diff --git a/mariadb/connections.py b/mariadb/connections.py
index 4de5eaa..5daf795 100644
--- a/mariadb/connections.py
+++ b/mariadb/connections.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 import mariadb.cursors
 
 from mariadb.constants import STATUS, TPC_STATE, INFO
-from distutils.version import StrictVersion
+from packaging import version
 
 _DEFAULT_CHARSET = "utf8mb4"
 _DEFAULT_COLLATION = "utf8mb4_general_ci"
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         # we need to check if it's supported by Connector/C
         if "host" in kwargs:
             host = kwargs.get("host")
-            if StrictVersion(mariadb.mariadbapi_version) <\
-               StrictVersion('3.3.0') and ',' in host:
+            if version.Version(mariadb.mariadbapi_version) <\
+               version.Version('3.3.0') and ',' in host:
                 raise mariadb.ProgrammingError("Host failover list requires "
                                                "MariaDB Connector/C 3.3.0 "
                                                "or newer")
diff --git a/mariadb_posix.py b/mariadb_posix.py
index ddd05c0..2411f06 100644
--- a/mariadb_posix.py
+++ b/mariadb_posix.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 import subprocess
-from distutils.version import StrictVersion
+from packaging import version
 import sys
 import os
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def get_config(options):
         config_prg = "mariadb_config"
 
     cc_version = mariadb_config(config_prg, "cc_version")
-    if StrictVersion(cc_version[0]) < StrictVersion(required_version):
+    if version.Version(cc_version[0]) < version.Version(required_version):
         print('MariaDB Connector/Python requires MariaDB Connector/C '
               '>= %s, found version %s' % (required_version, cc_version[0]))
         sys.exit(2)
diff --git a/mariadb_windows.py b/mariadb_windows.py
index 2e1c6df..6db9f3e 100755
--- a/mariadb_windows.py
+++ b/mariadb_windows.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import os
 import platform
 import sys
-from distutils.version import StrictVersion
+from packaging import version
 
 from winreg import ConnectRegistry, OpenKey, QueryValueEx,\
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, KEY_READ, KEY_WOW64_64KEY
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ def get_config(options):
                                             'MariaDB Connector C 64-bit',
                                             access=KEY_READ | KEY_WOW64_64KEY)
                 cc_version = QueryValueEx(connector_key, "Version")
-                if (StrictVersion(cc_version[0]) <
-                        StrictVersion(required_version)):
+                if (version.Version(cc_version[0]) <
+                        version.Version(required_version)):
                     print("MariaDB Connector/Python requires "
                           "MariaDB Connector/C "
                           ">= %s (found version: %s") \