diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 990c5e308..83c179967 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -352,16 +352,8 @@ if not get_option('tests').disabled()
   subdir('test')
 endif
 
-# get_option('wrap_mode') isn't available in <0.49 and this
-# is just an internal tool
-if meson.version().version_compare('>=0.49')
-  if (not get_option('benchmark').disabled() and
-      get_option('wrap_mode') != 'nodownload' and
-      host_machine.system() != 'windows' and
-      not meson.is_subproject() and
-      not meson.is_cross_build())
-    subdir('perf')
-  endif
+if not get_option('benchmark').disabled()
+  subdir('perf')
 endif
 
 if not get_option('docs').disabled()
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 8bc190b0f..980099f51 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ option('introspection', type: 'feature', value: 'auto', yield: true,
 option('docs', type: 'feature', value: 'auto', yield: true,
   description: 'Generate documentation with gtk-doc')
 
-option('benchmark', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
+option('benchmark', type: 'feature', value: 'disabled',
   description: 'Enable benchmark tests')
 option('icu_builtin', type: 'boolean', value: false,
   description: 'Don\'t separate ICU support as harfbuzz-icu module')