diff --git a/pkgs/servers/uwsgi/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/uwsgi/default.nix
index dd397598c97b..074b19724d28 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/uwsgi/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/uwsgi/default.nix
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     ${lib.concatMapStringsSep "\n" (x: x.install or "") needed}
   '';
 
-  NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = [ "-lsystemd" ] ++ lib.concatMap (x: x.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK or []) needed;
+  NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = lib.optional withSystemd "-lsystemd" ++ lib.concatMap (x: x.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK or []) needed;
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     homepage = https://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/;