diff --git a/rumqttd/CHANGELOG.md b/rumqttd/CHANGELOG.md
index e6e4b2f1b..28beeae71 100644
--- a/rumqttd/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/rumqttd/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,12 +8,15 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### Added
+- Log warning if websocket config is getting ignored
 
 ### Changed
 - Console endpoint /config prints Router Config instead of returning console settings
 - v4 config is optional, user can specify v4 and/or v5 config
+- websocket feature is enabled by default
 
 ### Deprecated
+- "websockets" feature is removed in favour of "websocket"
 
 ### Removed
 
diff --git a/rumqttd/Cargo.toml b/rumqttd/Cargo.toml
index 98ba385a6..54907d29b 100644
--- a/rumqttd/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rumqttd/Cargo.toml
@@ -39,11 +39,10 @@ axum = "0.6.20"
 rand = "0.8.5"
 
 [features]
-default = ["use-rustls"]
+default = ["use-rustls", "websocket"]
 use-rustls = ["dep:tokio-rustls", "dep:rustls-webpki", "dep:rustls-pemfile", "dep:x509-parser"]
 use-native-tls = ["dep:tokio-native-tls", "dep:x509-parser"]
 websocket = ["dep:async-tungstenite", "dep:tokio-util", "dep:futures-util", "dep:ws_stream_tungstenite"]
-websockets = ["websocket"]
 validate-tenant-prefix = []
 allow-duplicate-clientid = []
 
diff --git a/rumqttd/src/server/broker.rs b/rumqttd/src/server/broker.rs
index 99e18eb5c..5eda9df9e 100644
--- a/rumqttd/src/server/broker.rs
+++ b/rumqttd/src/server/broker.rs
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ use flume::{RecvError, SendError, Sender};
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::net::{IpAddr, Ipv4Addr, SocketAddr};
 use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};
-use tracing::{error, field, info, Instrument};
+use tracing::{error, field, info, warn, Instrument};
 
 #[cfg(feature = "websocket")]
 use async_tungstenite::tokio::accept_hdr_async;
@@ -230,6 +230,11 @@ impl Broker {
             }
         }
 
+        #[cfg(not(feature = "websocket"))]
+        if self.config.ws.is_some() {
+            warn!("websocket feature is disabled, [ws] config will be ignored.");
+        }
+
         #[cfg(feature = "websocket")]
         if let Some(ws_config) = &self.config.ws {
             for (_, config) in ws_config.clone() {