diff --git a/bin/portzap b/bin/portzap
index 2d1a116..a715e17 100755
--- a/bin/portzap
+++ b/bin/portzap
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ case $1 in
         doas -u _portzap "${libexec}"/portzap-erase "${gitdir}" "${installdir}"
         ;;
     "install")
-        require_root
         require_dependency "git doas"
         "${libexec}"/portzap-install "${gitdir}" "${installdir}" "${revision}"
         ;;
diff --git a/libexec/portzap/portzap-install b/libexec/portzap/portzap-install
index d39b0fe..a3135c1 100755
--- a/libexec/portzap/portzap-install
+++ b/libexec/portzap/portzap-install
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ run_install()
 
 ##
 # main
+if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
+    echo "[-] This command must be run as root"
+    exit 1
+fi
 set -x
 umask u=rwX,g=rwX,o=
 cd "${gitdir}"