diff --git a/.changeset/honest-turkeys-learn.md b/.changeset/honest-turkeys-learn.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e4e6aae5fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/honest-turkeys-learn.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
+---
+
+Remove unnecessary join in the entity facets endpoint, exclude nulls
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.test.ts
index 93a37fb04a..4f011813e6 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.test.ts
@@ -1729,6 +1729,17 @@ describe('DefaultEntitiesCatalog', () => {
             ],
           },
         });
+
+        await expect(
+          catalog.facets({
+            facets: ['kind'],
+            filter: { not: { key: 'metadata.name', values: ['two'] } },
+          }),
+        ).resolves.toEqual({
+          facets: {
+            kind: [{ value: 'k', count: 1 }],
+          },
+        });
       },
     );
 
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
index 5fca950cac..8affa78991 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/service/DefaultEntitiesCatalog.ts
@@ -678,10 +678,9 @@ export class DefaultEntitiesCatalog implements EntitiesCatalog {
 
     for (const facet of request.facets) {
       const dbQuery = db<DbSearchRow>('search')
-        .join('final_entities', 'search.entity_id', 'final_entities.entity_id')
         .where('search.key', facet.toLocaleLowerCase('en-US'))
-        .count('search.entity_id as count')
-        .select({ value: 'search.original_value' })
+        .whereNotNull('search.original_value')
+        .select({ value: 'search.original_value', count: db.raw('count(*)') })
         .groupBy('search.original_value');
 
       if (request?.filter) {