diff --git a/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/WebSocketImplBase.java b/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/WebSocketImplBase.java
index 9ca0f33de7f..97af3f0be88 100644
--- a/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/WebSocketImplBase.java
+++ b/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/WebSocketImplBase.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLPeerUnverifiedException;
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLSession;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.security.cert.Certificate;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.UUID;
@@ -239,7 +240,13 @@ public Future<Void> writeBinaryMessage(Buffer data) {
 
   @Override
   public Future<Void> writeTextMessage(String text) {
-    return writePartialMessage(WebSocketFrameType.TEXT, Buffer.buffer(text), 0);
+    byte[] utf8Bytes = text.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+    boolean isFinal = utf8Bytes.length <= maxWebSocketFrameSize;
+    if (isFinal) {
+      return writeFrame(new WebSocketFrameImpl(WebSocketFrameType.TEXT, utf8Bytes, true));
+    }
+    // we could save to copy the byte[] if the unsafe heap version of Netty ByteBuf could expose wrapping byte[] directly
+    return writePartialMessage(WebSocketFrameType.TEXT, Buffer.buffer(utf8Bytes), 0);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/ws/WebSocketFrameImpl.java b/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/ws/WebSocketFrameImpl.java
index 2d4a01c28e6..7c71d06f0d2 100644
--- a/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/ws/WebSocketFrameImpl.java
+++ b/vertx-core/src/main/java/io/vertx/core/http/impl/ws/WebSocketFrameImpl.java
@@ -80,6 +80,15 @@ public WebSocketFrameImpl(String textData) {
     this(textData, true);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Creates a new raw frame from with the specified encoded content.
+   */
+  public WebSocketFrameImpl(WebSocketFrameType type, byte[] utf8TextData, boolean isFinalFrame) {
+    this.type = type;
+    this.isFinalFrame = isFinalFrame;
+    this.binaryData = Unpooled.wrappedBuffer(utf8TextData);
+  }
+
   /**
    * Creates a new text frame from with the specified string.
    */