diff --git a/package/cppcms/Config.in b/package/cppcms/Config.in
index 1d7635a83e..25fd93a7d0 100644
--- a/package/cppcms/Config.in
+++ b/package/cppcms/Config.in
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_CPPCMS
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS_NPTL
 	depends on !BR2_STATIC_LIBS # dlopen()
 	depends on BR2_USE_WCHAR
-	select BR2_PACKAGE_ZLIB
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_PCRE
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBGCRYPT
 	help
diff --git a/package/cppcms/cppcms.mk b/package/cppcms/cppcms.mk
index b289617bbc..530b44427b 100644
--- a/package/cppcms/cppcms.mk
+++ b/package/cppcms/cppcms.mk
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS = \
 	-DCMAKE_SKIP_RPATH=ON \
 	-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="$(CPPCMS_CXXFLAGS)"
 
-CPPCMS_DEPENDENCIES = zlib pcre libgcrypt
+CPPCMS_DEPENDENCIES = pcre libgcrypt
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_CPPCMS_ICU),y)
 CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS += -DDISABLE_ICU_LOCALE=OFF
@@ -28,6 +28,13 @@ else
 CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS += -DDISABLE_ICU_LOCALE=ON
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_ZLIB),y)
+CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS += -DDISABLE_GZIP=OFF
+CPPCMS_DEPENDENCIES += zlib
+else
+CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS += -DDISABLE_GZIP=ON
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_UCLIBC),y)
 # posix backend needs monetary.h which isn't available on uClibc
 CPPCMS_CONF_OPTS += -DDISABLE_POSIX_LOCALE=on