diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 19d334e3..78cfc858 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -201,7 +201,10 @@ summary = [
 message('\n'.join(summary))
 
 
-subdir('rootston')
+if get_option('enable-rootston')
+	subdir('rootston')
+endif
+
 subdir('examples')
 
 pkgconfig = import('pkgconfig')
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index de29e401..df322f39 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ option('enable-elogind', type: 'combo', choices: ['auto', 'true', 'false'], valu
 option('enable-xcb_errors', type: 'combo', choices: ['auto', 'true', 'false'], value: 'auto', description: 'Use xcb-errors util library')
 option('enable-xwayland', type: 'boolean', value: true, description: 'Enable support X11 applications')
 option('enable-x11_backend', type: 'boolean', value: true, description: 'Enable X11 backend')
+option('enable-rootston', type: 'boolean', value: true, description: 'Build the rootston example compositor')