Zefta (Egyptian Arabic: زفتى  pronounced [ˈzeftæ], Coptic: ⲍⲉⲃⲉⲑⲉ Zevethe) is an Egyptian city in the Nile Delta, within the Gharbia governorate, and is the capital of the Zefta center. It is across the Nile from Mit Ghamr city of Ad Daqahliyah governorate. It has around 114,983 inhabitants.

Zefta is known for its notable involvement in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution against British occupation. In March 1919, residents of the town, led by lawyer Youssef El-Guindy, declared Zefta a self-governing republic, an event later referred to as the "Republic of Zefta." The group took control of key facilities, including the police station, railway station, and telegraph office, and established a local council to manage the town’s affairs. A newspaper was also published under the republic’s name to communicate developments to the public.

The initiative saw participation from a wide range of local residents, including farmers, merchants, and others. The republic lasted for approximately ten days before it was suppressed by British forces, including an Australian unit, on 29 March 1919.

In the 12th century, Zefta was an important regional trading center, especially for textiles; silk, flax, indigo, sesame, and sugar were among the commodities bought and sold here. Some of these products were consumed locally, while others were sent to other towns, including Cairo.

In the 1670s, Abbas Agha, the Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Empire, made a large waqf endowment consisting of diverse Egyptian properties. Zefta was home to the single largest number of properties he endowed, leading Jane Hathaway to describe it as his "pet charity". Among Abbas Agha's endowments in Zefta was a large complex where coffee beans were pounded and roasted, along with an associated coffeehouse. Hathaway hypothesizes that, given its earlier importance as a trade center, 17th-century Zefta remained an important entrepot where boats carrying coffee from Suez to Cairo would stop. From Zefta, the coffee would then have been taken into other towns for consumption. Other properties Abbas Agha endowed in Zifta included a qaysariyya, caravanserai, fifteen shops and two workshops, and a school teaching the Qur'an - the only school included in the endowment. He also left four copper vessels to the physicians of Zefta, a rare exception to the rule that waqf endowments must consist of immovable property.

The 1885 Census of Egypt recorded Zifta as a city in its own district in Gharbia Governorate; at that time, the population of the city was 11,087 (5,571 men and 5,516 women).

Zefta is well known in the modern Egyptian history during the 1919 uprising, also known as the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, when the British occupation expelled Saad Zaghloul Pasha out of Egypt along with other leaders of the Wafd Party and were exiled to Malta, the people of Zefta, led by Mohamed El Kafrawy Pasha and Youssef El Guindi, gathered and declared their independence from the crown and named it Zefta Republic. The town of Zefta has also seen the birth of Mostafa Younis, who works in the field of aviation, Fouad Younis, who works as an accountant and the engineer Moghad Younis.^{[citation needed]}

Zefta, is the location of one of Nile barrages built during 1881–1952 to control the Nile flow.