diff --git a/command/build.go b/command/build.go
index b9d063e78..0ed93b79e 100644
--- a/command/build.go
+++ b/command/build.go
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ type BuildCommand struct {
 }
 
 func (c *BuildCommand) Run(args []string) int {
-	var cfgColor, cfgDebug, cfgForce, cfgTimestamp bool
-	var cfgParallel int64
+	var cfgColor, cfgDebug, cfgForce, cfgTimestamp, cfgParallel bool
+	var cfgParallelBuilds int64
 	var cfgOnError string
 	flags := c.Meta.FlagSet("build", FlagSetBuildFilter|FlagSetVars)
 	flags.Usage = func() { c.Ui.Say(c.Help()) }
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ func (c *BuildCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 	flags.BoolVar(&cfgTimestamp, "timestamp-ui", false, "")
 	flagOnError := enumflag.New(&cfgOnError, "cleanup", "abort", "ask")
 	flags.Var(flagOnError, "on-error", "")
-	flags.Int64Var(&cfgParallel, "parallel", 0, "")
+	flags.BoolVar(&cfgParallel, "parallel", true, "")
+	flags.Int64Var(&cfgParallelBuilds, "parallel-builds", 0, "")
 	if err := flags.Parse(args); err != nil {
 		return 1
 	}
@@ -153,8 +154,11 @@ func (c *BuildCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 	}{m: make(map[string][]packer.Artifact)}
 	errors := make(map[string]error)
 	// ctx := context.Background()
-	if cfgParallel < 1 {
-		cfgParallel = math.MaxInt64
+	if cfgParallel == false {
+		cfgParallelBuilds = 1
+	}
+	if cfgParallelBuilds < 1 {
+		cfgParallelBuilds = math.MaxInt64
 	}
 
 	buildCtx, cancelCtx := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
@@ -172,7 +176,7 @@ func (c *BuildCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 		c.Ui.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Cancelling build after receiving %s", sig))
 	}()
 
-	limitParallel := semaphore.NewWeighted(cfgParallel)
+	limitParallel := semaphore.NewWeighted(cfgParallelBuilds)
 	for _, b := range builds {
 		// Increment the waitgroup so we wait for this item to finish properly
 		wg.Add(1)
@@ -210,7 +214,7 @@ func (c *BuildCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 			wg.Wait()
 		}
 
-		if cfgParallel == 1 {
+		if cfgParallelBuilds == 1 {
 			log.Printf("Parallelization disabled, waiting for build to finish: %s", b.Name())
 			wg.Wait()
 		}
@@ -323,7 +327,8 @@ Options:
   -force                        Force a build to continue if artifacts exist, deletes existing artifacts.
   -machine-readable             Produce machine-readable output.
   -on-error=[cleanup|abort|ask] If the build fails do: clean up (default), abort, or ask.
-  -parallel=count               Number of builds to run in parallel. (Default: 0)
+  -parallel=false               Disable parallelization. (Default: true)
+  -parallel-builds=1            Number of builds to run in parallel. 0 means no limit (Default: 0)
   -timestamp-ui                 Enable prefixing of each ui output with an RFC3339 timestamp.
   -var 'key=value'              Variable for templates, can be used multiple times.
   -var-file=path                JSON file containing user variables.
diff --git a/command/build_test.go b/command/build_test.go
index 12282769b..8f3661b95 100644
--- a/command/build_test.go
+++ b/command/build_test.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ func TestBuildOnlyFileCommaFlags(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	args := []string{
-		"-parallel=1",
+		"-parallel=false",
 		"-only=chocolate,vanilla",
 		filepath.Join(testFixture("build-only"), "template.json"),
 	}
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ func TestBuildStdin(t *testing.T) {
 	defer func() { os.Stdin = stdin }()
 
 	defer cleanup()
-	if code := c.Run([]string{"-parallel=1", "-"}); code != 0 {
+	if code := c.Run([]string{"-parallel=false", "-"}); code != 0 {
 		fatalCommand(t, c.Meta)
 	}
 
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ func TestBuildOnlyFileMultipleFlags(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	args := []string{
-		"-parallel=1",
+		"-parallel=false",
 		"-only=chocolate",
 		"-only=cherry",
 		"-only=apple", // ignored
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ func TestBuildEverything(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	args := []string{
-		"-parallel=1",
+		"-parallel=false",
 		`-except=`,
 		filepath.Join(testFixture("build-only"), "template.json"),
 	}
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ func TestBuildExceptFileCommaFlags(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	args := []string{
-		"-parallel=1",
+		"-parallel=false",
 		"-except=chocolate,vanilla",
 		filepath.Join(testFixture("build-only"), "template.json"),
 	}
diff --git a/contrib/zsh-completion/_packer b/contrib/zsh-completion/_packer
index 4a79f3cd6..7bf52bbba 100644
--- a/contrib/zsh-completion/_packer
+++ b/contrib/zsh-completion/_packer
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ _packer () {
     '-except=[(foo,bar,baz) Run all builds and post-procesors other than these.]'
     '-on-error=[(cleanup,abort,ask) If the build fails do: clean up (default), abort, or ask.]'
     '-only=[(foo,bar,baz) Only build the given builds by name.]'
-    '-parallel=[(0) Number of builds to run in parallel. (Default: 0)]'
+    '-parallel=[(false) Disable parallelization. (Default: false)]'
+    '-parallel-builds=[(0) Number of builds to run in parallel. (Defaults to infinite: 0)]'
     '-var[("key=value") Variable for templates, can be used multiple times.]'
     '-var-file=[(path) JSON file containing user variables.]'
     '(-)*:files:_files -g "*.json"'
diff --git a/website/source/docs/commands/build.html.md b/website/source/docs/commands/build.html.md
index a1d416245..c5109e2e3 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/commands/build.html.md
+++ b/website/source/docs/commands/build.html.md
@@ -52,8 +52,13 @@ artifacts that are created will be outputted at the end of the build.
     attribute is specified within the configuration. `-only` does not apply to
     post-processors.
 
--   `-parallel=1` - Limit the number of builds to run in parallel (no limit by
-    default).
+-   `-parallel=false` - /!\ Deprecated, use `-parallel-builds=1` instead,
+    setting `-parallel-builds=N` to more that 0 will ignore the `-parallel`
+    setting. Set `-parallel=false` to disable parallelization of multiple
+    builders (on by default).
+
+-   `-parallel-builds=N` - Limit the number of builds to run in parallel, 0
+    means no limit (defaults to 0).
 
 -   `-timestamp-ui` - Enable prefixing of each ui output with an RFC3339
     timestamp.