diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0eb3dd8a7..7d5037f8b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -38,6 +38,27 @@ Please visit the project's documentation [page](https://reframe-hpc.readthedocs.
 
 ReFrame is fairly easy to install as PyPI package.
 
+### Installing using `pip`
+
+```bash
+pip install reframe-hpc
+```
+
+This will also install the manpages and the shell completions under your pip's virtual environment:
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| `reframe` executable | `${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin` |
+| Man pages | `${VIRTUAL_ENV}/share/man` |
+| Bash/Zsh completions | `${VIRTUAL_ENV}/share/bash-completion/completions/reframe` |
+| Fish completions | `${VIRTUAL_ENV}/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/reframe.fish` |
+
+
+### Installing using `uv`
+
+You can use any package manager that understands `pyproject.toml`-based Python projects to install ReFrame.
+In this section we describe in more detail handling an installation using `uv`.
+
 ```bash
 # Fetch uv
 curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
@@ -52,7 +73,7 @@ reframe -V
 This will place the `reframe` executable under `$HOME/.local/bin` and the package under `$HOME/.local/share/uv/tools/reframe-hpc`.
 To make available the manpage and the shell completions add the following lines in your shell's profile script:
 
-### Bash/Zsh
+#### Bash/Zsh
 
 Add the following lines to your `$HOME/.profile`:
 
@@ -61,7 +82,7 @@ export MANPATH=${HOME}/.local/share/uv/tools/reframe-hpc/share/man:${MANPATH}:
 source ${HOME}/.local/share/uv/tools/reframe-hpc/share/bash-completion/completions/reframe
 ```
 
-### Fish
+#### Fish
 
 Add the following lines to your `$HOME/.config/fish/config.fish`:
 
@@ -70,10 +91,7 @@ set -apgx MANPATH ${HOME}/.local/share/uv/tools/reframe-hpc/share/man ""
 source ${HOME}/.local/share/uv/tools/reframe-hpc/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/reframe.fish
 ```
 
-> NOTE: Using `uv` is not required to install ReFrame.
-> You can use any modern Python build system that recognizes the `pyproject.toml` file.
-
-### Multi-architecture installations on shared filesystem
+#### Multi-architecture installations on shared filesystem
 
 If you plan to install ReFrame for multiple platforms in a shared installation, you should make sure each installation resides in a different prefix.
 You can achieve this with `uv` as follows:
@@ -97,6 +115,29 @@ It also caches them, so that the next time you invoke it, it will not download a
 The only "downside" of this method is that you have to always invoke ReFrame through `uvx`, as opposed to the `uv tool install` method, where the `reframe` executable is installed in a standard path.
 
 
+### Installation extras
+
+When installing ReFrame you can opt-in or opt-out from certain features.
+For example, using `pip` you can use the brackets syntax:
+
+```bash
+# Opt-in for an extra
+pip install reframe-hpc[extra]
+
+# Opt-out from a feature
+pip install reframe-hpc[no-feature]
+```
+
+With `uv` you can either use the brackets notation or use the `--extra` option.
+
+Here is a list of the available extras during installation:
+
+| Extra | Description |
+|---|---|
+| `graylog` | Install Graylog bindings |
+| `no-analytics` | Do not install the analytics layers; this will disable results storage feature but will make the installation more compact. |
+
+
 ## Running from source
 
 If you want to run the latest ReFrame directly from the repo, you can simply clone the repo and `uv run` ReFrame:
diff --git a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-envmodules.dockerfile b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-envmodules.dockerfile
index b57656b76..2fad4a2cb 100644
--- a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-envmodules.dockerfile
+++ b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-envmodules.dockerfile
@@ -29,4 +29,4 @@ RUN uv sync --group dev && \
     echo ". $BASH_ENV" >> /home/rfmuser/.profile
 ENV BASH_ENV=/home/rfmuser/.profile
 
-CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/envmod.py; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml"]
+CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/envmod.py; rv=$?; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml; exit $rv"]
diff --git a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-lmod.dockerfile b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-lmod.dockerfile
index d112a577d..4b67354eb 100644
--- a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-lmod.dockerfile
+++ b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-lmod.dockerfile
@@ -28,4 +28,4 @@ RUN uv sync --group dev && \
     echo ". $BASH_ENV" >> /home/rfmuser/.profile
 ENV BASH_ENV=/home/rfmuser/.profile
 
-CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py -v --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/lmod.py; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml"]
+CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py -v --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/lmod.py; rv=$?; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml; exit $rv"]
diff --git a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-spack.dockerfile b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-spack.dockerfile
index a671ac74c..e9b1aafbe 100644
--- a/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-spack.dockerfile
+++ b/ci-scripts/dockerfiles/reframe-spack.dockerfile
@@ -34,4 +34,4 @@ RUN uv sync --group dev && \
     echo '. /home/rfmuser/spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh' >> /home/rfmuser/.profile
 ENV BASH_ENV=/home/rfmuser/.profile
 
-CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py -v --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/spack.py; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml"]
+CMD ["/bin/bash", "-c", "uv run coverage run --source=reframe ./test_reframe.py -v --rfm-user-config=ci-scripts/configs/spack.py; rv=$?; uv run coverage xml -o coverage.xml; exit $rv"]
diff --git a/docs/started.rst b/docs/started.rst
index ca4a2cd58..ed84977d3 100644
--- a/docs/started.rst
+++ b/docs/started.rst
@@ -142,6 +142,36 @@ This will install the man pages as well as the `Graylog <https://docs.graylog.or
    This is maintained by the EasyBuild community and it may not be up to date with the latest ReFrame releases.
 
 
+-------------------
+Installation extras
+-------------------
+
+When installing ReFrame you can opt-in or opt-out from certain features.
+Using ``pip`` you can do this as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    # Opt-in for an extra
+    pip instal reframe-hpc[extra]
+
+    # Opt-out from a feature
+    pip install reframe-hpc[no-extra]
+
+Check your preferred package manager on how it treats optional dependencies.
+
+Here is a list of the available extras during installation:
+
+.. table::
+   :align: center
+
+   ================ ====================
+   Extra            Description
+   ================ ====================
+   ``graylog``      Install Graylog bindings
+   ``no-analytics`` Do not install the analytics layers; this will disable results storage feature but will make the installation more compact.
+   ================ ====================
+
+
 Enabling auto-completion
 ------------------------
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index c2592449a..eb23a2ba2 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "jinja2 ~= 3.1",
     "jsonschema ~= 4.26",
     "lxml ~= 6.0",
-    "polars ~= 1.39",
+    "polars ~= 1.39; extra != 'no-analytics'",
     "PyYAML ~= 6.0",
     "requests ~= 2.33",
     "semver ~= 3.0",
@@ -57,10 +57,12 @@ reframe = "reframe.frontend.cli:main"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 graylog = ["pygelf ~= 0.4"]
+no-analytics = []
 
 [dependency-groups]
 dev = [
     "coverage ~= 7.13",
+    "polars ~= 1.39",
     "pytest ~= 9.0",
     "pytest-forked ~= 1.6",
     "pytest-rerunfailures ~= 16.1"
diff --git a/reframe/frontend/cli.py b/reframe/frontend/cli.py
index 2b605a7cc..6f321abe5 100644
--- a/reframe/frontend/cli.py
+++ b/reframe/frontend/cli.py
@@ -274,13 +274,25 @@ def validate_storage_options(namespace, cmd_options):
     storage_enabled = runtime.runtime().get_option('storage/0/enable')
     for arg in cmd_options:
         attr = arg[2:].replace('-', '_')
-        if not storage_enabled and getattr(namespace, attr, None):
-            logging.getlogger().error(
-                f'option `{arg}` requires results storage; '
-                'either set `RFM_ENABLE_RESULTS_STORAGE=1` or set '
-                '`"storage": [{"enable": True}]` in the configuration file'
-            )
-            return False
+        if getattr(namespace, attr, None):
+            if not storage_enabled:
+                logging.getlogger().error(
+                    f'option `{arg}` requires results storage; '
+                    'either set `RFM_ENABLE_RESULTS_STORAGE=1` or set '
+                    '`"storage": [{"enable": True}]` in the configuration file'
+                )
+                return False
+
+            # Results storage is enable; try to import polars to make sure the
+            # installation is sane
+            try:
+                import polars   # noqa: F401
+            except ImportError:
+                logging.getlogger().error(
+                    'results storage requires polars to be installed; '
+                    'reinstall reframe-hpc with analytics turned on'
+                )
+                return False
 
     return True
 
diff --git a/reframe/frontend/reporting/__init__.py b/reframe/frontend/reporting/__init__.py
index b59029b21..02ecb0282 100644
--- a/reframe/frontend/reporting/__init__.py
+++ b/reframe/frontend/reporting/__init__.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 import lxml.etree as etree
 import math
 import os
-import polars as pl
 import re
 import socket
 import time
@@ -608,6 +607,8 @@ def _job_nodelist():
 
 @time_function
 def _create_dataframe(testcases, groups, columns):
+    import polars as pl
+
     record_cols = list(OrderedSet(groups) | OrderedSet(columns))
     data = []
     for tc in map(_TCProxy, testcases):
@@ -653,6 +654,8 @@ def _aggregate_data(testcases, query):
 
 @time_function
 def compare_testcase_data(base_testcases, target_testcases, query):
+    import polars as pl
+
     df_base = _aggregate_data(base_testcases, query).with_columns(
         pl.col(query.aggregated_columns).name.suffix(query.lhs_column_suffix)
     )
diff --git a/reframe/frontend/reporting/utility.py b/reframe/frontend/reporting/utility.py
index d08be5713..6c0d91717 100644
--- a/reframe/frontend/reporting/utility.py
+++ b/reframe/frontend/reporting/utility.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
 
-import polars as pl
 import re
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
 from numbers import Number
@@ -69,9 +68,11 @@ def strip_suffix(self, col: str) -> str:
         '''Strip aggregation suffix from column'''
         return self._agg_names.get(col, col)
 
-    def col_spec(self, extra_cols: List[str]) -> List[pl.Expr]:
+    def col_spec(self, extra_cols: List[str]):
         '''Return a list of polars expressions for this aggregation'''
 
+        import polars as pl
+
         def _expr_from_op(col, op):
             if op == 'min':
                 return pl.col(col).min().alias(f'{col} (min)')