diff --git a/src/feather/config.default.toml b/src/feather/config.default.toml
index 11294a2..0d92952 100644
--- a/src/feather/config.default.toml
+++ b/src/feather/config.default.toml
@@ -108,6 +108,9 @@ filename_template = "[{{ feed_title }}]\t{{ title }} ({{ published_formatted }})
 # - order: category display order, starting from 1 (0 if unknown) (int)
 # Can be set through the environment variable HTML_CATEGORY_TEMPLATE.
 category_template = "{% if order %}{{ '%02d' % order }} {% endif %}{{ title }}"
+# Set to true to automatically remove category directories when they do not contain any article.
+# Can be set through the environment variable HTML_HIDE_EMPTY_CATEGORIES.
+hide_empty_categories = true
 # Maximum allowed filename length (in bytes assuming UTF-8 encoding) before truncating. Depending on your filesystem filename's limits it may be possible to increase the value, ask Wikipedia for details.
 # Can be set through the environment variable HTML_MAX_FILENAME_LENGTH.
 max_filename_length = 250
diff --git a/src/feather/config.py b/src/feather/config.py
index fd9d255..c943f3f 100644
--- a/src/feather/config.py
+++ b/src/feather/config.py
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ class Config:
         self.article_template: Template = Template(str(get_config("html", "article_template")), autoescape=True)
         self.article_filename_template: Template = Template(str(get_config("html", "filename_template")), autoescape=False)
         self.article_category_template: Template = Template(str(get_config("html", "category_template")), autoescape=False)
+        self.hide_empty_categories: bool = bool(get_config("html", "hide_empty_categories"))
         self.max_filename_length: int = int(get_config("html", "max_filename_length"))
         self.filename_translation = str.maketrans(get_config("html", "filename_replacement"))
 
diff --git a/src/feather/feather.py b/src/feather/feather.py
index 928e45b..78d637a 100755
--- a/src/feather/feather.py
+++ b/src/feather/feather.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class FeatherApp:
                 raise ValueError(f"{api} server type is invalid; must be ttrss or googlereader")
         return self._client_session
 
-    def remove_empty_html_directories(self):
+    def remove_empty_categories(self):
         """Remove empty directories in the HTML directory"""
         config = self.config
         html_root = config.html_root
@@ -118,17 +118,20 @@ class FeatherApp:
         """Do a full feather update"""
         self.mark_deleted_as_read()
         self.synchronize_with_server()
-        self.remove_empty_html_directories()
+        if self.config.hide_empty_categories:
+            self.remove_empty_categories()
 
     def synchronize_local_changes(self):
         """Upload local changes (read articles) to the server"""
         self.mark_deleted_as_read()
-        self.remove_empty_html_directories()
+        if self.config.hide_empty_categories:
+            self.remove_empty_categories()
 
     def synchronize_remote_changes(self):
         """Download remote changes (new articles, articles read from another device) from the server"""
         self.synchronize_with_server()
-        self.remove_empty_html_directories()
+        if self.config.hide_empty_categories:
+            self.remove_empty_categories()
     
     async def daemon_sync_up_loop(self):
         while True:
@@ -161,5 +164,5 @@ class FeatherApp:
         config = self.config
         for json_path in config.json_root.glob("*.json"):
             FileArticle(config, json_path).delete()
-        self.remove_empty_html_directories()
+        self.remove_empty_categories()