diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4a79aff38..cf617a1a1 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ members = [
 ]
 
 [features]
-default = ["threading", "pylib", "stdlib", "zlib", "encodings"]
+default = ["threading", "pylib", "stdlib", "zlib", "importlib", "encodings"]
+importlib = ["rustpython-vm/importlib"]
 encodings = ["rustpython-vm/encodings"]
 stdlib = ["rustpython-stdlib"]
 flame-it = ["rustpython-vm/flame-it", "flame", "flamescope"]
diff --git a/vm/Cargo.toml b/vm/Cargo.toml
index 4a696f6ba..eba1c2462 100644
--- a/vm/Cargo.toml
+++ b/vm/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ include = ["src/**/*.rs", "Cargo.toml", "build.rs", "Lib/**/*.py"]
 
 [features]
 default = ["compile-parse", "pylib"]
-encodings = []
+importlib = []
+encodings = ["importlib"]
 vm-tracing-logging = []
 flame-it = ["flame", "flamer"]
 pylib = ["rustpython-pylib"]
diff --git a/vm/src/vm/setting.rs b/vm/src/vm/setting.rs
index 2ae33fc5a..dbb571455 100644
--- a/vm/src/vm/setting.rs
+++ b/vm/src/vm/setting.rs
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ impl Default for Settings {
             argv: vec![],
             hash_seed: None,
             stdio_unbuffered: false,
-            allow_external_library: true,
+            allow_external_library: cfg!(feature = "importlib"),
         }
     }
 }