diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7639f8ab81..edef7ce0f0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -72,3 +72,6 @@ doxygen/
 *.orig
 /tests/log
 /tests/testcases/__pycache__/
+
+# Subproject files
+subprojects/libconfig
diff --git a/src/meson.build b/src/meson.build
index 189829391a..f6c1197389 100644
--- a/src/meson.build
+++ b/src/meson.build
@@ -34,7 +34,22 @@ endforeach
 foreach i : required_xcb_packages
 	base_deps += [dependency(i, version: '>=1.12.0', required: true)]
 endforeach
-base_deps += [dependency('libconfig', version: '>=1.7', required: true)]
+
+libconfig_dep = dependency('libconfig', version: '>=1.7', required: false)
+
+if not libconfig_dep.found()
+	warning('Trying to clone and build libconfig as a subproject.')
+
+	cmake = import('cmake')
+	sub_libconfig_opts = cmake.subproject_options()
+	sub_libconfig_opts.add_cmake_defines({
+		'BUILD_SHARED_LIBS': false,
+	})
+	sub_libconfig = cmake.subproject('libconfig', options: sub_libconfig_opts)
+	base_deps += [sub_libconfig.dependency('config')]
+else
+	base_deps += [libconfig_dep]
+endif
 
 if not cc.has_header('uthash.h')
   error('Dependency uthash not found')
diff --git a/subprojects/libconfig.wrap b/subprojects/libconfig.wrap
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d3528cac6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/subprojects/libconfig.wrap
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+[wrap-git]
+url = https://github.com/hyperrealm/libconfig
+revision = f9404f60a435aa06321f4ccd8357364dcb216d46
+depth = 1