diff --git a/CONFIG b/CONFIG
index d87b86935..d2fd3a793 100644
--- a/CONFIG
+++ b/CONFIG
@@ -71,3 +71,6 @@ CONFIG_RDMA?=n
 # Build Ceph RBD support in bdev modules
 # Requires librbd development libraries
 CONFIG_RBD?=n
+
+# Build vhost library.
+CONFIG_VHOST?=y
diff --git a/app/Makefile b/app/Makefile
index 31555099a..2b4773cbf 100644
--- a/app/Makefile
+++ b/app/Makefile
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ DIRS-y += trace
 DIRS-y += nvmf_tgt
 DIRS-y += iscsi_top
 ifeq ($(OS),Linux)
-DIRS-y += iscsi_tgt vhost
+DIRS-y += iscsi_tgt
+DIRS-$(CONFIG_VHOST) += vhost
 endif
 
 .PHONY: all clean $(DIRS-y)
diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
index b8f54e0d9..073142786 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile
+++ b/lib/Makefile
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ include $(SPDK_ROOT_DIR)/mk/spdk.common.mk
 DIRS-y += bdev conf copy cunit event json jsonrpc \
           log env_dpdk net rpc trace util nvme nvmf scsi ioat
 ifeq ($(OS),Linux)
-DIRS-y += iscsi vhost
+DIRS-y += iscsi
+DIRS-$(CONFIG_VHOST) += vhost
 endif