diff --git a/INSTALL.rst b/INSTALL.rst
index 0145863cfbcc..b43c92005c03 100644
--- a/INSTALL.rst
+++ b/INSTALL.rst
@@ -201,9 +201,9 @@ FreeType and Qhull
 Matplotlib depends on `FreeType <https://www.freetype.org/>`_ (>=
 2.3), a font rendering library, and on `Qhull
 <http://www.qhull.org/>`_ (>= 2015.2), a library for computing
-triangulations.  By default (except on AIX) Matplotlib downloads and
-builds its own copy of FreeType (this is necessary to run the test
-suite, because different versions of FreeType rasterize characters
+triangulations. By default (except on AIX, OpenBSD and FreeBSD) Matplotlib
+downloads and builds its own copy of FreeType (this is necessary to run the
+test suite, because different versions of FreeType rasterize characters
 differently), and uses its own copy of Qhull.
 
 To force Matplotlib to use a copy of FreeType or Qhull already installed in
diff --git a/setupext.py b/setupext.py
index 958a01ae1093..2f0faa874257 100644
--- a/setupext.py
+++ b/setupext.py
@@ -138,7 +138,8 @@ def download_or_cache(url, sha):
 options = {
     'backend': config.get('rc_options', 'backend', fallback=None),
     'system_freetype': config.getboolean(
-        'libs', 'system_freetype', fallback=sys.platform.startswith('aix')),
+        'libs', 'system_freetype',
+        fallback=sys.platform.startswith(('aix', 'openbsd', 'freebsd'))),
     'system_qhull': config.getboolean('libs', 'system_qhull',
                                       fallback=False),
 }