diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index aa6020e..3fe03a7 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ thiserror = "1.0.50"
 tracing = "0.1.40"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-axum = { version = "0.6.20", default-features = false, features = ["tokio"] }
+axum = { version = "0.7.5", default-features = false, features = ["tokio", "http1"] }
 tokio = { version = "1.33.0", default-features = false, features = ["macros", "test-util"] }
-tower-http = { version = "0.4.4", default-features = false, features = ["fs"] }
+tower-http = { version = "0.5.2", default-features = false, features = ["fs"] }
 async_zip = { version = "0.0.15", default-features = false, features = ["tokio"] }
 assert_matches = "1.5.0"
 rstest = { version = "0.18.2" }
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 2b99aa0..786f454 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -669,7 +669,9 @@ mod test {
     async fn async_range_reader_zip(#[case] check_method: CheckSupportMethod) {
         // Spawn a static file server
         let path = Path::new(&std::env::var("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR").unwrap()).join("test-data");
-        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(&path);
+        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(&path)
+            .await
+            .expect("could not initialize server");
 
         // check that file is there and has the right size
         let filepath = path.join("andes-1.8.3-pyhd8ed1ab_0.conda");
@@ -776,7 +778,9 @@ mod test {
     async fn async_range_reader(#[case] check_method: CheckSupportMethod) {
         // Spawn a static file server
         let path = Path::new(&std::env::var("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR").unwrap()).join("test-data");
-        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(&path);
+        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(&path)
+            .await
+            .expect("could not initialize server");
 
         // Construct an AsyncRangeReader
         let (mut range, _) = AsyncHttpRangeReader::new(
@@ -820,7 +824,9 @@ mod test {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_not_found() {
-        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR")));
+        let server = StaticDirectoryServer::new(Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR")))
+            .await
+            .expect("could not initialize server");
         let err = AsyncHttpRangeReader::new(
             Client::new(),
             server.url().join("not-found").unwrap(),
diff --git a/src/static_directory_server.rs b/src/static_directory_server.rs
index 7d082f7..4cb2b4d 100644
--- a/src/static_directory_server.rs
+++ b/src/static_directory_server.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 use axum::routing::get_service;
+use axum::ServiceExt;
 use reqwest::Url;
 use std::net::SocketAddr;
 use std::path::Path;
@@ -21,7 +22,7 @@ impl StaticDirectoryServer {
 }
 
 impl StaticDirectoryServer {
-    pub fn new(path: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Self {
+    pub async fn new(path: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<Self, StaticDirectoryServerError> {
         let service = get_service(ServeDir::new(path));
 
         // Create a router that will serve the static files
@@ -31,25 +32,27 @@ impl StaticDirectoryServer {
         // port is very important because it enables creating multiple instances at the same time.
         // We need this to be able to run tests in parallel.
         let addr = SocketAddr::new([127, 0, 0, 1].into(), 0);
-        let server = axum::Server::bind(&addr).serve(app.into_make_service());
+        let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind(addr).await?;
 
         // Get the address of the server so we can bind to it at a later stage.
-        let addr = server.local_addr();
+        let addr = listener.local_addr()?;
 
         // Setup a graceful shutdown trigger which is fired when this instance is dropped.
         let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();
-        let server = server.with_graceful_shutdown(async {
-            rx.await.ok();
-        });
 
-        // Spawn the server. Let go of the JoinHandle, we can use the graceful shutdown trigger to
-        // stop the server.
-        tokio::spawn(server);
+        // Spawn the server in the background.
+        tokio::spawn(async move {
+            let _ = axum::serve(listener, app.into_make_service())
+                .with_graceful_shutdown(async {
+                    rx.await.ok();
+                })
+                .await;
+        });
 
-        Self {
+        Ok(Self {
             local_addr: addr,
             shutdown_sender: Some(tx),
-        }
+        })
     }
 }
 
@@ -60,3 +63,9 @@ impl Drop for StaticDirectoryServer {
         }
     }
 }
+/// Error type used for [`StaticDirectoryServerError`]
+#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
+pub enum StaticDirectoryServerError {
+    #[error(transparent)]
+    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),
+}