diff --git a/lib/nuxt.js b/lib/nuxt.js
index 4ae4be41a2..ff97870b41 100644
--- a/lib/nuxt.js
+++ b/lib/nuxt.js
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ class Nuxt {
         extendRoutes: null,
         scrollBehavior: null
       },
+      performance: {
+        gzip: true,
+        prefetch: true
+      },
       build: {}
     }
     // Sanitization
diff --git a/lib/render.js b/lib/render.js
index e1db3d9fbd..105b3dc352 100644
--- a/lib/render.js
+++ b/lib/render.js
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ export function render (req, res) {
       // Call webpack middleware only in development
       yield self.webpackDevMiddleware(req, res)
       yield self.webpackHotMiddleware(req, res)
-    } else {
+    }
+    if (!self.dev && self.options.performance.gzip === true) {
       yield self.gzipMiddleware(req, res)
     }
     // If base in req.url, remove it for the middleware and vue-router
diff --git a/lib/webpack/client.config.js b/lib/webpack/client.config.js
index 2023e5b0fa..dffff99230 100644
--- a/lib/webpack/client.config.js
+++ b/lib/webpack/client.config.js
@@ -61,13 +61,17 @@ export default function () {
     // Add defer to scripts
     new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
       defaultAttribute: 'defer'
-    }),
-    // Add prefetch code-splitted routes
-    new PreloadWebpackPlugin({
-      rel: 'prefetch'
     })
   ])
 
+  if (this.options.performance.prefetch === true) {
+    // Add prefetch code-splitted routes
+    config.plugins.push(
+      new PreloadWebpackPlugin({
+        rel: 'prefetch'
+      })
+    )
+  }
   // client bundle progress bar
   config.plugins.push(
     new ProgressBarPlugin()