diff --git a/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/json/jackson/DatabindCodec.java b/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/json/jackson/DatabindCodec.java
index 7b1360af53a..59cfa1f7240 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/json/jackson/DatabindCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/json/jackson/DatabindCodec.java
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonToken;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.type.TypeReference;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializationFeature;
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
 import io.netty.buffer.ByteBufInputStream;
 import io.vertx.core.buffer.Buffer;
 import io.vertx.core.buffer.impl.BufferInternal;
@@ -27,7 +25,6 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
@@ -37,7 +34,6 @@
 public class DatabindCodec extends JacksonCodec {
 
   private static final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
-  private static final ObjectMapper prettyMapper = new ObjectMapper();
 
   static {
     initialize();
@@ -47,12 +43,8 @@ private static void initialize() {
     // Non-standard JSON but we allow C style comments in our JSON
     mapper.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_COMMENTS, true);
 
-    prettyMapper.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_COMMENTS, true);
-    prettyMapper.configure(SerializationFeature.INDENT_OUTPUT, true);
-
     VertxModule module = new VertxModule();
     mapper.registerModule(module);
-    prettyMapper.registerModule(module);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -62,13 +54,6 @@ public static ObjectMapper mapper() {
     return mapper;
   }
 
-  /**
-   * @return the {@link ObjectMapper} used for data binding configured for indenting output.
-   */
-  public static ObjectMapper prettyMapper() {
-    return prettyMapper;
-  }
-
   @Override
   public <T> T fromValue(Object json, Class<T> clazz) {
     T value = DatabindCodec.mapper.convertValue(json, clazz);
@@ -158,8 +143,13 @@ private static <T> T fromParser(JsonParser parser, TypeReference<T> type) throws
   @Override
   public String toString(Object object, boolean pretty) throws EncodeException {
     try {
-      ObjectMapper mapper = pretty ? DatabindCodec.prettyMapper : DatabindCodec.mapper;
-      return mapper.writeValueAsString(object);
+      String result;
+      if (pretty) {
+        result = mapper.writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValueAsString(object);
+      } else {
+        result = mapper.writeValueAsString(object);
+      }
+      return result;
     } catch (Exception e) {
       throw new EncodeException("Failed to encode as JSON: " + e.getMessage());
     }
@@ -168,8 +158,13 @@ public String toString(Object object, boolean pretty) throws EncodeException {
   @Override
   public Buffer toBuffer(Object object, boolean pretty) throws EncodeException {
     try {
-      ObjectMapper mapper = pretty ? DatabindCodec.prettyMapper : DatabindCodec.mapper;
-      return Buffer.buffer(mapper.writeValueAsBytes(object));
+      byte[] result;
+      if (pretty) {
+        result = mapper.writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValueAsBytes(object);
+      } else {
+        result = mapper.writeValueAsBytes(object);
+      }
+      return Buffer.buffer(result);
     } catch (Exception e) {
       throw new EncodeException("Failed to encode as JSON: " + e.getMessage());
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/vertx/core/json/JacksonDatabindTest.java b/src/test/java/io/vertx/core/json/JacksonDatabindTest.java
index 6774f4ead84..d08c11aa859 100644
--- a/src/test/java/io/vertx/core/json/JacksonDatabindTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/io/vertx/core/json/JacksonDatabindTest.java
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.time.Instant;
-import java.util.*;
+import java.util.Base64;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
 
 import static io.vertx.core.json.impl.JsonUtil.BASE64_ENCODER;
 import static java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.ISO_INSTANT;
@@ -41,12 +44,6 @@ public void testGetMapper() {
     assertNotNull(mapper);
   }
 
-  @Test
-  public void testGetPrettyMapper() {
-    ObjectMapper mapper = DatabindCodec.prettyMapper();
-    assertNotNull(mapper);
-  }
-
   @Test
   public void testGenericDecoding() {
     Pojo original = new Pojo();
@@ -225,4 +222,19 @@ private static class Pojo {
     @JsonProperty
     byte[] bytes;
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testPrettyPrinting() {
+    JsonObject jsonObject = new JsonObject()
+      .put("key1", "value1")
+      .put("key2", "value2")
+      .put("key3", "value3");
+
+    String compact = Json.encode(jsonObject);
+    String pretty = Json.encodePrettily(jsonObject);
+
+    assertFalse(compact.equals(pretty));
+
+    assertEquals(jsonObject, Json.decodeValue(pretty));
+  }
 }