diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e951b8740b1..b65d361e1c8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ include(CheckIncludeFile)
 include(GNUInstallDirs)
 
 # Get version
-file(READ ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/props.json PROPS)
-string(JSON VER GET ${PROPS} version)
+file(READ "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/VERSION" VER_RAW)
+string(STRIP ${VER_RAW} VER)
 
 project(Hyprland
     DESCRIPTION "A Modern C++ Wayland Compositor"
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6599454d402
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.41.2
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index b8101f6c040..4446ea0fbb2 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('Hyprland', 'cpp', 'c',
-  version : run_command('jq', '-r', '.version', join_paths(meson.source_root(), 'props.json'), check: true).stdout().strip(),
+  version : run_command('cat', join_paths(meson.source_root(), 'VERSION'), check: true).stdout().strip(),
   default_options : [
     'warning_level=2',
     'default_library=static',
diff --git a/nix/overlays.nix b/nix/overlays.nix
index 9d100d51e83..d8979b45850 100644
--- a/nix/overlays.nix
+++ b/nix/overlays.nix
@@ -3,13 +3,12 @@
   lib,
   inputs,
 }: let
-  props = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ../props.json);
-
   mkDate = longDate: (lib.concatStringsSep "-" [
     (builtins.substring 0 4 longDate)
     (builtins.substring 4 2 longDate)
     (builtins.substring 6 2 longDate)
   ]);
+  version = lib.removeSuffix "\n" (builtins.readFile ../VERSION);
 in {
   # Contains what a user is most likely to care about:
   # Hyprland itself, XDPH and the Share Picker.
@@ -33,7 +32,7 @@ in {
     in {
       hyprland = final.callPackage ./default.nix {
         stdenv = final.gcc13Stdenv;
-        version = "${props.version}+date=${date}_${self.shortRev or "dirty"}";
+        version = "${version}+date=${date}_${self.shortRev or "dirty"}";
         commit = self.rev or "";
         inherit date;
       };
diff --git a/props.json b/props.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 2ff7562e07a..00000000000
--- a/props.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-    "version": "0.41.2"
-}
\ No newline at end of file