diff --git a/src/invidious/config.cr b/src/invidious/config.cr
index bacdb4ac..578e31fd 100644
--- a/src/invidious/config.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/config.cr
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ class Config
   property port : Int32 = 3000                                     # Port to listen for connections (overrided by command line argument)
   property host_binding : String = "0.0.0.0"                       # Host to bind (overrided by command line argument)
   property pool_size : Int32 = 100                                 # Pool size for HTTP requests to youtube.com and ytimg.com (each domain has a separate pool of `pool_size`)
-  property use_quic : Bool = true                                  # Use quic transport for youtube api
+  property use_quic : Bool = false                                 # Use quic transport for youtube api
 
   @[YAML::Field(converter: Preferences::StringToCookies)]
   property cookies : HTTP::Cookies = HTTP::Cookies.new               # Saved cookies in "name1=value1; name2=value2..." format
diff --git a/src/invidious/routes/images.cr b/src/invidious/routes/images.cr
index bb924cdf..594a7869 100644
--- a/src/invidious/routes/images.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/routes/images.cr
@@ -3,31 +3,61 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
   def self.ggpht(env)
     url = env.request.path.lchop("/ggpht")
 
-    headers = HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "yt3.ggpht.com"}
+    headers = (
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "yt3.ggpht.com"}
+        else
+          HTTP::Headers.new
+        end
+      {% else %}
+        HTTP::Headers.new
+      {% end %}
+    )
+
     REQUEST_HEADERS_WHITELIST.each do |header|
       if env.request.headers[header]?
         headers[header] = env.request.headers[header]
       end
     end
 
+    # We're encapsulating this into a proc in order to easily reuse this
+    # portion of the code for each request block below.
+    request_proc = ->(response : HTTP::Client::Response) {
+      env.response.status_code = response.status_code
+      response.headers.each do |key, value|
+        if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
+          env.response.headers[key] = value
+        end
+      end
+
+      env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
+
+      if response.status_code >= 300
+        env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
+        return
+      end
+
+      proxy_file(response, env)
+    }
+
     begin
-      YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |response|
-        env.response.status_code = response.status_code
-        response.headers.each do |key, value|
-          if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
-            env.response.headers[key] = value
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
+          end
+        else
+          HTTP::Client.get("https://yt3.ggpht.com#{url}") do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
           end
         end
-
-        env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
-
-        if response.status_code >= 300
-          env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
-          break
+      {% else %}
+        # This can likely be optimized into a (small) pool sometime in the future.
+        HTTP::Client.get("https://yt3.ggpht.com#{url}") do |resp|
+          return request_proc.call(resp)
         end
-
-        proxy_file(response, env)
-      end
+      {% end %}
     rescue ex
     end
   end
@@ -48,7 +78,9 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
 
     headers = HTTP::Headers.new
 
-    headers[":authority"] = "#{authority}.ytimg.com"
+    {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+      headers[":authority"] = "#{authority}.ytimg.com"
+    {% end %}
 
     REQUEST_HEADERS_WHITELIST.each do |header|
       if env.request.headers[header]?
@@ -56,25 +88,41 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
       end
     end
 
+    request_proc = ->(response : HTTP::Client::Response) {
+      env.response.status_code = response.status_code
+      response.headers.each do |key, value|
+        if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
+          env.response.headers[key] = value
+        end
+      end
+
+      env.response.headers["Connection"] = "close"
+      env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
+
+      if response.status_code >= 300
+        return env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
+      end
+
+      proxy_file(response, env)
+    }
+
     begin
-      YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |response|
-        env.response.status_code = response.status_code
-        response.headers.each do |key, value|
-          if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
-            env.response.headers[key] = value
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
+          end
+        else
+          HTTP::Client.get("https://#{authority}.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
           end
         end
-
-        env.response.headers["Connection"] = "close"
-        env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
-
-        if response.status_code >= 300
-          env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
-          break
+      {% else %}
+        # This can likely be optimized into a (small) pool sometime in the future.
+        HTTP::Client.get("https://#{authority}.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+          return request_proc.call(resp)
         end
-
-        proxy_file(response, env)
-      end
+      {% end %}
     rescue ex
     end
   end
@@ -83,34 +131,60 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
   def self.s_p_image(env)
     id = env.params.url["id"]
     name = env.params.url["name"]
-
     url = env.request.resource
 
-    headers = HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "i9.ytimg.com"}
+    headers = (
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "i9.ytimg.com"}
+        else
+          HTTP::Headers.new
+        end
+      {% else %}
+        HTTP::Headers.new
+      {% end %}
+    )
+
     REQUEST_HEADERS_WHITELIST.each do |header|
       if env.request.headers[header]?
         headers[header] = env.request.headers[header]
       end
     end
 
+    request_proc = ->(response : HTTP::Client::Response) {
+      env.response.status_code = response.status_code
+      response.headers.each do |key, value|
+        if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
+          env.response.headers[key] = value
+        end
+      end
+
+      env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
+
+      if response.status_code >= 300 && response.status_code != 404
+        return env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
+      end
+
+      proxy_file(response, env)
+    }
+
     begin
-      YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |response|
-        env.response.status_code = response.status_code
-        response.headers.each do |key, value|
-          if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
-            env.response.headers[key] = value
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
+          end
+        else
+          HTTP::Client.get("https://i9.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
           end
         end
-
-        env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
-
-        if response.status_code >= 300 && response.status_code != 404
-          env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
-          break
+      {% else %}
+        # This can likely be optimized into a (small) pool sometime in the future.
+        HTTP::Client.get("https://i9.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+          return request_proc.call(resp)
         end
-
-        proxy_file(response, env)
-      end
+      {% end %}
     rescue ex
     end
   end
@@ -149,16 +223,44 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
     id = env.params.url["id"]
     name = env.params.url["name"]
 
-    headers = HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "i.ytimg.com"}
+    headers = (
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          HTTP::Headers{":authority" => "i.ytimg.com"}
+        else
+          HTTP::Headers.new
+        end
+      {% else %}
+        HTTP::Headers.new
+      {% end %}
+    )
 
     if name == "maxres.jpg"
       build_thumbnails(id).each do |thumb|
-        if YT_POOL.client &.head("/vi/#{id}/#{thumb[:url]}.jpg", headers).status_code == 200
-          name = thumb[:url] + ".jpg"
-          break
-        end
+        thumbnail_resource_path = "/vi/#{id}/#{thumb[:url]}.jpg"
+        # Logic here is short enough that manually typing them out should be fine.
+        {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+          if CONFIG.use_quic
+            if YT_POOL.client &.head(thumbnail_resource_path, headers).status_code == 200
+              name = thumb[:url] + ".jpg"
+              break
+            end
+          else
+            if HTTP::Client.head("https://i.ytimg.com#{thumbnail_resource_path}").status_code == 200
+              name = thumb[:url] + ".jpg"
+              break
+            end
+          end
+        {% else %}
+          # This can likely be optimized into a (small) pool sometime in the future.
+          if HTTP::Client.head("https://i.ytimg.com#{thumbnail_resource_path}").status_code == 200
+            name = thumb[:url] + ".jpg"
+            break
+          end
+        {% end %}
       end
     end
+
     url = "/vi/#{id}/#{name}"
 
     REQUEST_HEADERS_WHITELIST.each do |header|
@@ -167,24 +269,40 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Images
       end
     end
 
+    request_proc = ->(response : HTTP::Client::Response) {
+      env.response.status_code = response.status_code
+      response.headers.each do |key, value|
+        if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
+          env.response.headers[key] = value
+        end
+      end
+
+      env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
+
+      if response.status_code >= 300 && response.status_code != 404
+        return env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
+      end
+
+      proxy_file(response, env)
+    }
+
     begin
-      YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |response|
-        env.response.status_code = response.status_code
-        response.headers.each do |key, value|
-          if !RESPONSE_HEADERS_BLACKLIST.includes?(key.downcase)
-            env.response.headers[key] = value
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if CONFIG.use_quic
+          YT_POOL.client &.get(url, headers) do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
+          end
+        else
+          HTTP::Client.get("https://i.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+            return request_proc.call(resp)
           end
         end
-
-        env.response.headers["Access-Control-Allow-Origin"] = "*"
-
-        if response.status_code >= 300 && response.status_code != 404
-          env.response.headers.delete("Transfer-Encoding")
-          break
+      {% else %}
+        # This can likely be optimized into a (small) pool sometime in the future.
+        HTTP::Client.get("https://i.ytimg.com#{url}") do |resp|
+          return request_proc.call(resp)
         end
-
-        proxy_file(response, env)
-      end
+      {% end %}
     rescue ex
     end
   end
diff --git a/src/invidious/routes/login.cr b/src/invidious/routes/login.cr
index b719b571..562d88e5 100644
--- a/src/invidious/routes/login.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/routes/login.cr
@@ -53,7 +53,13 @@ module Invidious::Routes::Login
 
       # See https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/2019.04.07/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py#L82
       begin
-        client = QUIC::Client.new(LOGIN_URL)
+        client = nil # Declare variable
+        {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+          client = CONFIG.use_quic ? QUIC::Client.new(LOGIN_URL) : HTTP::Client.new(LOGIN_URL)
+        {% else %}
+          client = HTTP::Client.new(LOGIN_URL)
+        {% end %}
+
         headers = HTTP::Headers.new
 
         login_page = client.get("/ServiceLogin")
diff --git a/src/invidious/yt_backend/connection_pool.cr b/src/invidious/yt_backend/connection_pool.cr
index 5ba2d73c..fe7a572d 100644
--- a/src/invidious/yt_backend/connection_pool.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/yt_backend/connection_pool.cr
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 require "lsquic"
 
+{% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+  require "lsquic"
+
+  alias HTTPClientType = QUIC::Client | HTTP::Client
+{% else %}
+  alias HTTPClientType = HTTP::Client
+{% end %}
+
 def add_yt_headers(request)
   request.headers["user-agent"] ||= "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.97 Safari/537.36"
   request.headers["accept-charset"] ||= "ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7"
@@ -19,7 +27,7 @@ struct YoutubeConnectionPool
   property! url : URI
   property! capacity : Int32
   property! timeout : Float64
-  property pool : DB::Pool(QUIC::Client | HTTP::Client)
+  property pool : DB::Pool(HTTPClientType)
 
   def initialize(url : URI, @capacity = 5, @timeout = 5.0, use_quic = true)
     @url = url
@@ -36,7 +44,12 @@ struct YoutubeConnectionPool
         response = yield conn
       rescue ex
         conn.close
-        conn = QUIC::Client.new(url)
+        {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+          conn = CONFIG.use_quic ? QUIC::Client.new(url) : HTTP::Client.new(url)
+        {% else %}
+          conn = HTTP::Client.new(url)
+        {% end %}
+
         conn.family = (url.host == "www.youtube.com") ? CONFIG.force_resolve : Socket::Family::INET
         conn.family = Socket::Family::INET if conn.family == Socket::Family::UNSPEC
         conn.before_request { |r| add_yt_headers(r) } if url.host == "www.youtube.com"
@@ -50,12 +63,18 @@ struct YoutubeConnectionPool
   end
 
   private def build_pool(use_quic)
-    DB::Pool(QUIC::Client | HTTP::Client).new(initial_pool_size: 0, max_pool_size: capacity, max_idle_pool_size: capacity, checkout_timeout: timeout) do
-      if use_quic
-        conn = QUIC::Client.new(url)
-      else
+    DB::Pool(HTTPClientType).new(initial_pool_size: 0, max_pool_size: capacity, max_idle_pool_size: capacity, checkout_timeout: timeout) do
+      conn = nil # Declare
+      {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+        if use_quic
+          conn = QUIC::Client.new(url)
+        else
+          conn = HTTP::Client.new(url)
+        end
+      {% else %}
         conn = HTTP::Client.new(url)
-      end
+      {% end %}
+
       conn.family = (url.host == "www.youtube.com") ? CONFIG.force_resolve : Socket::Family::INET
       conn.family = Socket::Family::INET if conn.family == Socket::Family::UNSPEC
       conn.before_request { |r| add_yt_headers(r) } if url.host == "www.youtube.com"
diff --git a/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr b/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
index 8ab2fe46..27f25036 100644
--- a/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
+++ b/src/invidious/yt_backend/youtube_api.cr
@@ -404,10 +404,19 @@ module YoutubeAPI
     url = "#{endpoint}?key=#{client_config.api_key}"
 
     headers = HTTP::Headers{
-      "Content-Type"    => "application/json; charset=UTF-8",
-      "Accept-Encoding" => "gzip",
+      "Content-Type" => "application/json; charset=UTF-8",
     }
 
+    # The normal HTTP client automatically applies accept-encoding: gzip,
+    # and decompresses. However, explicitly applying it will remove this functionality.
+    #
+    # https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/11252#issuecomment-929594741
+    {% unless flag?(:disable_quic) %}
+      if CONFIG.use_quic
+        headers["Accept-Encoding"] = "gzip"
+      end
+    {% end %}
+
     # Logging
     LOGGER.debug("YoutubeAPI: Using endpoint: \"#{endpoint}\"")
     LOGGER.trace("YoutubeAPI: ClientConfig: #{client_config}")