diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index d04cbbb..bea3f2e 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ edition = "2021"
 rust-version = "1.74"
 
 [dependencies]
-flate2 = { version = "1", optional = true }
+flate2 = { version = "1", optional = true, default-features = false }
 http = "1.1"
 httparse = "1.8"
 url = { version = "2.4", optional = true }
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ webpki-roots = { version = ">=0.26,<2.0", optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 codspeed-criterion-compat = ">=4,<6"
+flate2 = "*" # To enable the default backend
 
 [features]
 default = ["client", "server"]