diff --git a/build.sbt b/build.sbt
index 4ed9bb7366..ddacd41ee1 100644
--- a/build.sbt
+++ b/build.sbt
@@ -675,7 +675,8 @@ lazy val http4sBackend = (projectMatrix in file("http4s-backend"))
     name := "http4s-backend",
     libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
       "org.http4s" %% "http4s-client" % http4s_ce3_version,
-      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-blaze-client" % "0.23.13" % Optional
+      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-ember-client" % "0.23.13" % Optional,
+      "org.http4s" %% "http4s-blaze-client" % "0.23.13" % Optional,
     ),
     evictionErrorLevel := Level.Info
   )
diff --git a/docs/backends/http4s.md b/docs/backends/http4s.md
index b2b795d637..036a35a163 100644
--- a/docs/backends/http4s.md
+++ b/docs/backends/http4s.md
@@ -8,24 +8,13 @@ This backend is based on [http4s](https://http4s.org) (client) and is **asynchro
 "com.softwaremill.sttp.client3" %% "http4s-ce2-backend" % "@VERSION@" // for cats-effect 2.x & http4s 0.21.x
 ```
 
-The backend can be created in a couple of ways, e.g.:
-
-```scala mdoc:compile-only
-import cats.effect._
-import sttp.capabilities.fs2.Fs2Streams
-import sttp.client3._
-import sttp.client3.http4s._
-
-Http4sBackend.usingDefaultBlazeClientBuilder[IO](): Resource[IO, SttpBackend[IO, Fs2Streams[IO]]]
-```
-
 Sending a request is a non-blocking, lazily-evaluated operation and results in a wrapped response. There's a transitive dependency on `http4s`. 
 
 There are also [other cats-effect-based backends](catseffect.md), which don't depend on http4s. 
 
 Please note that: 
 
-* the backend contains an **optional** dependency on `http4s-blaze-client`, to provide the `Http4sBackend.usingBlazeClientBuilder` and `Http4sBackend.usingDefaultBlazeClientBuilder` methods. This makes the client usable with other http4s client implementations, without the need to depend on blaze.
+* you have to build up your own `Client[F]` by either using _Blaze_, _Ember_ or something else
 * the backend does not support `SttpBackendOptions`, that is specifying proxy settings (proxies are not implemented in http4s, see [this issue](https://github.com/http4s/http4s/issues/251)), as well as configuring the connect timeout 
 * the backend does not support the `RequestT.options.readTimeout` option
 
diff --git a/http4s-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala b/http4s-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
index 6bda7e8a77..cf67077a5b 100644
--- a/http4s-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
+++ b/http4s-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ import fs2.io.file.Files
 import fs2.{Chunk, Stream}
 import org.http4s.{ContentCoding, EntityBody, Status, Request => Http4sRequest}
 import org.http4s
-import org.http4s.client.Client
 import org.http4s.blaze.client.BlazeClientBuilder
+import org.http4s.client.Client
+import org.http4s.ember.client.EmberClientBuilder
 import org.typelevel.ci.CIString
 import sttp.capabilities.fs2.Fs2Streams
 import sttp.client3.http4s.Http4sBackend.EncodingHandler
@@ -301,16 +302,13 @@ object Http4sBackend {
     blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => usingClient(c, customizeRequest, customEncodingHandler))
   }
 
-  def usingDefaultBlazeClientBuilder[F[_]: Async](
-      clientExecutionContext: ExecutionContext = ExecutionContext.global,
+  def usingEmberClientBuilder[F[_]: Async](
+      emberClientBuilder: EmberClientBuilder[F],
       customizeRequest: Http4sRequest[F] => Http4sRequest[F] = identity[Http4sRequest[F]] _,
       customEncodingHandler: EncodingHandler[F] = PartialFunction.empty
-  ): Resource[F, SttpBackend[F, Fs2Streams[F]]] =
-    usingBlazeClientBuilder(
-      BlazeClientBuilder[F](clientExecutionContext),
-      customizeRequest,
-      customEncodingHandler
-    )
+  ): Resource[F, SttpBackend[F, Fs2Streams[F]]] = {
+    emberClientBuilder.build.map(c => usingClient(c, customizeRequest, customEncodingHandler))
+  }
 
   /** Create a stub backend for testing, which uses the `F` response wrapper, and supports `Stream[F, Byte]` streaming.
     *
diff --git a/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala b/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
index 252b394e60..2384ff8936 100644
--- a/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
+++ b/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ import sttp.capabilities.fs2.Fs2Streams
 
 class Http4sHttpStreamingTest extends Fs2StreamingTest {
 
-  private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO](ExecutionContext.global)
+  private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO]
   override val backend: SttpBackend[IO, Fs2Streams[IO]] =
-    Http4sBackend.usingBlazeClientBuilder(blazeClientBuilder).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
+    blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => Http4sBackend.usingClient(c)).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
 
 }
diff --git a/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala b/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
index f86e3d8282..06e7f7bcdf 100644
--- a/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
+++ b/http4s-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ import sttp.client3.testing.HttpTest
 import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext
 
 class Http4sHttpTest extends HttpTest[IO] with CatsRetryTest with CatsTestBase {
-  private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO](ExecutionContext.global)
+  private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO]
 
   override val backend: SttpBackend[IO, Any] =
-    Http4sBackend.usingBlazeClientBuilder(blazeClientBuilder).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
+    blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => Http4sBackend.usingClient(c)).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
 
   override protected def supportsRequestTimeout = false
   override protected def supportsCustomMultipartContentType = false
diff --git a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
index 6e31061686..f9e5e13235 100644
--- a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
+++ b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sBackend.scala
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ import cats.effect.implicits._
 import fs2.{Chunk, Stream}
 import org.http4s.{ContentCoding, EntityBody, Status, Request => Http4sRequest}
 import org.http4s
-import org.http4s.client.Client
 import org.http4s.blaze.client.BlazeClientBuilder
+import org.http4s.client.Client
 import org.http4s.headers.`Content-Encoding`
 import org.typelevel.ci.CIString
 import sttp.capabilities.fs2.Fs2Streams
@@ -302,19 +302,6 @@ object Http4sBackend {
     blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => usingClient(c, blocker, customizeRequest, customEncodingHandler))
   }
 
-  def usingDefaultBlazeClientBuilder[F[_]: ConcurrentEffect: ContextShift](
-      blocker: Blocker,
-      clientExecutionContext: ExecutionContext = ExecutionContext.global,
-      customizeRequest: Http4sRequest[F] => Http4sRequest[F] = identity[Http4sRequest[F]] _,
-      customEncodingHandler: EncodingHandler[F] = PartialFunction.empty
-  ): Resource[F, SttpBackend[F, Fs2Streams[F]]] =
-    usingBlazeClientBuilder(
-      BlazeClientBuilder[F](clientExecutionContext),
-      blocker,
-      customizeRequest,
-      customEncodingHandler
-    )
-
   /** Create a stub backend for testing, which uses the `F` response wrapper, and supports `Stream[F, Byte]` streaming.
     *
     * See [[sttp.client3.testing.SttpBackendStub]] for details on how to configure stub responses.
diff --git a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
index c65157956e..7f422da3d6 100644
--- a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
+++ b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpStreamingTest.scala
@@ -12,6 +12,6 @@ class Http4sHttpStreamingTest extends Fs2StreamingTest {
 
   private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO](ExecutionContext.global)
   override val backend: SttpBackend[IO, Fs2Streams[IO]] =
-    Http4sBackend.usingBlazeClientBuilder(blazeClientBuilder, blocker).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
+    blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => Http4sBackend.usingClient(c, blocker)).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
 
 }
diff --git a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
index 1026d6d909..66585346e7 100644
--- a/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
+++ b/http4s-ce2-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client3/http4s/Http4sHttpTest.scala
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ class Http4sHttpTest extends HttpTest[IO] with CatsTestBase {
   private val blazeClientBuilder = BlazeClientBuilder[IO](ExecutionContext.global)
 
   override val backend: SttpBackend[IO, Any] =
-    Http4sBackend.usingBlazeClientBuilder(blazeClientBuilder, blocker).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
+    blazeClientBuilder.resource.map(c => Http4sBackend.usingClient(c, blocker)).allocated.unsafeRunSync()._1
 
   override protected def supportsRequestTimeout = false
   override protected def supportsCustomMultipartContentType = false