diff --git a/meilidb-data/Cargo.toml b/meilidb-data/Cargo.toml
index 0c5ff9f5e..751ee7fde 100644
--- a/meilidb-data/Cargo.toml
+++ b/meilidb-data/Cargo.toml
@@ -28,5 +28,9 @@ rev = "40b3d48"
 git = "https://github.com/Kerollmops/fst.git"
 branch = "arc-byte-slice"
 
+[features]
+default = []
+compression = ["sled/compression"]
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 tempfile = "3.0.7"
diff --git a/meilidb-data/src/database/mod.rs b/meilidb-data/src/database/mod.rs
index dcdc13bd2..9a2306ae7 100644
--- a/meilidb-data/src/database/mod.rs
+++ b/meilidb-data/src/database/mod.rs
@@ -41,6 +41,18 @@ impl Database {
         Ok(Database { cache, inner })
     }
 
+    pub fn start_with_compression<P: AsRef<Path>>(path: P, factor: i32) -> Result<Database, Error> {
+        let config = sled::ConfigBuilder::default()
+            .use_compression(true)
+            .compression_factor(factor)
+            .path(path)
+            .build();
+
+        let cache = RwLock::new(HashMap::new());
+        let inner = sled::Db::start(config)?;
+        Ok(Database { cache, inner })
+    }
+
     pub fn indexes(&self) -> Result<Option<HashSet<String>>, Error> {
         let bytes = match self.inner.get("indexes")? {
             Some(bytes) => bytes,