diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a07c3fe79b6f..24ffbffda27f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ OPTION(USE_HDFS "Enable HDFS support (EXPERIMENTAL)" OFF)
 OPTION(USE_R35 "Set to ON if your R version is not earlier than 3.5" OFF)
 OPTION(USE_TIMETAG "Set to ON to output time costs" OFF)
 OPTION(USE_DEBUG "Set to ON for Debug mode" OFF)
+option(BUILD_STATIC_LIB "Build static library" OFF)
 OPTION(BUILD_FOR_R "Set to ON if building lib_lightgbm for use with the R package" OFF)
 
 if(APPLE)
@@ -243,7 +244,11 @@ if(BUILD_FOR_R)
   list(APPEND SOURCES "src/lightgbm_R.cpp")
 endif(BUILD_FOR_R)
 
-add_library(_lightgbm SHARED ${SOURCES})
+if (BUILD_STATIC_LIB)
+  add_library(_lightgbm STATIC ${SOURCES})
+else()
+  add_library(_lightgbm SHARED ${SOURCES})
+endif(BUILD_STATIC_LIB)
 
 if(MSVC)
     set_target_properties(_lightgbm PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME "lib_lightgbm")