diff --git a/misc/Makefile b/misc/Makefile
index 210480e01..504bcdbc8 100644
--- a/misc/Makefile
+++ b/misc/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 PYTHON = python3
-PREFIX = /usr/local
+PREFIX ?= /usr/local
 DESTDIR =
 ICONSIZES = 16 24 32 48 64 128 256 512
+DATAROOTDIR = $(PREFIX)/share
+DATADIR ?= $(DATAROOTDIR)
+MANDIR = $(DATAROOTDIR)/man
 
 SETUPTOOLSOPTIONS =
 ifdef DESTDIR
@@ -16,18 +19,18 @@ doc/qutebrowser.1.html:
 install: doc/qutebrowser.1.html
 	$(PYTHON) setup.py install --prefix="$(PREFIX)" --optimize=1 $(SETUPTOOLSOPTS)
 	install -Dm644 misc/qutebrowser.appdata.xml \
-		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/metainfo/qutebrowser.appdata.xml"
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/metainfo/qutebrowser.appdata.xml"
 	install -Dm644 doc/qutebrowser.1 \
-		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/man/man1/qutebrowser.1"
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(MANDIR)/man1/qutebrowser.1"
 	install -Dm644 misc/qutebrowser.desktop \
-		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/applications/qutebrowser.desktop"
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/applications/qutebrowser.desktop"
 	$(foreach i,$(ICONSIZES),install -Dm644 "icons/qutebrowser-$(i)x$(i).png" \
-			"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/icons/hicolor/$(i)x$(i)/apps/qutebrowser.png";)
+			"$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/icons/hicolor/$(i)x$(i)/apps/qutebrowser.png";)
 	install -Dm644 icons/qutebrowser.svg \
-		"$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/qutebrowser.svg"
-	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/qutebrowser/userscripts/" \
+		"$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/qutebrowser.svg"
+	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/qutebrowser/userscripts/" \
 		$(wildcard misc/userscripts/*)
-	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/qutebrowser/scripts/" \
+	install -Dm755 -t "$(DESTDIR)$(DATADIR)/qutebrowser/scripts/" \
 		$(filter-out scripts/__init__.py scripts/__pycache__ scripts/dev \
 		  scripts/testbrowser scripts/asciidoc2html.py scripts/setupcommon.py \
 			scripts/link_pyqt.py,$(wildcard scripts/*))