diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5733ec84..b9a1a327 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ add_subdirectory(include)
 add_subdirectory(src)
 add_subdirectory(windows)
 if(NOT(SIMDJSON_JUST_LIBRARY))
-  add_subdirectory(tools)
+  add_subdirectory(dependencies) ## This needs to be before tools because of cxxopts
+  add_subdirectory(tools)  ## This needs to be before tests because of cxxopts
   add_subdirectory(singleheader)
 endif()
 
@@ -47,7 +48,6 @@ endif()
 # Compile tools / tests / benchmarks
 #
 if(NOT(SIMDJSON_JUST_LIBRARY))
-  add_subdirectory(dependencies)
   add_subdirectory(tests)
   add_subdirectory(examples)
   add_subdirectory(benchmark)
diff --git a/benchmark/checkperf.cmake b/benchmark/checkperf.cmake
index 9f0573a7..650304e2 100644
--- a/benchmark/checkperf.cmake
+++ b/benchmark/checkperf.cmake
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 # Clone the repository if it's not there
 find_package(Git QUIET)
 if (Git_FOUND AND (GIT_VERSION_STRING  VERSION_GREATER  "2.1.4")) # We use "-C" which requires a recent git
+  message(STATUS "Git is available and it is recent. We are enabling checkperf targets.")
   # sync_git_repository(myrepo ...) creates two targets:
   # myrepo - if the repo does not exist, creates and syncs it against the origin branch
   # update_myrepo - will update the repo against the origin branch (and create if needed)
@@ -91,5 +92,6 @@ if (Git_FOUND AND (GIT_VERSION_STRING  VERSION_GREATER  "2.1.4")) # We use "-C"
   set_property(TEST checkperf APPEND PROPERTY LABELS per_implementation)
   set_property(TEST checkperf APPEND PROPERTY DEPENDS parse perfdiff ${SIMDJSON_USER_CMAKECACHE})
   set_property(TEST checkperf PROPERTY RUN_SERIAL TRUE)
-
+else()
+  message(STATUS "Either git is unavailable or else it is too old. We are disabling checkperf targets.")
 endif ()
diff --git a/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt b/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
index ef30a870..66034e77 100644
--- a/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/dependencies/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 find_package(Git QUIET) # We want the library to build even if git is missing
 if (Git_FOUND)
+  message(STATUS "Git is available.")
   # Does NOT attempt to update or otherwise modify git submodules that are already initialized.
   function(initialize_submodule DIRECTORY)
     if(NOT EXISTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${DIRECTORY}/.git)
@@ -73,7 +74,9 @@ if (Git_FOUND)
   endif()
 
   initialize_submodule(cxxopts)
+  message(STATUS "We acquired cxxopts and we are adding it as a library and target.")
   add_library(cxxopts INTERFACE)
   target_include_directories(cxxopts INTERFACE cxxopts/include)
-
+else()
+  message(STATUS "Git is unavailable.")
 endif()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/CMakeLists.txt
index 7dcd0eb9..6f5caa38 100644
--- a/tools/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 if(TARGET cxxopts) # we only build the tools if cxxopts is available
+  message(STATUS "We have cxxopts as a dependency and we are buiding the tools (e.g., json2json).")
   link_libraries(simdjson simdjson-internal-flags simdjson-windows-headers cxxopts)
   add_executable(json2json json2json.cpp)
   add_executable(jsonstats jsonstats.cpp)
   add_executable(minify minify.cpp)
+else()
+  message(STATUS "We are missing cxxopts as a dependency so the tools (e.g., json2json) are omitted.")
 endif()
\ No newline at end of file