diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index d1ed1be..b1e5fb9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ add_compile_options(-Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-unused-value
 	-fpermissive -Wno-address-of-temporary)
 
 message(STATUS "Checking deps...")
-add_subdirectory(subprojects/sdbus-cpp)
 add_subdirectory(hyprland-share-picker)
 
 find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
@@ -38,6 +37,12 @@ find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
 find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
 pkg_check_modules(deps REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET wayland-client wayland-protocols libpipewire-0.3 libspa-0.2 libdrm gbm hyprlang>=0.2.0)
 
+# check whether we can find sdbus-c++ through pkg-config
+pkg_check_modules(SDBUS IMPORTED_TARGET sdbus-c++)
+if(NOT SDBUS_FOUND)
+    add_subdirectory(subprojects/sdbus-cpp)
+endif()
+
 file(GLOB_RECURSE SRCFILES CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "src/*.cpp")
 add_executable(xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland ${SRCFILES})
 target_link_libraries(xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland PRIVATE rt sdbus-c++ Threads::Threads PkgConfig::deps)