diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index af921e7b4..4c54e06b1 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1021,6 +1021,10 @@ message('\n    '.join(summary))
 
 # Sanity checks
 
+if not get_option('daemon') and not get_option('client')
+  error('You disabled daemon and client. There is nothing to build!')
+endif
+
 if get_option('daemon') and not speex_dep.found() and not webrtc_dep.found() and not get_option('adrian-aec')
   error('At least one echo canceller implementation must be available!')
 endif
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index b23210072..5797d322b 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ option('daemon',
 option('client',
        type : 'boolean', value : true,
        description : 'Build and install pulseaudio client libraries and utilities')
+option('utils',
+       type : 'boolean', value : true,
+       description : 'Build and install pulseaudio cli utilities')
 option('doxygen',
        type : 'boolean', value : true,
        description : 'Enable building and installation of documentation generated with doxygen')
diff --git a/src/meson.build b/src/meson.build
index 96dcec354..1462e259d 100644
--- a/src/meson.build
+++ b/src/meson.build
@@ -222,4 +222,6 @@ endif
 if get_option('tests')
   subdir('tests')
 endif
-subdir('utils')
+if get_option('utils')
+  subdir('utils')
+endif