diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mo/modern-cpp-kafka/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mo/modern-cpp-kafka/package.nix
index 3a73192a3ad4..6f1b37ed6452 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mo/modern-cpp-kafka/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mo/modern-cpp-kafka/package.nix
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       url = "https://github.com/morganstanley/modern-cpp-kafka/commit/236f8f91f5c3ad6e1055a6f55cd3aebd218e1226.patch";
       hash = "sha256-cy568TQUu08sadq79hDz9jMvDqiDjfr+1cLMxFWGm1Q=";
     })
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "macos-find-dylib.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/morganstanley/modern-cpp-kafka/commit/dc2753cd95b607a7202b40bad3aad472558bf350.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-Te3GwAVRDyb6GFWlvkq1mIcNeXCtMyLr+/w1LilUYbE=";
+    })
   ];
 
   postPatch = ''
@@ -53,13 +58,18 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   buildInputs = [ boost ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ rdkafka ];
 
-  cmakeFlags = [
-    "-DLIBRDKAFKA_INCLUDE_DIR=${rdkafka.out}/include"
-    "-DGTEST_LIBRARY_DIR=${gtest.out}/lib"
-    "-DGTEST_INCLUDE_DIR=${gtest.dev}/include"
-    "-DRAPIDJSON_INCLUDE_DIRS=${rapidjson.out}/include"
-    "-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-Wno-uninitialized"
-  ];
+  cmakeFlags =
+    let
+      inherit (lib) cmakeFeature getLib getInclude;
+    in
+    [
+      (cmakeFeature "LIBRDKAFKA_LIBRARY_DIR" "${getLib rdkafka}/lib")
+      (cmakeFeature "LIBRDKAFKA_INCLUDE_DIR" "${getInclude rdkafka}/include")
+      (cmakeFeature "GTEST_LIBRARY_DIR" "${getLib gtest}/lib")
+      (cmakeFeature "GTEST_INCLUDE_DIR" "${getInclude gtest}/include")
+      (cmakeFeature "RAPIDJSON_INCLUDE_DIRS" "${getInclude rapidjson}/include")
+      (cmakeFeature "CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS" "-Wno-uninitialized")
+    ];
 
   checkInputs = [
     gtest
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/rd/rdkafka/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/rd/rdkafka/package.nix
index 9405e9f3951c..c07800cebd6d 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/rd/rdkafka/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/rd/rdkafka/package.nix
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@
   fetchFromGitHub,
   zlib,
   zstd,
-  pkg-config,
-  python3,
   openssl,
-  which,
   curl,
+  cmake,
+  ninja,
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
@@ -22,10 +21,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     sha256 = "sha256-OCCsxgEO8UvCcC0XwzqpqmaT8dV0Klrspp+2o1FbH2Y=";
   };
 
+  outputs = [
+    "out"
+    "dev"
+  ];
+
   nativeBuildInputs = [
-    pkg-config
-    python3
-    which
+    cmake
+    ninja
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
@@ -35,12 +38,30 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     curl
   ];
 
-  env.NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = "-Wno-error=strict-overflow";
+  # examples and tests don't build on darwin statically
+  cmakeFlags = [
+    (lib.cmakeBool "RDKAFKA_BUILD_STATIC" stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic)
+    (lib.cmakeBool "RDKAFKA_BUILD_TESTS" (
+      !stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin && !stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic
+    ))
+    (lib.cmakeBool "RDKAFKA_BUILD_EXAMPLES" (
+      !stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin && !stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic
+    ))
+    (lib.cmakeFeature "CMAKE_C_FLAGS" "-Wno-error=strict-overflow")
+  ];
 
   postPatch = ''
     patchShebangs .
   '';
 
+  postFixup = lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic ''
+    # rdkafka changes the library names for static libraries but users in pkgsStatic aren't likely to be aware of this
+    # make sure the libraries are findable with both names
+    for pc in rdkafka{,++}; do
+      ln -s $dev/lib/pkgconfig/$pc{-static,}.pc
+    done
+  '';
+
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
   meta = with lib; {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/php-packages/rdkafka/default.nix b/pkgs/development/php-packages/rdkafka/default.nix
index 71d411b594e9..ee0d0f640ca0 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/php-packages/rdkafka/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/php-packages/rdkafka/default.nix
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ buildPecl {
 
   postPhpize = ''
     substituteInPlace configure \
-      --replace 'SEARCH_PATH="/usr/local /usr"' 'SEARCH_PATH=${rdkafka}'
+      --replace-fail 'SEARCH_PATH="/usr/local /usr"' 'SEARCH_PATH=${lib.getInclude rdkafka}'
   '';
 
   meta = with lib; {