diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 3e68f43ea6..32a181e50d 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ conf.set_quoted('RELATIVE_SOURCE_PATH', relative_source_path)
 
 conf.set10('BUILD_MODE_DEVELOPER', get_option('mode') == 'developer',
            description : 'tailor build to development or release builds')
+
 feature = get_option('log-message-verification')
 if feature.auto()
         have = conf.get('BUILD_MODE_DEVELOPER') == 1
@@ -1569,6 +1570,9 @@ endif
 have = feature.allowed() and (have_deps[0] or have_deps[1])
 conf.set10('ENABLE_REMOTE', have)
 
+feature = get_option('vmspawn').disable_auto_if(conf.get('BUILD_MODE_DEVELOPER') == 0)
+conf.set10('ENABLE_VMSPAWN', feature.allowed())
+
 foreach term : ['analyze',
                 'backlight',
                 'binfmt',
@@ -1610,7 +1614,6 @@ foreach term : ['analyze',
                 'userdb',
                 'utmp',
                 'vconsole',
-                'vmspawn',
                 'xdg-autostart']
         have = get_option(term)
         name = 'ENABLE_' + term.underscorify().to_upper()
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index abefa28458..e9283dc37e 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ option('backlight', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'support for restoring backlight state')
 option('vconsole', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'support for vconsole configuration')
-option('vmspawn', type : 'boolean', value: false,
+option('vmspawn', type : 'feature', deprecated : { 'true' : 'enabled', 'false' : 'disabled' },
        description : 'install the systemd-vmspawn tool')
 option('quotacheck', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'support for the quotacheck tools')