diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
deleted file mode 100644
index 738d86fa..00000000
--- a/.coveragerc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-[run]
-branch = True
-source =
-   ldap
-   ldif
-   ldapurl
-   slapdtest
-
-[paths]
-source =
-    Lib/
-    .tox/*/lib/python*/site-packages/
-
-[report]
-ignore_errors = False
-precision = 1
-exclude_lines =
-    pragma: no cover
-    raise NotImplementedError
-    if 0:
-    if __name__ == .__main__.:
-    if PY2
-    if not PY2
-
-[html]
-directory = build/htmlcov
-title = python-ldap coverage report
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bab21878..75a13538 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 *.pyc
 __pycache__/
 .tox
-.coverage*
-!.coveragerc
 /.cache
 /.pytest_cache
 
diff --git a/Doc/installing.rst b/Doc/installing.rst
index 03e7a295..1c7ec8c3 100644
--- a/Doc/installing.rst
+++ b/Doc/installing.rst
@@ -76,12 +76,23 @@ The CVS repository of FreeBSD contains the package
 macOS
 -----
 
-You can install directly with pip::
+You can install directly with pip. First install Xcode command line tools::
 
     $ xcode-select --install
-    $ pip install python-ldap \
-        --global-option=build_ext \
-        --global-option="-I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include/sasl"
+
+Then install python-ldap::
+
+    $ pip install python-ldap
+
+For custom installations, you may need to set environment variables::
+
+    $ export CPPFLAGS="-I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include/sasl"
+    $ pip install python-ldap
+
+If using Homebrew::
+
+    $ brew install openldap
+    $ pip install python-ldap
 
 
 .. _install-source:
@@ -90,11 +101,14 @@ Installing from Source
 ======================
 
 
-python-ldap is built and installed using the Python setuptools.
-From a source repository::
+python-ldap is built and installed using modern Python packaging standards
+with pyproject.toml configuration. From a source repository::
+
+    $ pip install .
+
+For development installation with editable mode::
 
-    $ python -m pip install setuptools
-    $ python setup.py install
+    $ pip install -e .
 
 If you have more than one Python interpreter installed locally, you should
 use the same one you plan to use python-ldap with.
diff --git a/Doc/spelling_wordlist.txt b/Doc/spelling_wordlist.txt
index e2150d9a..4381ebee 100644
--- a/Doc/spelling_wordlist.txt
+++ b/Doc/spelling_wordlist.txt
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ func
 Gohlke
 GPG
 Heimdal
+Homebrew
 hostport
 hrefTarget
 hrefText
@@ -106,6 +107,7 @@ previousDN
 processResultsCount
 Proxied
 py
+pyproject
 pytest
 rdn
 readthedocs
@@ -146,6 +148,7 @@ syncrepl
 syntaxes
 timelimit
 TLS
+toml
 tracebacks
 tuple
 tuples
@@ -162,5 +165,6 @@ userPassword
 usr
 uuids
 Valgrind
+Xcode
 whitespace
 workflow
diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index b9b13d2d..224df4a4 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 Quick build instructions:
 
     edit setup.cfg (see Build/ for platform-specific examples)
-    python setup.py build
-    python setup.py install
+    pip install .
 
 Detailed instructions are in Doc/installing.rst, or online at:
 
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 687d2b0c..bedea8d6 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 include MANIFEST.in Makefile CHANGES INSTALL LICENCE README TODO
-include tox.ini .coveragerc
+include tox.ini
 include Modules/*.c Modules/*.h
 recursive-include Build *.cfg*
 recursive-include Lib *.py
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2b52ddf5..da23b374 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ Modules/constants_generated.h: Lib/ldap/constants.py
 .PHONY: clean
 clean:
 	rm -rf build dist *.egg-info .tox MANIFEST
-	rm -f .coverage .coverage.*
 	find . \( -name '*.py[co]' -or -name '*.so*' -or -name '*.dylib' \) \
 	    -delete
 	find . -depth -name __pycache__ -exec rm -rf {} \;
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 75f7c06a..8781155d 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,4 +1,108 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = [
+    "setuptools",
+    "setuptools-scm",
+]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[project]
+name = "python-ldap"
+license.text = "python-ldap"  # Replace with 'license' once Python 3.8 is dropped
+dynamic = ["version"]
+description = "Python modules for implementing LDAP clients"
+authors = [
+    {name = "python-ldap project", email = "python-ldap@python.org"},
+]
+readme = "README"
+requires-python = ">=3.6"
+keywords = ["ldap", "directory", "authentication"]
+classifiers = [
+    "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
+    "Intended Audience :: Developers",
+    "Intended Audience :: System Administrators",
+    "Operating System :: OS Independent",
+    "Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X",
+    "Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows",
+    "Operating System :: POSIX",
+    "Programming Language :: C",
+    "Programming Language :: Python",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",
+    "Topic :: Database",
+    "Topic :: Internet",
+    "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
+    "Topic :: System :: Systems Administration :: Authentication/Directory :: LDAP",
+    "License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License",
+]
+dependencies = [
+    "pyasn1 >= 0.3.7",
+    "pyasn1_modules >= 0.1.5",
+]
+
+[project.urls]
+Homepage = "https://www.python-ldap.org/"
+Documentation = "https://python-ldap.readthedocs.io/"
+Repository = "https://github.com/python-ldap/python-ldap"
+Download = "https://pypi.org/project/python-ldap/"
+Changelog = "https://github.com/python-ldap/python-ldap/blob/main/CHANGES"
+
+
+
+[tool.setuptools]
+zip-safe = false
+include-package-data = true
+license-files = ["LICENCE", "LICENCE.MIT"]
+# Explicitly list all Python modules
+py-modules = ["ldapurl", "ldif"]
+
+[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
+version = {attr = "ldap.pkginfo.__version__"}
+
+[tool.setuptools.packages.find]
+where = ["Lib"]
+
+[tool.setuptools.package-dir]
+"" = "Lib"
+
 [tool.isort]
-line_length=88
-known_first_party=['ldap', '_ldap', 'ldapurl', 'ldif', 'slapdtest']
-sections=['FUTURE', 'STDLIB', 'THIRDPARTY', 'FIRSTPARTY', 'LOCALFOLDER']
+line_length = 88
+known_first_party = ["ldap", "_ldap", "ldapurl", "ldif", "slapdtest"]
+sections = ["FUTURE", "STDLIB", "THIRDPARTY", "FIRSTPARTY", "LOCALFOLDER"]
+
+[tool.coverage.run]
+branch = true
+source = [
+    "ldap",
+    "ldif",
+    "ldapurl",
+    "slapdtest",
+]
+
+[tool.coverage.paths]
+source = [
+    "Lib/",
+    ".tox/*/lib/python*/site-packages/",
+]
+
+[tool.coverage.report]
+ignore_errors = false
+precision = 1
+exclude_lines = [
+    "pragma: no cover",
+    "raise NotImplementedError",
+    "if 0:",
+    "if __name__ == .__main__.:",
+    "if PY2",
+    "if not PY2",
+]
+
+[tool.coverage.html]
+directory = "build/htmlcov"
+title = "python-ldap coverage report"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ea7364cd..f2e816be 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 """
-setup.py - Setup package with the help Python's DistUtils
+setup.py - C extension module configuration for python-ldap
 
 See https://www.python-ldap.org/ for details.
+This file handles only the C extension modules (_ldap) configuration,
+while pyproject.toml handles all project metadata, dependencies, and other settings.
 """
 
 import sys,os
@@ -54,52 +56,8 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
   LDAP_CLASS.extra_link_args.append('-pg')
   LDAP_CLASS.libs.append('gcov')
 
-#-- Let distutils/setuptools do the rest
-name = 'python-ldap'
-
+#-- C extension modules configuration only
 setup(
-  #-- Package description
-  name = name,
-  license=pkginfo.__license__,
-  version=pkginfo.__version__,
-  description = 'Python modules for implementing LDAP clients',
-  long_description = """python-ldap:
-  python-ldap provides an object-oriented API to access LDAP directory servers
-  from Python programs. Mainly it wraps the OpenLDAP 2.x libs for that purpose.
-  Additionally the package contains modules for other LDAP-related stuff
-  (e.g. processing LDIF, LDAPURLs, LDAPv3 schema, LDAPv3 extended operations
-  and controls, etc.).
-  """,
-  author = 'python-ldap project',
-  author_email = 'python-ldap@python.org',
-  url = 'https://www.python-ldap.org/',
-  download_url = 'https://pypi.org/project/python-ldap/',
-  classifiers = [
-    'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
-    'Intended Audience :: Developers',
-    'Intended Audience :: System Administrators',
-    'Operating System :: OS Independent',
-    'Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X',
-    'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows',
-    'Operating System :: POSIX',
-    'Programming Language :: C',
-
-    'Programming Language :: Python',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12',
-    'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13',
-    # Note: when updating Python versions, also change tox.ini and .github/workflows/*
-
-    'Topic :: Database',
-    'Topic :: Internet',
-    'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules',
-    'Topic :: System :: Systems Administration :: Authentication/Directory :: LDAP',
-    'License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License',
-  ],
-  #-- C extension modules
   ext_modules = [
     Extension(
       '_ldap',
@@ -135,28 +93,4 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
         ]
     ),
   ],
-  #-- Python "stand alone" modules
-  py_modules = [
-    'ldapurl',
-    'ldif',
-
-  ],
-  packages = [
-    'ldap',
-    'ldap.controls',
-    'ldap.extop',
-    'ldap.schema',
-    'slapdtest',
-    'slapdtest.certs',
-  ],
-  package_dir = {'': 'Lib',},
-  data_files = LDAP_CLASS.extra_files,
-  include_package_data=True,
-  install_requires=[
-    'pyasn1 >= 0.3.7',
-    'pyasn1_modules >= 0.1.5',
-  ],
-  zip_safe=False,
-  python_requires='>=3.9',
-  test_suite = 'Tests',
 )
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 0b284a4e..0741ef29 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ commands = {envpython} -bb -Werror \
 setenv =
     CFLAGS=-Wno-int-in-bool-context -Werror -std=c99
 
+
 [testenv:py3-nosasltls]
 basepython = python3
 # don't install, install dependencies manually