diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/deployment/devui/WebSocketServerDevUIProcessor.java b/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/deployment/devui/WebSocketServerDevUIProcessor.java
index 5f89d5cfd0482..2785efe1fbdd4 100644
--- a/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/deployment/devui/WebSocketServerDevUIProcessor.java
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/deployment/devui/WebSocketServerDevUIProcessor.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public void pages(List<WebSocketEndpointBuildItem> endpoints, List<GeneratedEndp
                 .title("Server Endpoints")
                 .icon("font-awesome-solid:plug")
                 .componentLink("qwc-wsn-endpoints.js")
-                .staticLabel(String.valueOf(endpoints.size())));
+                .staticLabel(String.valueOf(endpoints.stream().filter(WebSocketEndpointBuildItem::isServer).count())));
 
         cardPages.produce(pageBuildItem);
     }
diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/test/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/test/devmode/NoServerEndpointDevModeTest.java b/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/test/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/test/devmode/NoServerEndpointDevModeTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..58c9994ff7836
--- /dev/null
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/deployment/src/test/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/test/devmode/NoServerEndpointDevModeTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package io.quarkus.websockets.next.test.devmode;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+
+import jakarta.enterprise.event.Observes;
+import jakarta.inject.Inject;
+import jakarta.inject.Singleton;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.RegisterExtension;
+
+import io.quarkus.test.QuarkusDevModeTest;
+import io.quarkus.websockets.next.BasicWebSocketConnector;
+import io.restassured.RestAssured;
+import io.vertx.ext.web.Router;
+
+/**
+ * Just to make sure the Dev UI is not broken if no server endpoint is defined.
+ */
+public class NoServerEndpointDevModeTest {
+
+    @RegisterExtension
+    static final QuarkusDevModeTest testConfig = new QuarkusDevModeTest()
+            .withApplicationRoot(root -> root
+                    .addClass(MyBean.class));
+
+    @Test
+    public void testConnectorIsInjected() {
+        assertEquals("1", RestAssured.get("mybeantest").then().statusCode(200).extract().body().asString());
+    }
+
+    @Singleton
+    public static class MyBean {
+
+        @Inject
+        BasicWebSocketConnector connector;
+
+        void addRoute(@Observes Router router) {
+            router.get("/mybeantest").handler(rc -> {
+                rc.end(connector != null ? "1" : "0");
+            });
+        }
+
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/BasicWebSocketConnectorImpl.java b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/BasicWebSocketConnectorImpl.java
index 620369dddf0f4..6442502058725 100644
--- a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/BasicWebSocketConnectorImpl.java
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/BasicWebSocketConnectorImpl.java
@@ -116,10 +116,7 @@ public Uni<WebSocketClientConnection> connect() {
         // TODO would it make sense to share clients?
         WebSocketClient client = vertx.createWebSocketClient(populateClientOptions());
 
-        WebSocketConnectOptions connectOptions = new WebSocketConnectOptions()
-                .setSsl(baseUri.getScheme().equals("https"))
-                .setHost(baseUri.getHost())
-                .setPort(baseUri.getPort());
+        WebSocketConnectOptions connectOptions = newConnectOptions(baseUri);
         StringBuilder requestUri = new StringBuilder();
         String mergedPath = mergePath(baseUri.getPath(), replacePathParameters(path));
         requestUri.append(mergedPath);
diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorBase.java b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorBase.java
index ee098d6a43d16..1556899636c9f 100644
--- a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorBase.java
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorBase.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 import io.vertx.core.Vertx;
 import io.vertx.core.buffer.Buffer;
 import io.vertx.core.http.WebSocketClientOptions;
+import io.vertx.core.http.WebSocketConnectOptions;
 import io.vertx.core.net.SSLOptions;
 
 abstract class WebSocketConnectorBase<THIS extends WebSocketConnectorBase<THIS>> {
@@ -191,4 +192,21 @@ protected WebSocketClientOptions populateClientOptions() {
         }
         return clientOptions;
     }
+
+    protected WebSocketConnectOptions newConnectOptions(URI serverEndpointUri) {
+        WebSocketConnectOptions connectOptions = new WebSocketConnectOptions()
+                .setSsl(isHttps(serverEndpointUri))
+                .setHost(serverEndpointUri.getHost());
+        if (serverEndpointUri.getPort() != -1) {
+            connectOptions.setPort(serverEndpointUri.getPort());
+        } else if (isHttps(serverEndpointUri)) {
+            // If port is undefined and https is used then use 443 by default
+            connectOptions.setPort(443);
+        }
+        return connectOptions;
+    }
+
+    protected boolean isHttps(URI uri) {
+        return "https".equals(uri.getScheme());
+    }
 }
diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorImpl.java b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorImpl.java
index cb04b5cbb61ad..686f132c71038 100644
--- a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorImpl.java
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/WebSocketConnectorImpl.java
@@ -72,10 +72,7 @@ public Uni<WebSocketClientConnection> connect() {
             throw new WebSocketClientException(e);
         }
 
-        WebSocketConnectOptions connectOptions = new WebSocketConnectOptions()
-                .setSsl(serverEndpointUri.getScheme().equals("https"))
-                .setHost(serverEndpointUri.getHost())
-                .setPort(serverEndpointUri.getPort());
+        WebSocketConnectOptions connectOptions = newConnectOptions(serverEndpointUri);
         StringBuilder uri = new StringBuilder();
         if (serverEndpointUri.getPath() != null) {
             uri.append(serverEndpointUri.getRawPath());
diff --git a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/devui/WebSocketNextJsonRPCService.java b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/devui/WebSocketNextJsonRPCService.java
index 5878b1e6950fd..64916971e4c3e 100644
--- a/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/devui/WebSocketNextJsonRPCService.java
+++ b/extensions/websockets-next/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/websockets/next/runtime/devui/WebSocketNextJsonRPCService.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap;
 
 import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;
+import jakarta.enterprise.inject.Instance;
 
 import org.jboss.logging.Logger;
 
@@ -52,16 +53,18 @@ public class WebSocketNextJsonRPCService implements ConnectionListener {
 
     private final WebSocketsServerRuntimeConfig.DevMode devModeConfig;
 
-    WebSocketNextJsonRPCService(ConnectionManager connectionManager, Vertx vertx, HttpConfiguration httpConfig,
+    WebSocketNextJsonRPCService(Instance<ConnectionManager> connectionManager, Vertx vertx, HttpConfiguration httpConfig,
             WebSocketsServerRuntimeConfig config) {
         this.connectionStatus = BroadcastProcessor.create();
         this.connectionMessages = BroadcastProcessor.create();
-        this.connectionManager = connectionManager;
+        this.connectionManager = connectionManager.isResolvable() ? connectionManager.get() : null;
         this.vertx = vertx;
         this.httpConfig = httpConfig;
         this.devModeConfig = config.devMode();
         this.sockets = new ConcurrentHashMap<>();
-        connectionManager.addListener(this);
+        if (this.connectionManager != null) {
+            this.connectionManager.addListener(this);
+        }
     }
 
     public Multi<JsonObject> connectionStatus() {
@@ -74,14 +77,16 @@ public Multi<JsonObject> connectionMessages() {
 
     public JsonObject getConnections(List<String> endpoints) {
         JsonObject json = new JsonObject();
-        for (String endpoint : endpoints) {
-            List<WebSocketConnection> connections = new ArrayList<>(connectionManager.getConnections(endpoint));
-            connections.sort(Comparator.comparing(WebSocketConnection::creationTime));
-            JsonArray array = new JsonArray();
-            for (WebSocketConnection c : connections) {
-                array.add(toJsonObject(endpoint, c));
+        if (connectionManager != null) {
+            for (String endpoint : endpoints) {
+                List<WebSocketConnection> connections = new ArrayList<>(connectionManager.getConnections(endpoint));
+                connections.sort(Comparator.comparing(WebSocketConnection::creationTime));
+                JsonArray array = new JsonArray();
+                for (WebSocketConnection c : connections) {
+                    array.add(toJsonObject(endpoint, c));
+                }
+                json.put(endpoint, array);
             }
-            json.put(endpoint, array);
         }
         json.put("connectionMessagesLimit", devModeConfig.connectionMessagesLimit());
         return json;
@@ -103,6 +108,9 @@ public JsonArray getMessages(String connectionKey) {
     }
 
     public Uni<JsonObject> openDevConnection(String path, String endpointPath) {
+        if (connectionManager == null) {
+            return failureUni();
+        }
         if (isInvalidPath(path, endpointPath)) {
             LOG.errorf("Invalid path %s; original endpoint path %s", path, endpointPath);
             return failureUni();
@@ -179,6 +187,9 @@ private static String normalize(String path) {
     }
 
     public Uni<JsonObject> closeDevConnection(String connectionKey) {
+        if (connectionManager == null) {
+            return failureUni();
+        }
         DevWebSocket socket = sockets.remove(connectionKey);
         if (socket != null) {
             Uni<Void> uni = Uni.createFrom().completionStage(() -> socket.socket.close().toCompletionStage());