diff --git a/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go b/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go
index ca14e456da..38394eb402 100644
--- a/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go
+++ b/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@ package boltdb
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	jsoniter "github.com/json-iterator/go"
+
 	godigest "github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	ispec "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"go.etcd.io/bbolt"
@@ -29,6 +30,8 @@ type BoltDB struct {
 	Log           log.Logger
 }
 
+var json = jsoniter.ConfigCompatibleWithStandardLibrary
+
 func New(boltDB *bbolt.DB, log log.Logger) (*BoltDB, error) {
 	err := boltDB.Update(func(transaction *bbolt.Tx) error {
 		versionBuck, err := transaction.CreateBucketIfNotExists([]byte(VersionBucket))
diff --git a/pkg/meta/dynamodb/dynamodb.go b/pkg/meta/dynamodb/dynamodb.go
index d96c2b1dfa..b5f62a4a41 100644
--- a/pkg/meta/dynamodb/dynamodb.go
+++ b/pkg/meta/dynamodb/dynamodb.go
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@ package dynamodb
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	jsoniter "github.com/json-iterator/go"
+
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/aws"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/feature/dynamodb/attributevalue"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/dynamodb"
@@ -25,6 +26,8 @@ import (
 	reqCtx "zotregistry.io/zot/pkg/requestcontext"
 )
 
+var json = jsoniter.ConfigCompatibleWithStandardLibrary
+
 var errMetaDB = errors.New("metadb: error while constructing manifest meta")
 
 type DynamoDB struct {