diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 0bf8a5a6b7..06b2ebf2f2 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.11)
 project(mlpack C CXX)
 
 include(CMake/CheckHash.cmake)
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ include(CMake/ConfigureCrossCompile.cmake)
 include(CMake/CheckAtomic.cmake)
 
 # First, define all the compilation options.
-# We default to debugging mode for developers.
 option(DEBUG "Compile with debugging information." OFF)
 option(PROFILE "Compile with profiling information." OFF)
 option(ARMA_EXTRA_DEBUG "Compile with extra Armadillo debugging symbols." OFF)
@@ -27,6 +26,14 @@ set(ARMADILLO_VERSION "10.8")
 set(ENSMALLEN_VERSION "2.10.0")
 set(CEREAL_VERSION "1.1.2")
 
+if (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
+  set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
+endif()
+
+if (PROFILE)
+  message(WARNING "The PROFILE option is deprecated and will be removed in mlpack 5.0.0; specify -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=\"-pg\" instead!")
+endif()
+
 # Consider using ccache
 find_program(CCACHE_PROGRAM ccache)
 if(CCACHE_PROGRAM)
@@ -230,10 +237,13 @@ endif()
 # Debugging CFLAGS.  Turn optimizations off; turn debugging symbols on.
 set (BFD_DL_AVAILABLE "NO")
 if (DEBUG)
+  message(WARNING "The DEBUG option is deprecated and will be removed in mlpack 5.0.0; specify CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE as \"Debug\" instead!")
+endif ()
+
+if (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Debug" OR DEBUG)
   if (NOT MSVC)
     add_definitions(-DDEBUG)
-    set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -g -O0 -ftemplate-backtrace-limit=0")
-    set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -std=c99 -g -O0")
+    set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -ftemplate-backtrace-limit=0")
   endif()
 
   # mlpack uses it's own mlpack::backtrace class based on Binary File Descriptor
@@ -252,19 +262,6 @@ if (DEBUG)
       message(WARNING "No libBFD and/or libDL has been found!")
     endif()
   endif()
-else()
-  add_definitions(-DNDEBUG)
-  if (NOT MSVC)
-    if (NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING)
-      set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -O3")
-      set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -std=c99 -O3")
-    else()
-      set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -std=c99")
-    endif()
-  else ()
-    set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /O3")
-    set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} /O3")
-  endif ()
 endif()
 
 # Profiling CFLAGS.  Turn profiling information on.
diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 8f6f2cec39..a3ae7c13de 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ _????-??-??_
 
  * Fix command-line duplicate output bug when loading matrices for some bindings
    (#3838).
- 
+ * Use `CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE` to specify build type instead of DEBUG and PROFILE options (#3865).
+
  * Add `MLPACK_NO_STD_MUTEX` to allow disabling `std::mutex` (#3868).
 
 ## mlpack 4.5.1
diff --git a/doc/user/build_windows.md b/doc/user/build_windows.md
index 823711ec38..afa6760443 100644
--- a/doc/user/build_windows.md
+++ b/doc/user/build_windows.md
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ compiler and Windows SDK are installed correctly.
 - Run cmake:
 
 ```
-cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64 -DBLAS_LIBRARIES:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/mlpack/packages/OpenBLAS.0.2.14.1/lib/native/lib/x64/libopenblas.dll.a" -DLAPACK_LIBRARIES:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/mlpack/packages/OpenBLAS.0.2.14.1/lib/native/lib/x64/libopenblas.dll.a" -DARMADILLO_INCLUDE_DIR="C:/mlpack/armadillo/include" -DARMADILLO_LIBRARY:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/armadillo/build/Debug/armadillo.lib" -DDEBUG=OFF -DPROFILE=OFF ..
+cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A x64 -DBLAS_LIBRARIES:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/mlpack/packages/OpenBLAS.0.2.14.1/lib/native/lib/x64/libopenblas.dll.a" -DLAPACK_LIBRARIES:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/mlpack/packages/OpenBLAS.0.2.14.1/lib/native/lib/x64/libopenblas.dll.a" -DARMADILLO_INCLUDE_DIR="C:/mlpack/armadillo/include" -DARMADILLO_LIBRARY:FILEPATH="C:/mlpack/armadillo/build/Debug/armadillo.lib" ..
 ```
 
 *Note*: CMake will attempt to automatically download the ensmallen dependency.
diff --git a/doc/user/install.md b/doc/user/install.md
index 8adaddc506..f87c670009 100644
--- a/doc/user/install.md
+++ b/doc/user/install.md
@@ -187,15 +187,13 @@ The following options can be used when configuring mlpack.
 | ***Option*** | ***Description*** | ***Default*** |
 |--------------|-------------------|---------------|
 | ***General configuration*** |||
+| `-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="build type"` | Specify the build configuration: `"Debug"`, `"Release"`, `"RelWithDebInfo"`, `"MinSizeRel"`.  See the [CMake documentation](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE.html#variable:CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE). | `"Release"`|
 | `-DDOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES=ON` | Download all dependencies that are not found on the system. | `OFF` |
-| `-DDEBUG=ON` | Compile with debugging symbols. | `OFF` |
-| `-DPROFILE=ON` | Compile with profiling symbols. | `OFF` |
 | `-DARMA_EXTRA_DEBUG=ON` | Emit extra Armadillo debugging output (warning: *very* verbose). | `OFF` |
 | `-DTEST_VERBOSE=ON` | Emit verbose output when running tests. | `OFF` |
 | `-DBUILD_TESTS=ON` | Build `mlpack_test`. | `OFF` |
 | `-DUSE_OPENMP=ON` | Use OpenMP for parallelization. | `ON` |
-| `-DUSE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS=OFF` | Disable precompiled headers during build. |
-`OFF` |
+| `-DUSE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS=OFF` | Disable precompiled headers during build. | `OFF` |
 |--------------|-------------------|---------------|
 | ***Dependency locations*** |||
 | `-DARMADILLO_INCLUDE_DIR=/path/to/arma/include/` | Path containing `armadillo` header file. ||