diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 54c7cd8..320cbcf 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1423,6 +1423,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "bytes",
  "futures-util",
  "image",
+ "lazy_static",
  "libwebp-sys",
  "mimalloc",
  "once_cell",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index bf231f9..b66df02 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ regex = "1.10.3"
 blake3 = { version = "1.5.0", optional = true }
 bytes = "1.5.0"
 futures-util = "0.3.30"
+lazy_static = "1.4.0"
 
 [features]
 default = ["webp", "mimalloc", "reqwest-rustls", "qhash"]
@@ -42,5 +43,7 @@ optimized = ["libwebp-sys?/sse41", "libwebp-sys?/avx2", "libwebp-sys?/neon"]
 
 qhash = ["blake3"]
 
+prefix-path = []
+
 [profile.release]
 lto = true
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 531d96b..ae453e1 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -511,4 +511,4 @@ async fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> Result<HttpResponse, Box<dyn Error>> {
 
     // Stream response
     Ok(response.streaming(resp.bytes_stream()))
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/src/utils.rs b/src/utils.rs
index 9f741ad..b659c41 100644
--- a/src/utils.rs
+++ b/src/utils.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,22 @@
-use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
+use lazy_static::lazy_static;
 use qstring::QString;
 use reqwest::Url;
 use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::collections::BTreeMap;
 use std::env;
 
-static PREFIX_PATH: Lazy<String> = Lazy::new(|| String::from(env::var("PREFIX_PATH").unwrap_or_else(|_| "".to_string())));
+#[cfg(not(feature = "prefix-path"))]
+lazy_static! {
+    static ref PREFIX_PATH: Option<String> = Some(String::from(""));
+}
+
+#[cfg(feature = "prefix-path")]
+lazy_static! {
+    static ref PREFIX_PATH: Option<String> = match env::var("PREFIX_PATH") {
+        Ok(v) => Some(String::from(v)),
+        Err(e) => panic!("$PREFIX_PATH is not set ({})", e)
+    };
+}
 
 pub fn read_buf(buf: &[u8], pos: &mut usize) -> u8 {
     let byte = buf[*pos];
@@ -17,7 +28,6 @@ fn finalize_url(path: &str, query: BTreeMap<String, String>) -> String {
     #[cfg(feature = "qhash")]
     {
         use std::collections::BTreeSet;
-        use std::env;
 
         let qhash = {
             let secret = env::var("HASH_SECRET");
@@ -50,12 +60,12 @@ fn finalize_url(path: &str, query: BTreeMap<String, String>) -> String {
         if qhash.is_some() {
             let mut query = QString::new(query.into_iter().collect::<Vec<_>>());
             query.add_pair(("qhash", qhash.unwrap()));
-            return format!("{}{}?{}", PREFIX_PATH.as_str(), path, query);
+            return format!("{}{}?{}", PREFIX_PATH.as_ref().unwrap().to_string(), path, query);
         }
     }
 
     let query = QString::new(query.into_iter().collect::<Vec<_>>());
-    format!("{}{}?{}", PREFIX_PATH.as_str(), path, query)
+    format!("{}{}?{}", PREFIX_PATH.as_ref().unwrap().to_string(), path, query)
 }
 
 pub fn localize_url(url: &str, host: &str) -> String {