diff --git a/config/Config-devel.in b/config/Config-devel.in
index 3f73cb404d..e16e6ecaab 100644
--- a/config/Config-devel.in
+++ b/config/Config-devel.in
@@ -17,6 +17,20 @@ menuconfig DEVEL
 		  Store built firmware images and filesystem images in this directory.
 		  If not set, uses './bin/$(BOARD)'
 
+	config DOWNLOAD_TOOL_CUSTOM
+		string "Use custom download tool" if DEVEL
+		default ""
+		help
+		  Use and force custom download tool instead of relying on autoselection
+		  between curl if available and wget as a fallback.
+
+		  download.pl supports 3 tools officially aria2c, curl and wget.
+		  If one of the tool is used in this config, download.pl will use the
+		  default args to make use of them.
+
+		  If the provided string is different than aria2c, curl or wget, the command
+		  is used as is and the download url will be appended at the end of such command.
+
 	config DOWNLOAD_FOLDER
 		string "Download folder" if DEVEL
 		default ""
diff --git a/include/download.mk b/include/download.mk
index 9ff71540f7..34d31653b1 100644
--- a/include/download.mk
+++ b/include/download.mk
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ DOWNLOAD_RDEP=$(STAMP_PREPARED) $(HOST_STAMP_PREPARED)
 
 # Export options for download.pl
 export DOWNLOAD_CHECK_CERTIFICATE:=$(CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CHECK_CERTIFICATE)
+export DOWNLOAD_TOOL_CUSTOM:=$(CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_TOOL_CUSTOM)
 
 define dl_method_git
 $(if $(filter https://github.com/% git://github.com/%,$(1)),github_archive,git)
diff --git a/scripts/download.pl b/scripts/download.pl
index 2b193ff5b6..79ad8bfea0 100755
--- a/scripts/download.pl
+++ b/scripts/download.pl
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ my @mirrors;
 my $ok;
 
 my $check_certificate = $ENV{DOWNLOAD_CHECK_CERTIFICATE} eq "y";
+my $custom_tool = $ENV{DOWNLOAD_TOOL_CUSTOM};
+my $download_tool;
 
 $url_filename or $url_filename = $filename;
 
@@ -85,16 +87,42 @@ sub tool_present {
 	return $present
 }
 
+sub select_tool {
+	$custom_tool =~ tr/"//d;
+	if ($custom_tool) {
+		return $custom_tool;
+	}
+
+	# Try to use curl if available
+	if (tool_present("curl", "curl")) {
+		return "curl";
+	}
+
+	# No tool found, fallback to wget
+	return "wget";
+}
+
 sub download_cmd {
 	my $url = shift;
 	my $filename = shift;
-	my $additional_mirrors = join(" ", map "$_/$filename", @_);
 
-	my @chArray = ('a'..'z', 'A'..'Z', 0..9);
-	my $rfn = join '', "${filename}_", map{ $chArray[int rand @chArray] } 0..9;
+	if ($download_tool eq "curl") {
+		return (qw(curl -f --connect-timeout 20 --retry 5 --location),
+			$check_certificate ? () : '--insecure',
+			shellwords($ENV{CURL_OPTIONS} || ''),
+			$url);
+	} elsif ($download_tool eq "wget") {
+		return (qw(wget --tries=5 --timeout=20 --output-document=-),
+			$check_certificate ? () : '--no-check-certificate',
+			shellwords($ENV{WGET_OPTIONS} || ''),
+			$url);
+	} elsif ($download_tool eq "aria2c") {
+		my $additional_mirrors = join(" ", map "$_/$filename", @_);
+		my @chArray = ('a'..'z', 'A'..'Z', 0..9);
+		my $rfn = join '', "${filename}_", map{ $chArray[int rand @chArray] } 0..9;
 
-	if (tool_present('aria2c', 'aria2')) {
 		@mirrors=();
+
 		return join(" ", "[ -d $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c ] || mkdir $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c;",
 			"touch $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c/${rfn}_spp;",
 			qw(aria2c --stderr -c -x2 -s10 -j10 -k1M), $url, $additional_mirrors,
@@ -104,16 +132,8 @@ sub download_cmd {
 			"-d $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c -o $rfn;",
 			"cat $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c/$rfn;",
 			"rm $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c/$rfn $ENV{'TMPDIR'}/aria2c/${rfn}_spp");
-	} elsif (tool_present('curl', 'curl')) {
-		return (qw(curl -f --connect-timeout 20 --retry 5 --location),
-			$check_certificate ? () : '--insecure',
-			shellwords($ENV{CURL_OPTIONS} || ''),
-			$url);
 	} else {
-		return (qw(wget --tries=5 --timeout=20 --output-document=-),
-			$check_certificate ? () : '--no-check-certificate',
-			shellwords($ENV{WGET_OPTIONS} || ''),
-			$url);
+		return join(" ", $download_tool, $url);
 	}
 }
 
@@ -326,6 +346,8 @@ if (-f "$target/$filename") {
 	};
 }
 
+$download_tool = select_tool();
+
 while (!-f "$target/$filename") {
 	my $mirror = shift @mirrors;
 	$mirror or die "No more mirrors to try - giving up.\n";