diff --git a/compress.go b/compress.go
index 94b716e4b..9247c3553 100644
--- a/compress.go
+++ b/compress.go
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ func compress(cc CompressionCodec, level int, data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
 		}
 		return buf.Bytes(), nil
 	case CompressionZSTD:
-		return zstdCompressLevel(nil, data, level)
+		return zstdCompress(nil, data)
 	default:
 		return nil, PacketEncodingError{fmt.Sprintf("unsupported compression codec (%d)", cc)}
 	}
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index d072c8e78..8ceacd9d6 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/Shopify/sarama
 
 require (
-	github.com/DataDog/zstd v1.4.0
 	github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy v2.1.4+incompatible
 	github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1
 	github.com/eapache/go-resiliency v1.1.0
@@ -12,6 +11,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/golang/snappy v0.0.1 // indirect
 	github.com/hashicorp/go-uuid v1.0.1 // indirect
 	github.com/jcmturner/gofork v0.0.0-20190328161633-dc7c13fece03 // indirect
+	github.com/klauspost/compress v1.8.1
 	github.com/pierrec/lz4 v2.2.6+incompatible
 	github.com/rcrowley/go-metrics v0.0.0-20181016184325-3113b8401b8a
 	github.com/stretchr/testify v1.3.0
diff --git a/zstd.go b/zstd.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bdb21b33c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zstd.go
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package sarama
+
+import (
+	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
+	"sync"
+)
+
+var (
+	zstdDec *zstd.Decoder
+	zstdEnc *zstd.Encoder
+
+	zstdEncOnce, zstdDecOnce sync.Once
+)
+
+
+func zstdDecompress(dst, src []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	zstdDecOnce.Do(func() {
+		zstdDec, _ = zstd.NewReader(nil)
+	})
+	return zstdDec.DecodeAll(src, dst)
+}
+
+func zstdCompress(dst, src []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	zstdEncOnce.Do(func() {
+		zstdEnc, _ = zstd.NewWriter(nil)
+	})
+	return zstdEnc.EncodeAll(src, dst), nil
+}
diff --git a/zstd_cgo.go b/zstd_cgo.go
deleted file mode 100644
index f5ccb31a1..000000000
--- a/zstd_cgo.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-// +build cgo
-
-package sarama
-
-import "github.com/DataDog/zstd"
-
-func zstdDecompress(dst, src []byte) ([]byte, error) {
-	return zstd.Decompress(dst, src)
-}
-
-func zstdCompressLevel(dst, src []byte, level int) ([]byte, error) {
-	return zstd.CompressLevel(dst, src, level)
-}
diff --git a/zstd_fallback.go b/zstd_fallback.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 381a56bdc..000000000
--- a/zstd_fallback.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-// +build !cgo
-
-package sarama
-
-import (
-	"errors"
-)
-
-var errZstdCgo = errors.New("zstd compression requires building with cgo enabled")
-
-func zstdDecompress(dst, src []byte) ([]byte, error) {
-	return nil, errZstdCgo
-}
-
-func zstdCompressLevel(dst, src []byte, level int) ([]byte, error) {
-	return nil, errZstdCgo
-}