diff --git a/actix-web-actors/Cargo.toml b/actix-web-actors/Cargo.toml
index 61d454b55..c8ff628de 100644
--- a/actix-web-actors/Cargo.toml
+++ b/actix-web-actors/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ allowed_external_types = [
 actix = { version = ">=0.12, <0.14", default-features = false }
 actix-codec = "0.5"
 actix-http = "3"
-actix-web = { version = "4", default-features = false }
+actix-web = { version = "4", default-features = false, features = ["ws"] }
 
 bytes = "1"
 bytestring = "1"
diff --git a/actix-web/CHANGES.md b/actix-web/CHANGES.md
index 85b9c6063..c5a51f984 100644
--- a/actix-web/CHANGES.md
+++ b/actix-web/CHANGES.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 - `actix_web::response::builder::HttpResponseBuilder::streaming()` now sets `Content-Type` to `application/octet-stream` if `Content-Type` does not exist.
 - `actix_web::response::builder::HttpResponseBuilder::streaming()` now calls `actix_web::response::builder::HttpResponseBuilder::no_chunking()` if `Content-Length` is set by user.
+- Add `ws` crate feature (on-by-default) which forwards to `actix-http` and guards some of its `ResponseError` impls.
 
 ## 4.11.0
 
diff --git a/actix-web/Cargo.toml b/actix-web/Cargo.toml
index 88b183734..e6eea5da4 100644
--- a/actix-web/Cargo.toml
+++ b/actix-web/Cargo.toml
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ default = [
   "http2",
   "unicode",
   "compat",
+  "ws",
 ]
 
 # Brotli algorithm content-encoding support
@@ -85,9 +86,12 @@ cookies = ["dep:cookie"]
 # Secure & signed cookies
 secure-cookies = ["cookies", "cookie/secure"]
 
-# HTTP/2 support (including h2c).
+# HTTP/2 support (including h2c)
 http2 = ["actix-http/http2"]
 
+# WebSocket support
+ws = ["actix-http/ws"]
+
 # TLS via OpenSSL
 openssl = ["__tls", "http2", "actix-http/openssl", "actix-tls/accept", "actix-tls/openssl"]
 
@@ -131,7 +135,7 @@ 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 = "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..ab3ec59b4 100644
--- a/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs
+++ b/actix-web/src/error/response_error.rs
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ use std::{
     io::{self, Write as _},
 };
 
-use actix_http::Response;
 use bytes::BytesMut;
 
 use crate::{
@@ -126,20 +125,24 @@ impl ResponseError for actix_http::error::PayloadError {
     }
 }
 
-impl ResponseError for actix_http::ws::ProtocolError {}
-
 impl ResponseError for actix_http::error::ContentTypeError {
     fn status_code(&self) -> StatusCode {
         StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "ws")]
 impl ResponseError for actix_http::ws::HandshakeError {
     fn error_response(&self) -> HttpResponse<BoxBody> {
-        Response::from(self).map_into_boxed_body().into()
+        actix_http::Response::from(self)
+            .map_into_boxed_body()
+            .into()
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "ws")]
+impl ResponseError for actix_http::ws::ProtocolError {}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;