diff --git a/app/inventory/prod.jsonnet b/app/inventory/prod.jsonnet
index 1b81c97..5b94e53 100644
--- a/app/inventory/prod.jsonnet
+++ b/app/inventory/prod.jsonnet
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@
       password: top.secretRefs.postgres,
       versionedNames: true,
     },
-    bouncer: {},
   },
 
   service: ns.Contain(kube.Service(cfg.name)) {
diff --git a/hswaw/kube/pretalx.libsonnet b/hswaw/kube/pretalx.libsonnet
index 9025a9e..d0d18d4 100644
--- a/hswaw/kube/pretalx.libsonnet
+++ b/hswaw/kube/pretalx.libsonnet
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@
                             name: "pretalx",
                             user: "pretalx",
                             // password: ... // provided by environment variable from secret
-                            host: pretalx.postgres.bouncer.svc.host,
+                            host: pretalx.postgres.bouncer.host,
                             //port: 5432
                         },
                         mail: {
@@ -217,6 +217,9 @@
                 database: "pretalx",
                 username: "pretalx",
                 password: pretalx.cfg.pgpass,
+                bouncer: {
+                    enable: true,
+                },
             },
         },
 
diff --git a/hswaw/paperless/paperless.libsonnet b/hswaw/paperless/paperless.libsonnet
index c24f264..3b8114b 100644
--- a/hswaw/paperless/paperless.libsonnet
+++ b/hswaw/paperless/paperless.libsonnet
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@
                 from: "10",
             },
         },
-        bouncer: {},
     },
 
     dataVolume: ns.Contain(kube.PersistentVolumeClaim("paperless-data")) {
diff --git a/kube/postgres.libsonnet b/kube/postgres.libsonnet
index 9ae1ccf..a3c6415 100644
--- a/kube/postgres.libsonnet
+++ b/kube/postgres.libsonnet
@@ -56,6 +56,13 @@
             to: std.native('regexSubst')("^[^:]+:([^.]+).*$", cfg.image, "${1}"),
         },
 
+        # Optional pgbouncer
+        # if enabled, use `postgres.bouncer.host` as database host
+        bouncer: {
+            enable: false,
+            image: "edoburu/pgbouncer:1.11.0",
+        },
+
         # If set to true, resources will be suffixed with postgres version (and will have versioned labels)
         # This exists solely for backwards compatibility with old postgres_v libsonnet
         # and should not be used in new deployments
@@ -189,7 +196,7 @@
         },
     },
 
-    bouncer: {
+    bouncer: if cfg.bouncer.enable then {
         deployment: kube.Deployment(postgres.makeName("bouncer")) {
             metadata+: postgres.metadata {
                 labels+: {
@@ -202,7 +209,7 @@
                     spec+: {
                         containers_: {
                             bouncer: kube.Container(postgres.makeName("bouncer")) {
-                                image: "edoburu/pgbouncer:1.11.0",
+                                image: cfg.bouncer.image,
                                 ports_: {
                                     client: { containerPort: 5432 },
                                 },
@@ -216,6 +223,7 @@
                 },
             },
         },
+        host:: self.svc.host,
         svc: kube.Service(postgres.makeName("bouncer")) {
             metadata+: postgres.metadata {
                 labels+: {
@@ -230,5 +238,5 @@
                 type: "ClusterIP",
             },
         },
-    },
+    } else {},
 }