diff --git a/chocpkg/modules/build_autotools.sh b/chocpkg/modules/build_autotools.sh
index fce63ff..7e174db 100644
--- a/chocpkg/modules/build_autotools.sh
+++ b/chocpkg/modules/build_autotools.sh
@@ -14,6 +14,17 @@ build_autotools::need_autoreconf() {
     [ ! -e configure ] || [ $configure_ac -nt configure ]
 }
 
+# BSD systems usually have their own less-capable version of make, while
+# GNU make is installed as `gmake`. If a command named gmake is found,
+# prefer that over `make`.
+build_autotools::make() {
+    if chocpkg::have_tool gmake; then
+        gmake "$@"
+    else
+        make "$@"
+    fi
+}
+
 # This function encapsulates the "./configure; make" process that does the
 # actual build of the package. This should work for most autotools-based
 # packages but the intention is that this can be overrriden by packages.
@@ -45,7 +56,7 @@ do_build() {
         chocpkg::abort "Failed to configure package $PACKAGE_NAME for build."
     )
 
-    make $MAKE_OPTS || (
+    build_autotools::make $MAKE_OPTS || (
         chocpkg::abort "Failed to build package $PACKAGE_NAME."
     )
 }
@@ -57,7 +68,7 @@ do_install() {
         cd "$AUTOTOOLS_BUILD_PATH"
     fi
 
-    make install || (
+    build_autotools::make install || (
         chocpkg::abort "Failed to install package $PACKAGE_NAME."
     )
 }