Ziproxy is a forwarding, non-caching, and compressing HTTP proxy server. Basically, it squeezes images by converting them to lower-quality JPEGs and compresses (gzip) HTML and other text-like data. It also provides other features such as HTML/JS/CSS optimization, preemptive hostname resolution, transparent proxying, IP ToS marking (QoS), Ad-Blocker, detailed logging, and more.

Ziproxy may be installed in a number of different ways. Most common setup modes: 1) As a remote proxy (by far, the most commonly used setup) Ziproxy accesses the remote www servers through a fast link, compresses the data, then send it to the client through a slow link. In such setups, there's no additional software required by the client, Ziproxy acts much as a common network proxy. 2) As a local and remote proxy Similar to setup #1, except that the client also runs its instance of Ziproxy. Although Ziproxy does not require a Ziproxy-specific client, there are circumstances where it is desired to run Ziproxy-as-a-client, such as when the client does not support gzip.