diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4aba19c7e0..23d2b2a625 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Changed
+* improve `gitui --version` message [[@hlsxx](https://github.com/hlsxx)] ([#2838](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2838))
+
 ## [0.28.0] - 2025-12-14
 
 **discard changes on checkout**
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index 382490cff4..c421e47d50 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -34,14 +34,14 @@ fn main() {
 	let build_date = now.date_naive();
 
 	let build_name = if std::env::var("GITUI_RELEASE").is_ok() {
+		env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION").to_string()
+	} else {
 		format!(
-			"{} {} ({})",
+			"{}-nightly {} ({})",
 			env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"),
 			build_date,
 			get_git_hash()
 		)
-	} else {
-		format!("nightly {} ({})", build_date, get_git_hash())
 	};
 
 	println!("cargo:warning=buildname '{build_name}'");