diff --git a/packages/melos/lib/src/commands/version.dart b/packages/melos/lib/src/commands/version.dart
index fa5b4f76..947cd505 100644
--- a/packages/melos/lib/src/commands/version.dart
+++ b/packages/melos/lib/src/commands/version.dart
@@ -445,13 +445,24 @@ Hint: try running "melos version --all" to include private packages.
 
     final pubspec = File(pubspecPathForDirectory(Directory(package.path)));
     final contents = await pubspec.readAsString();
-    String updatedContents;
+
+    final isExternalHostedReference = package
+            .pubSpec.dependencies[dependencyName] is ExternalHostedReference ||
+        package.pubSpec.devDependencies[dependencyName]
+            is ExternalHostedReference;
 
     final gitReference =
         package.pubSpec.dependencies[dependencyName] is GitReference ||
             package.pubSpec.devDependencies[dependencyName] is GitReference;
 
-    if (gitReference && workspace.config.commands.version.updateGitTagRefs) {
+    var updatedContents = contents;
+    if (isExternalHostedReference) {
+      updatedContents = contents.replaceAllMapped(
+          hostedDependencyVersionReplaceRegex(dependencyName), (Match match) {
+        return '${match.group(1)}$dependencyVersion';
+      });
+    } else if (gitReference &&
+        workspace.config.commands.version.updateGitTagRefs) {
       updatedContents = contents.replaceAllMapped(
           dependencyTagReplaceRegex(dependencyName), (Match match) {
         return '${match.group(1)}$dependencyName-v${dependencyVersion.toString().substring(1)}';
diff --git a/packages/melos/lib/src/package.dart b/packages/melos/lib/src/package.dart
index 7427b5a8..d6ec0818 100644
--- a/packages/melos/lib/src/package.dart
+++ b/packages/melos/lib/src/package.dart
@@ -105,6 +105,14 @@ RegExp dependencyVersionReplaceRegex(String dependencyName) {
   );
 }
 
+// https://regex101.com/r/ob8xRv/1
+RegExp hostedDependencyVersionReplaceRegex(String dependencyName) {
+  return RegExp(
+    '''(^[ \t]*?(?<dependency>$dependencyName)[ \\t]*?:[ \\t]*?[\\s\\S]*?[ \\t]*?version:[ \\t]*?)(?<version>any|["'^<>=]*\\d\\.\\d\\.\\d['"._ \\t<>=\\d-\\w+]*|\$)\$''',
+    multiLine: true,
+  );
+}
+
 RegExp dependencyTagReplaceRegex(String dependencyName) {
   return RegExp(
     '''(?<tag_ref>^\\s+ref\\s?:\\s?)(?<opening_quote>["']?)(?<tag>$dependencyName-v[\\d]+\\.[\\d]+\\.[\\d]+)(?<closing_quote>['"]?)\$''',
diff --git a/packages/melos/pubspec.yaml b/packages/melos/pubspec.yaml
index 3348ed36..2788ae97 100644
--- a/packages/melos/pubspec.yaml
+++ b/packages/melos/pubspec.yaml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ dependencies:
   platform: ^3.1.0
   pool: ^1.4.0
   pub_semver: ^2.0.0
-  pubspec: ^2.0.1
+  pubspec: ^2.1.0
   string_scanner: ^1.0.5
   yaml: ^3.1.0