diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 92ad879f64..91523e81ee 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -2942,11 +2942,18 @@ systemctl = executable(
 public_programs += systemctl
 
 if conf.get('ENABLE_PORTABLED') == 1
+        if get_option('link-portabled-shared')
+                portabled_link_with = [libshared]
+        else
+                portabled_link_with = [libsystemd_static,
+                                       libshared_static]
+        endif
+
         dbus_programs += executable(
                 'systemd-portabled',
                 systemd_portabled_sources,
                 include_directories : includes,
-                link_with : [libshared],
+                link_with : [portabled_link_with],
                 dependencies : [libselinux,
                                 threads,
                                 userspace,
@@ -2959,7 +2966,7 @@ if conf.get('ENABLE_PORTABLED') == 1
                 'portablectl',
                 'src/portable/portablectl.c',
                 include_directories : includes,
-                link_with : [libshared],
+                link_with : [portabled_link_with],
                 dependencies : [threads,
                                 userspace,
                                 versiondep],
@@ -4996,6 +5003,7 @@ foreach tuple : [
         ['link-timesyncd-shared',  get_option('link-timesyncd-shared')],
         ['link-journalctl-shared', get_option('link-journalctl-shared')],
         ['link-boot-shared',       get_option('link-boot-shared')],
+        ['link-portabled-shared',  get_option('link-portabled-shared')],
         ['first-boot-full-preset'],
         ['fexecve'],
         ['standalone-binaries',    get_option('standalone-binaries')],
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index d3af35e7ef..46f508bd76 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ option('link-journalctl-shared', type: 'boolean',
        description : 'link journalctl against libsystemd-shared.so')
 option('link-boot-shared', type: 'boolean',
        description : 'link bootctl and systemd-bless-boot against libsystemd-shared.so')
+option('link-portabled-shared', type: 'boolean',
+       description : 'link systemd-portabled and its helpers to libsystemd-shared.so')
 option('first-boot-full-preset', type: 'boolean', value: false,
        description : 'during first boot, do full preset-all (default will be changed to true later)')