diff --git a/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/webserver.rs b/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/webserver.rs
index d3dc7f743..dd2a3398d 100644
--- a/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/webserver.rs
+++ b/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/webserver.rs
@@ -8,17 +8,22 @@ mod api;
 use api::events::event_to_json_rpc_notification;
 use api::{Accounts, CommandApi};
 
-#[tokio::main]
+const DEFAULT_PORT: u16 = 20808;
+
+#[tokio::main(flavor = "multi_thread")]
 async fn main() -> Result<(), std::io::Error> {
     env_logger::Builder::from_env(env_logger::Env::default().default_filter_or("info")).init();
     let path = std::env::var("DC_ACCOUNTS_PATH").unwrap_or_else(|_| "./accounts".to_string());
+    let port = std::env::var("DC_PORT")
+        .map(|port| port.parse::<u16>().expect("DC_PORT must be a number"))
+        .unwrap_or(DEFAULT_PORT);
     log::info!("Starting with accounts directory `{path}`.");
     let accounts = Accounts::new(PathBuf::from(&path)).await.unwrap();
     let state = CommandApi::new(accounts);
     let app = Router::new()
         .route("/ws", get(handler))
         .layer(Extension(state.clone()));
-    let addr = SocketAddr::from(([127, 0, 0, 1], 20808));
+    let addr = SocketAddr::from(([127, 0, 0, 1], port));
     state.accounts.read().await.start_io().await;
     log::info!("JSON-RPC WebSocket server listening on {}", addr);
     axum::Server::bind(&addr)