diff --git a/lib/gzip.js b/lib/gzip.js
index 0e31877..e2a7746 100644
--- a/lib/gzip.js
+++ b/lib/gzip.js
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
  * MIT Licensed
  */
 
-var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
-
 /**
  * Connect middleware providing gzip compression on the fly. By default, it
  * compresses requests with mime types that match the expression
@@ -14,23 +12,58 @@ var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
  * Options:
  *
  *  - `matchType`   Regular expression matching mime types to be compressed
- *  - `flags`       String of flags passed to the binary. Nothing by default
- *  - `bin`         Binary executable defaulting to "gzip"
+ *  - `flags`       DEPRECATED: String of flags passed to the binary. Nothing
+ *                  by default
  *
  * @param {Object} options
  * @api public
  */
 
+var zlib = require('zlib');
+
+function hasOwnProperty(o, key) {
+  return Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(o, key);
+}
+function selectProperties(o, key1, key2) {
+  var object = {};
+  for (var i = 1, ii = arguments.length; i < ii; i++) {
+    var key = arguments[i];
+    if (hasOwnProperty(o, key)) {
+      object[key] = o[key];
+    }
+  }
+  return object;
+}
+
+// Do some cheap parsing of flags to ease deprecation.
+function optionsFromGzipFlags(flags) {
+  var options = {};
+  flags = (flags || '').split(' ');
+  if (flags.indexOf('--best') > 0) {
+    options.level = 9;
+  }
+  if (flags.indexOf('--fast') > 0) {
+    options.level = 1;
+  }
+  for (var i = 0, ii = 9; i < ii; i++) {
+    if (flags.indexOf('-' + i) > 0) {
+      options.level = i;
+    }
+  }
+  return i;
+}
+
 exports = module.exports = function gzip(options) {
   var options = options || {},
       matchType = options.matchType || /text|javascript|json/,
-      bin = options.bin || 'gzip',
-      flags = options.flags || '';
+      gzipOptions = selectProperties(options,
+          'chunkSize', 'windowBits', 'level', 'memLevel', 'strategy');
 
   if (!matchType.test) throw new Error('option matchType must be a regular expression');
   
-  flags = (flags) ? '-c ' + flags : '-c';
-  flags = flags.split(' ');
+  if (options.flags) {
+    options = optionsFromGzipFlags(options.flags);
+  }
   
   return function gzip(req, res, next) {
     var writeHead = res.writeHead,
@@ -76,28 +109,32 @@ exports = module.exports = function gzip(options) {
       res.setHeader('Vary', 'Accept-Encoding');
       res.removeHeader('Content-Length');
       
-      gzip = spawn(bin, flags);
+      var gzip = zlib.createGzip(gzipOptions);
       
       res.write = function(chunk, encoding) {
-        gzip.stdin.write(chunk, encoding);
+        gzip.write(chunk, encoding);
       };
 
       res.end = function(chunk, encoding) {
         if (chunk) {
           res.write(chunk, encoding);
         }
-        gzip.stdin.end();
+        gzip.end();
       };
 
-      gzip.stdout.addListener('data', function(chunk) {
+      gzip.addListener('data', function(chunk) {
         write.call(res, chunk);
       });
 
-      gzip.addListener('exit', function(code) {
+      gzip.addListener('end', function() {
         res.write = write;
         res.end = end;
         res.end();
       });
+
+      gzip.addListener('error', function(error) {
+        res.close();
+      });
       
       finish();
       
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index a460efe..e1b9baf 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
     "mime": ">=0.0.1"
   },
   "engines": {
-    "node": "*"
+    "node": ">=0.6.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "expresso": ">=0.9",