diff --git a/actix-web/Cargo.toml b/actix-web/Cargo.toml
index 7ed774acc..75d4f5abd 100644
--- a/actix-web/Cargo.toml
+++ b/actix-web/Cargo.toml
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ default = [
   "http2",
   "unicode",
   "compat",
+  "ws",
 ]
 
 # Brotli algorithm content-encoding support
@@ -89,6 +90,9 @@ secure-cookies = ["cookies", "cookie/secure"]
 # HTTP/2 support (including h2c).
 http2 = ["actix-http/http2"]
 
+# Websockets support
+ws = ["actix-http/ws"]
+
 # TLS via OpenSSL
 openssl = ["__tls", "http2", "actix-http/openssl", "actix-tls/accept", "actix-tls/openssl"]
 
@@ -132,7 +136,7 @@ actix-service = "2"
 actix-tls = { version = "3.4", default-features = false, optional = true }
 actix-utils = "3"
 
-actix-http = { version = "3.11", features = ["ws"] }
+actix-http = { version = "3.11"  }
 actix-router = { version = "0.5.3", default-features = false, features = ["http"] }
 actix-web-codegen = { version = "4.3", optional = true, default-features = false }
 
diff --git a/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs b/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs
index f5d8cf467..0b7d67153 100644
--- a/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs
+++ b/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ use std::{
     io::{self, Write as _},
 };
 
+#[cfg(feature = "ws")]
 use actix_http::Response;
 use bytes::BytesMut;
 
@@ -126,6 +127,7 @@ impl ResponseError for actix_http::error::PayloadError {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "ws")]
 impl ResponseError for actix_http::ws::ProtocolError {}
 
 impl ResponseError for actix_http::error::ContentTypeError {
@@ -134,6 +136,7 @@ impl ResponseError for actix_http::error::ContentTypeError {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "ws")]
 impl ResponseError for actix_http::ws::HandshakeError {
     fn error_response(&self) -> HttpResponse<BoxBody> {
         Response::from(self).map_into_boxed_body().into()