diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index e00ec7f6ea..ade93658c7 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -8028,6 +8028,7 @@
       "version": "2.0.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/git-rev-sync/-/git-rev-sync-2.0.0.tgz",
       "integrity": "sha512-vnHFv2eocTmt/wHqZm3ksxtVshK4vptT0cEoumk6hAYRFx3do6Qo7xHBTBCv29+r3ZZCQOQ1i328MUCsYF7AUw==",
+      "dev": true,
       "requires": {
         "escape-string-regexp": "1.0.5",
         "graceful-fs": "4.1.15",
@@ -8037,12 +8038,14 @@
         "graceful-fs": {
           "version": "4.1.15",
           "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/graceful-fs/-/graceful-fs-4.1.15.tgz",
-          "integrity": "sha512-6uHUhOPEBgQ24HM+r6b/QwWfZq+yiFcipKFrOFiBEnWdy5sdzYoi+pJeQaPI5qOLRFqWmAXUPQNsielzdLoecA=="
+          "integrity": "sha512-6uHUhOPEBgQ24HM+r6b/QwWfZq+yiFcipKFrOFiBEnWdy5sdzYoi+pJeQaPI5qOLRFqWmAXUPQNsielzdLoecA==",
+          "dev": true
         },
         "shelljs": {
           "version": "0.7.7",
           "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/shelljs/-/shelljs-0.7.7.tgz",
           "integrity": "sha1-svXHfvlxSPS09uImguELuoZnz/E=",
+          "dev": true,
           "requires": {
             "glob": "^7.0.0",
             "interpret": "^1.0.0",
@@ -8370,7 +8373,8 @@
     "interpret": {
       "version": "1.2.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/interpret/-/interpret-1.2.0.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-mT34yGKMNceBQUoVn7iCDKDntA7SC6gycMAWzGx1z/CMCTV7b2AAtXlo3nRyHZ1FelRkQbQjprHSYGwzLtkVbw=="
+      "integrity": "sha512-mT34yGKMNceBQUoVn7iCDKDntA7SC6gycMAWzGx1z/CMCTV7b2AAtXlo3nRyHZ1FelRkQbQjprHSYGwzLtkVbw==",
+      "dev": true
     },
     "invariant": {
       "version": "2.2.4",
@@ -11096,7 +11100,8 @@
     "path-parse": {
       "version": "1.0.6",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/path-parse/-/path-parse-1.0.6.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-GSmOT2EbHrINBf9SR7CDELwlJ8AENk3Qn7OikK4nFYAu3Ote2+JYNVvkpAEQm3/TLNEJFD/xZJjzyxg3KBWOzw=="
+      "integrity": "sha512-GSmOT2EbHrINBf9SR7CDELwlJ8AENk3Qn7OikK4nFYAu3Ote2+JYNVvkpAEQm3/TLNEJFD/xZJjzyxg3KBWOzw==",
+      "dev": true
     },
     "path-to-regexp": {
       "version": "1.8.0",
@@ -11583,6 +11588,7 @@
       "version": "0.6.2",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/rechoir/-/rechoir-0.6.2.tgz",
       "integrity": "sha1-hSBLVNuoLVdC4oyWdW70OvUOM4Q=",
+      "dev": true,
       "requires": {
         "resolve": "^1.1.6"
       }
@@ -11861,6 +11867,7 @@
       "version": "1.15.1",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/resolve/-/resolve-1.15.1.tgz",
       "integrity": "sha512-84oo6ZTtoTUpjgNEr5SJyzQhzL72gaRodsSfyxC/AXRvwu0Yse9H8eF9IpGo7b8YetZhlI6v7ZQ6bKBFV/6S7w==",
+      "dev": true,
       "requires": {
         "path-parse": "^1.0.6"
       }
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ac59d447e1..47b976e494 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -73,7 +73,6 @@
     "firefox-profile": "2.0.0",
     "fs-extra": "9.0.1",
     "fx-runner": "1.0.13",
-    "git-rev-sync": "2.0.0",
     "import-fresh": "3.2.1",
     "mkdirp": "1.0.4",
     "multimatch": "4.0.0",
@@ -116,6 +115,7 @@
     "eslint-plugin-flowtype": "5.2.0",
     "eslint-plugin-import": "2.22.0",
     "flow-bin": "0.129.0",
+    "git-rev-sync": "2.0.0",
     "html-entities": "1.3.1",
     "mocha": "8.0.1",
     "nyc": "15.1.0",
diff --git a/src/program.js b/src/program.js
index a8042eec0c..12091eb9a9 100644
--- a/src/program.js
+++ b/src/program.js
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import {readFileSync} from 'fs';
 
 import camelCase from 'camelcase';
 import decamelize from 'decamelize';
-import git from 'git-rev-sync';
 import yargs from 'yargs';
 import { Parser as yargsParser } from 'yargs/yargs';
 
@@ -353,6 +352,11 @@ export function defaultVersionGetter(
     return JSON.parse(packageData).version;
   } else {
     log.debug('Getting version from the git revision');
+    // This branch is only reached during development.
+    // git-rev-sync is in devDependencies, and lazily imported using require.
+    // This also avoids logspam from https://github.com/mozilla/web-ext/issues/1916
+    // eslint-disable-next-line import/no-extraneous-dependencies
+    const git = require('git-rev-sync');
     return `${git.branch(absolutePackageDir)}-${git.long(absolutePackageDir)}`;
   }
 }
diff --git a/webpack.config.js b/webpack.config.js
index 001559ab49..f17c26c2dd 100644
--- a/webpack.config.js
+++ b/webpack.config.js
@@ -39,7 +39,12 @@ module.exports = {
   externals: [
     nodeExternals({
       modulesFromFile: {
-        excludeFromBundle: ['dependencies'],
+        // We shouldn't bundle devDependencies. E.g. git-rev-sync would be
+        // bundled if we omitted "devDependencies" from this list, which is
+        // undesired because the branch is never reached on production, so it
+        // is intentionally part of devDependencies to avoid the unnecessary
+        // dependency and bundling on production.
+        excludeFromBundle: ['dependencies', 'devDependencies'],
       },
     }),
   ],