Web Development Intermediate

What is Brotli Compression?

A modern compression algorithm developed by Google that achieves better compression ratios than Gzip for web content delivery.

Brotli (br) compresses web assets 15-25% better than Gzip at comparable speed. It uses a combination of LZ77, Huffman coding, and a built-in dictionary of common web content patterns (HTML tags, CSS properties, JavaScript keywords). Most modern browsers support Brotli via the Accept-Encoding: br header. Web servers like Nginx (ngx_brotli module), Apache (mod_brotli), and CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly) support Brotli compression. Brotli levels 1-4 are suitable for dynamic compression, while levels 5-11 are for static pre-compression. The built-in dictionary gives Brotli a significant advantage for small files where Gzip struggles to find patterns.

Learn More About This Topic

JavaScript ES6+ Modern Features

Related reading

JavaScript Fundamentals

Related reading

Laravel Framework Fundamentals

Related reading

Related Terms

MVC (Model-View-Controller)

An architectural pattern that separates an application into three components: data (Model), interface (View), and logic (Controller).

The second major version of HTTP that improves performance through multiplexing, header compression, and server push.

A query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching.

Static Site Generator (SSG)

A tool that generates a complete static HTML website from templates and content at build time, requiring no server-side processing.

Content Negotiation

An HTTP mechanism where client and server agree on the best representation of a resource based on format, language, or encoding preferences.

A technique that delays loading non-critical resources until they are needed, improving initial page load performance.

View All Web Development Terms →