home page of the web host in question to see if the Leknor utility said it was GZIPped or not. I did query a couple hosts by email and found in one case, though their home page was not GZIP compressed, they openly supported the option should you the Webmaster want it.
| Leknor Test | Web Host | GZIPed ? | Optional support ? | Secret support ? |
| IXWebhosting | ix web hosting | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| IPowerweb | IPowerweb | No | No | Yes |
| Dot5Hosting | Dot5Hosting | No | No | Probably |
| Hostexcellence | Hostexcellence | Yes | ? | ? |
| EasyCGI | EasyCGI |
Yes | ? | ? |
I really liked the ix webhosting control panel, even the demonstration is excellent and they do openly support GZIP. My site is now hosted by IPowerweb. I had to use the secret backdoor trick to get GZIP. EasyCGI was GZIPped when I first tested it but today, 7/24/2005 it was not.