diff --git a/jupyterhub/_version.py b/jupyterhub/_version.py
index ed389f1e..dec40e86 100644
--- a/jupyterhub/_version.py
+++ b/jupyterhub/_version.py
@@ -46,10 +46,12 @@ def _check_version(hub_version, singleuser_version, log):
 
     # compare minor X.Y versions
     if hub_version != singleuser_version:
-        from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V
+        from packaging.version import parse
 
-        hub_major_minor = V(hub_version).version[:2]
-        singleuser_major_minor = V(singleuser_version).version[:2]
+        hub = parse(hub_version)
+        hub_major_minor = (hub.major, hub.minor)
+        singleuser = parse(singleuser_version)
+        singleuser_major_minor = (singleuser.major, singleuser.minor)
         extra = ""
         do_log = True
         if singleuser_major_minor == hub_major_minor:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0338b1c0..ec5e5317 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ entrypoints
 jinja2>=2.11.0
 jupyter_telemetry>=0.1.0
 oauthlib>=3.0
+packaging
 pamela; sys_platform != 'win32'
 prometheus_client>=0.4.0
 psutil>=5.6.5; sys_platform == 'win32'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f6d545c6..fc169388 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,8 +12,11 @@ import shutil
 import sys
 from subprocess import check_call
 
+from setuptools import Command
 from setuptools import setup
 from setuptools.command.bdist_egg import bdist_egg
+from setuptools.command.build_py import build_py
+from setuptools.command.sdist import sdist
 
 
 v = sys.version_info
@@ -131,15 +134,6 @@ setup_args = dict(
     },
 )
 
-# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# custom distutils commands
-# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-# imports here, so they are after setuptools import if there was one
-from distutils.cmd import Command
-from distutils.command.build_py import build_py
-from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
-
 
 def mtime(path):
     """shorthand for mtime"""