diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index da4806d9c4..3065d9e683 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -988,3 +988,8 @@ docker:
 
 # This endif closes the if at the top of the file
 endif
+
+# Disable parallel execution because it would break some targets that don't
+# specify exact dependencies like 'backend' which does currently not depend
+# on 'frontend' to enable Node.js-less builds from source tarballs.
+.NOTPARALLEL:
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 174e37769c..adba74d8bb 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -89,8 +89,6 @@ The `build` target is split into two sub-targets:
 
 Internet connectivity is required to download the go and npm modules. When building from the official source tarballs which include pre-built frontend files, the `frontend` target will not be triggered, making it possible to build without Node.js.
 
-Parallelism (`make -j <num>`) is not supported.
-
 More info: https://docs.gitea.com/installation/install-from-source
 
 ## Using