diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a22ef9f8..050a33ba 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ KIND_CLUSTER_IMAGE := kindest/node:v1.30.0@sha256:047357ac0cfea04663786a612ba1ea
 .PHONY: help
 help: ## Display this help.
 	awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*##"; printf "\nUsage:\n  make \033[36m<target>\033[0m\n"} /^[a-zA-Z_0-9-]+:.*?##/ { printf "  \033[36m%-15s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2 } /^##@/ { printf "\n\033[1m%s\033[0m\n", substr($$0, 5) } ' $(MAKEFILE_LIST)
+.DEFAULT_GOAL := help
 
 ##@ Development
 
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 2dc5eff6..e6612021 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ module github.com/operator-framework/catalogd
 go 1.22.0
 
 require (
+	github.com/NYTimes/gziphandler v1.1.1
 	github.com/blang/semver/v4 v4.0.0
 	github.com/containerd/containerd v1.7.18
 	github.com/go-logr/logr v1.4.1
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 6176a561..98c0b228 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ github.com/Microsoft/go-winio v0.6.2 h1:F2VQgta7ecxGYO8k3ZZz3RS8fVIXVxONVUPlNERo
 github.com/Microsoft/go-winio v0.6.2/go.mod h1:yd8OoFMLzJbo9gZq8j5qaps8bJ9aShtEA8Ipt1oGCvU=
 github.com/Microsoft/hcsshim v0.12.0-rc.3 h1:5GNGrobGs/sN/0nFO21W9k4lFn+iXXZAE8fCZbmdRak=
 github.com/Microsoft/hcsshim v0.12.0-rc.3/go.mod h1:WuNfcaYNaw+KpCEsZCIM6HCEmu0c5HfXpi+dDSmveP0=
+github.com/NYTimes/gziphandler v1.1.1 h1:ZUDjpQae29j0ryrS0u/B8HZfJBtBQHjqw2rQ2cqUQ3I=
+github.com/NYTimes/gziphandler v1.1.1/go.mod h1:n/CVRwUEOgIxrgPvAQhUUr9oeUtvrhMomdKFjzJNB0c=
 github.com/antlr/antlr4/runtime/Go/antlr/v4 v4.0.0-20230305170008-8188dc5388df h1:7RFfzj4SSt6nnvCPbCqijJi1nWCd+TqAT3bYCStRC18=
 github.com/antlr/antlr4/runtime/Go/antlr/v4 v4.0.0-20230305170008-8188dc5388df/go.mod h1:pSwJ0fSY5KhvocuWSx4fz3BA8OrA1bQn+K1Eli3BRwM=
 github.com/asaskevich/govalidator v0.0.0-20230301143203-a9d515a09cc2 h1:DklsrG3dyBCFEj5IhUbnKptjxatkF07cF2ak3yi77so=
diff --git a/pkg/storage/localdir.go b/pkg/storage/localdir.go
index a34924c2..002655b7 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/localdir.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/localdir.go
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
+	"github.com/NYTimes/gziphandler"
+
 	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-registry/alpha/declcfg"
 )
 
@@ -56,7 +58,7 @@ func (s LocalDir) ContentURL(catalog string) string {
 
 func (s LocalDir) StorageServerHandler() http.Handler {
 	mux := http.NewServeMux()
-	mux.Handle(s.BaseURL.Path, http.StripPrefix(s.BaseURL.Path, http.FileServer(http.FS(&filesOnlyFilesystem{os.DirFS(s.RootDir)}))))
+	mux.Handle(s.BaseURL.Path, gziphandler.GzipHandler(http.StripPrefix(s.BaseURL.Path, http.FileServer(http.FS(&filesOnlyFilesystem{os.DirFS(s.RootDir)})))))
 	return mux
 }