diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index cd6332ff..00000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "lib/gtest"]
-	path = lib/gtest
-	url = https://github.com/google/googletest.git
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1d4e41e6..16657076 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ endif()
 # used by e.g., Debian packaging infrastructure
 include(GNUInstallDirs)
 
-add_subdirectory(lib)
 add_subdirectory(src)
 
 if(BUILD_TESTING)
diff --git a/ci/install-deps.sh b/ci/install-deps.sh
index 84bce412..ca530997 100755
--- a/ci/install-deps.sh
+++ b/ci/install-deps.sh
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ packages=(
     lcov
     gcovr
     libboost-dev
+    libgtest-dev
 )
 
 # make sure installation won't hang on GitHub actions
diff --git a/cmake/dependencies.cmake b/cmake/dependencies.cmake
index a3540706..7cce2db0 100644
--- a/cmake/dependencies.cmake
+++ b/cmake/dependencies.cmake
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # >= 3.2 required for ExternalProject_Add_StepDependencies
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.2)
+# >= 3.20 for FindGTest IMPORTED target
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)
 
 include(${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/scripts.cmake)
 
@@ -33,6 +34,10 @@ set(CFLAGS ${DEPENDENCIES_CFLAGS})
 set(CPPFLAGS ${DEPENDENCIES_CPPFLAGS})
 set(LDFLAGS ${DEPENDENCIES_LDFLAGS})
 
+if(BUILD_TESTING)
+    find_package(GTest REQUIRED)
+endif()
+
 if (NOT LIBAPPIMAGE_SHARED_ONLY)
     import_pkgconfig_target(TARGET_NAME liblzma PKGCONFIG_TARGET liblzma)
 
diff --git a/lib/CMakeLists.txt b/lib/CMakeLists.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 4daa6633..00000000
--- a/lib/CMakeLists.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
-
-include(CTest)
-
-if(BUILD_TESTING)
-    if(NOT TARGET gtest)
-        if(IS_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/gtest)
-            add_subdirectory(gtest EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
-        else()
-            message(FATAL_ERROR "gtest submodule not found; please call git submodule update --init or disable the unit tests using -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF")
-        endif()
-    endif()
-endif()
diff --git a/lib/gtest b/lib/gtest
deleted file mode 160000
index ec44c6c1..00000000
--- a/lib/gtest
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit ec44c6c1675c25b9827aacd08c02433cccde7780
diff --git a/tests/libappimage/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/libappimage/CMakeLists.txt
index cd985637..76a5e254 100644
--- a/tests/libappimage/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/libappimage/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ if (NOT LIBAPPIMAGE_SHARED_ONLY)
     )
 
     target_include_directories(test_libappimage++ PRIVATE "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/libappimage")
-    target_link_libraries(test_libappimage++ temporarydirectory libappimage libarchive libsquashfuse XdgUtils::DesktopEntry XdgUtils::BaseDir gtest gtest_main)
+    target_link_libraries(test_libappimage++ temporarydirectory libappimage libarchive libsquashfuse XdgUtils::DesktopEntry XdgUtils::BaseDir GTest::gtest GTest::gtest_main)
 
     add_test(test_libappimage++ test_libappimage++)
 endif()
diff --git a/tests/libappimage/desktop_integration/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/libappimage/desktop_integration/CMakeLists.txt
index c6986ada..6268b661 100644
--- a/tests/libappimage/desktop_integration/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/libappimage/desktop_integration/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,8 +36,8 @@ target_link_libraries(TestDesktopIntegration
     # statically once glib is loaded.
     PRIVATE libglib
     PUBLIC dl
-    PRIVATE gtest
-    PRIVATE gtest_main
+    PRIVATE GTest::gtest
+    PRIVATE GTest::gtest_main
     PRIVATE librsvg
     PRIVATE libcairo
 )
diff --git a/tests/libappimage/legacy/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/libappimage/legacy/CMakeLists.txt
index 874d92de..f2a57a53 100644
--- a/tests/libappimage/legacy/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/libappimage/legacy/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ set_property(TARGET fixtures PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES xdg-basedir gtest
 
 if (NOT LIBAPPIMAGE_SHARED_ONLY)
     add_executable(test_libappimage test_libappimage.cpp)
-    target_link_libraries(test_libappimage fixtures libappimage libsquashfuse libglib libgobject gtest gtest_main)
+    target_link_libraries(test_libappimage fixtures libappimage libsquashfuse libglib libgobject GTest::gtest GTest::gtest_main)
 
     add_executable(test-xdg-basedir test-xdg-basedir.cpp)
     target_link_libraries(test-xdg-basedir fixtures xdg-basedir)