diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/axel/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/axel/default.nix
index fa435b6c66ad..6aa357dacb64 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/axel/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/axel/default.nix
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, gettext, libssl }:
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, autoconf-archive
+, pkgconfig, gettext, libssl }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "axel-${version}";
-  version = "2.17.1";
+  pname = "axel";
+  version = "2.17.3";
 
-  src = fetchurl {
-  url = "https://github.com/axel-download-accelerator/axel/releases/download/v${version}/${name}.tar.xz";
-    sha256 = "1mwyps6yvrjxp7mpzc0a2hwr2pw050c63fc9aqjzdzjjw123dfrn";
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "axel-download-accelerator";
+    repo = pname;
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    sha256 = "0kdd2y92plv240ba2j3xrm0f8xygvm1ijghnric4whsnxvmgym7h";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig autoconf-archive ];
 
   buildInputs = [ gettext libssl ];