diff --git a/templates/ts-empty/README.md b/templates/ts-empty/README.md
index 69806116e..bff5002f0 100644
--- a/templates/ts-empty/README.md
+++ b/templates/ts-empty/README.md
@@ -2,16 +2,17 @@
 
 <!-- This is an Apify template readme -->
 
-Start a new [web scraping](https://apify.com/web-scraping) project quickly and easily in TypeScript (Node.js) with our empty project template. It provides a basic structure for the Actor with [Apify SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js/) and allows you to easily add your own functionality.
+Start a new Apify Actor project in TypeScript (Node.js) with only the [Apify SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js/) preinstalled. Add whatever dependencies and functionality your Actor needs.
 
 ## Included features
 
 - **[Apify SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js/)** - a toolkit for building [Actors](https://apify.com/actors)
-- **[Crawlee](https://crawlee.dev/)** - web scraping and browser automation library
 
 ## How it works
 
-Insert your own code between `await Actor.init()` and `await Actor.exit()`. If you would like to use the [Crawlee](https://crawlee.dev/) library simply uncomment its import `import { CheerioCrawler } from '@crawlee/cheerio';`.
+Insert your own code between `await Actor.init()` and `await Actor.exit()`. Install additional dependencies as needed.
+
+If you want to build a web scraper on top of [Crawlee](https://crawlee.dev/), start from the **Crawlee + Cheerio** template instead — it comes preconfigured with `@crawlee/cheerio` and an example crawler.
 
 ## Resources
 
diff --git a/templates/ts-empty/package.json b/templates/ts-empty/package.json
index 209367b16..ed71ddc24 100644
--- a/templates/ts-empty/package.json
+++ b/templates/ts-empty/package.json
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@
         "node": ">=18.0.0"
     },
     "dependencies": {
-        "apify": "^3.7.0",
-        "@crawlee/cheerio": "^3.15.3"
+        "apify": "^3.7.0"
     },
     "devDependencies": {
         "@apify/eslint-config": "^2.0.0",
diff --git a/templates/ts-empty/src/main.ts b/templates/ts-empty/src/main.ts
index 9dc3860b7..ae8d30797 100644
--- a/templates/ts-empty/src/main.ts
+++ b/templates/ts-empty/src/main.ts
@@ -1,12 +1,5 @@
 // Apify SDK - toolkit for building Apify Actors (Read more at https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js/)
 import { Actor, log } from 'apify';
-// Crawlee - web scraping and browser automation library (Read more at https://crawlee.dev)
-// import { CheerioCrawler } from '@crawlee/cheerio';
-
-// this is ESM project, and as such, it requires you to specify extensions in your relative imports
-// read more about this here: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v18.x/api/esm.html#mandatory-file-extensions
-// note that we need to use `.js` even when inside TS files
-// import { router } from './routes.js';
 
 // The init() call configures the Actor to correctly work with the Apify-provided environment - mainly the storage infrastructure. It is necessary that every Actor performs an init() call.
 await Actor.init();