diff --git a/config/stage/syftbox.service b/config/stage/syftbox.service
index 007122bb..684e1b84 100644
--- a/config/stage/syftbox.service
+++ b/config/stage/syftbox.service
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ LimitNOFILE=262144
 User=azureuser
 WorkingDirectory=/home/azureuser
 ExecStartPre=uv run syftbox server migrate
-ExecStart=uv run gunicorn syftbox.server.server:app -w 5 -k uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker --bind 0.0.0.0:8080 --graceful-timeout 5 --keep-alive 5 --max-requests 500 --max-requests-jitter 50 --forwarded-allow-ips * --worker-tmp-dir /dev/shm --keyfile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syftboxstage.openmined.org/privkey.pem --certfile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syftboxstage.openmined.org/fullchain.pem
+ExecStart=uv run uvicorn syftbox.server.server:app --workers 5 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 --timeout-graceful-shutdown=5 --timeout-keep-alive=30 --limit-max-requests=5000 --ssl-keyfile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syftboxstage.openmined.org/privkey.pem --ssl-certfile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syftboxstage.openmined.org/fullchain.pem --log-level=trace
 Environment=OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.name=syftbox-stage
 Restart=on-failure
 RestartSec=5
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 20aec37e..3b1ad567 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ requires-python = ">=3.9"
 dependencies = [
     "fastapi==0.115.7",
     "uvicorn==0.34.0",
-    "gunicorn==23.0.0",
     "jinja2==3.1.5",
     "typing-extensions==4.12.2",
     "pydantic-settings==2.7.1",
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 5b650951..f9ef029e 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -504,7 +504,7 @@ name = "click"
 version = "8.1.7"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "colorama", marker = "platform_system == 'Windows'" },
+    { name = "colorama", marker = "sys_platform == 'win32'" },
 ]
 sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/96/d3/f04c7bfcf5c1862a2a5b845c6b2b360488cf47af55dfa79c98f6a6bf98b5/click-8.1.7.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:ca9853ad459e787e2192211578cc907e7594e294c7ccc834310722b41b9ca6de", size = 336121 }
 wheels = [
@@ -1177,18 +1177,6 @@ wheels = [
     { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/58/fb/73d7686fd51955de6fe0d635404eca5a9efbee415f04c1c572b5becd010b/grpcio-1.68.1-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl", hash = "sha256:334ab917792904245a028f10e803fcd5b6f36a7b2173a820c0b5b076555825e1", size = 4398968 },
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "gunicorn"
-version = "23.0.0"
-source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
-dependencies = [
-    { name = "packaging" },
-]
-sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/34/72/9614c465dc206155d93eff0ca20d42e1e35afc533971379482de953521a4/gunicorn-23.0.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:f014447a0101dc57e294f6c18ca6b40227a4c90e9bdb586042628030cba004ec", size = 375031 }
-wheels = [
-    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/cb/7d/6dac2a6e1eba33ee43f318edbed4ff29151a49b5d37f080aad1e6469bca4/gunicorn-23.0.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:ec400d38950de4dfd418cff8328b2c8faed0edb0d517d3394e457c317908ca4d", size = 85029 },
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "h11"
 version = "0.14.0"
@@ -1270,7 +1258,7 @@ name = "ipykernel"
 version = "6.29.5"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "appnope", marker = "platform_system == 'Darwin'" },
+    { name = "appnope", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
     { name = "comm" },
     { name = "debugpy" },
     { name = "ipython" },
@@ -2745,7 +2733,6 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "curl-cffi" },
     { name = "distro" },
     { name = "fastapi" },
-    { name = "gunicorn" },
     { name = "httpx" },
     { name = "jinja2" },
     { name = "loguru" },
@@ -2795,7 +2782,6 @@ requires-dist = [
     { name = "curl-cffi", specifier = ">=0.7.4" },
     { name = "distro", specifier = "==1.9.0" },
     { name = "fastapi", specifier = "==0.115.7" },
-    { name = "gunicorn", specifier = "==23.0.0" },
     { name = "httpx", specifier = "==0.28.1" },
     { name = "jinja2", specifier = "==3.1.5" },
     { name = "loguru", specifier = "==0.7.3" },
@@ -2948,7 +2934,7 @@ name = "tqdm"
 version = "4.67.1"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
-    { name = "colorama", marker = "platform_system == 'Windows'" },
+    { name = "colorama", marker = "sys_platform == 'win32'" },
 ]
 sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/a8/4b/29b4ef32e036bb34e4ab51796dd745cdba7ed47ad142a9f4a1eb8e0c744d/tqdm-4.67.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:f8aef9c52c08c13a65f30ea34f4e5aac3fd1a34959879d7e59e63027286627f2", size = 169737 }
 wheels = [