diff --git a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
index 2952cc3b12..6f45fb75e4 100644
--- a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 
 #include <esp_ota_ops.h>
 #include <esp_task_wdt.h>
-#include <cstring>
 
 #if ESP_IDF_VERSION_MAJOR >= 5
 #include <spi_flash_mmap.h>
@@ -18,9 +17,6 @@ namespace ota {
 std::unique_ptr<ota::OTABackend> make_ota_backend() { return make_unique<ota::IDFOTABackend>(); }
 
 OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::begin(size_t image_size) {
-  // Reset MD5 validation state
-  this->md5_set_ = false;
-
   this->partition_ = esp_ota_get_next_update_partition(nullptr);
   if (this->partition_ == nullptr) {
     return OTA_RESPONSE_ERROR_NO_UPDATE_PARTITION;
@@ -71,10 +67,7 @@ OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::begin(size_t image_size) {
   return OTA_RESPONSE_OK;
 }
 
-void IDFOTABackend::set_update_md5(const char *expected_md5) {
-  memcpy(this->expected_bin_md5_, expected_md5, 32);
-  this->md5_set_ = true;
-}
+void IDFOTABackend::set_update_md5(const char *expected_md5) { memcpy(this->expected_bin_md5_, expected_md5, 32); }
 
 OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::write(uint8_t *data, size_t len) {
   esp_err_t err = esp_ota_write(this->update_handle_, data, len);
@@ -92,15 +85,10 @@ OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::write(uint8_t *data, size_t len) {
 
 OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::end() {
   this->md5_.calculate();
-
-  // Only validate MD5 if one was provided
-  if (this->md5_set_) {
-    if (!this->md5_.equals_hex(this->expected_bin_md5_)) {
-      this->abort();
-      return OTA_RESPONSE_ERROR_MD5_MISMATCH;
-    }
+  if (!this->md5_.equals_hex(this->expected_bin_md5_)) {
+    this->abort();
+    return OTA_RESPONSE_ERROR_MD5_MISMATCH;
   }
-
   esp_err_t err = esp_ota_end(this->update_handle_);
   this->update_handle_ = 0;
   if (err == ESP_OK) {
diff --git a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.h b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.h
index 51d9563112..ed66d9b970 100644
--- a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.h
+++ b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.h
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ namespace ota {
 
 class IDFOTABackend : public OTABackend {
  public:
-  IDFOTABackend() : expected_bin_md5_{}, md5_set_(false) {}
   OTAResponseTypes begin(size_t image_size) override;
   void set_update_md5(const char *md5) override;
   OTAResponseTypes write(uint8_t *data, size_t len) override;
@@ -25,7 +24,6 @@ class IDFOTABackend : public OTABackend {
   const esp_partition_t *partition_;
   md5::MD5Digest md5_{};
   char expected_bin_md5_[32];
-  bool md5_set_;
 };
 
 }  // namespace ota
diff --git a/esphome/components/web_server_base/web_server_base.cpp b/esphome/components/web_server_base/web_server_base.cpp
index 78c4b6b57a..9ad88e09f4 100644
--- a/esphome/components/web_server_base/web_server_base.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/web_server_base/web_server_base.cpp
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ static const char *const TAG = "web_server_base";
 // that both web_server and ota components can depend on, avoiding code duplication
 // while keeping the components independent. This would allow both ESP-IDF and Arduino
 // implementations to share the base OTA functionality without requiring the full OTA component.
+// The IDFWebServerOTABackend class is intentionally designed with the same interface
+// as OTABackend to make it easy to swap to using OTABackend when the ota component
+// is split into ota and ota_base in the future.
 class IDFWebServerOTABackend {
  public:
   bool begin() {