diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 861fc73..052defc 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ build
 dist
 htmlcov
 __pycache__
+_version.py
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 91d53db..19c9adb 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,14 +1,30 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
-import os
 from io import open
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
+import os
+import re
+import subprocess
 
 
 def get_version(prefix):
-    import re
-    with open(os.path.join(prefix, '__init__.py')) as fd:
-        metadata = dict(re.findall("__([a-z]+)__ = '([^']+)'", fd.read()))
+    if os.path.exists('.git'):
+        parts = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'describe', '--tags']).decode().strip().split('-')
+        version = '{}.{}+{}'.format(*parts)
+        version_py = "__version__ = '{}'".format(version)
+        _version = os.path.join(prefix, '_version.py')
+        if not os.path.exists(_version) or open(_version).read().strip() != version_py:
+            with open(_version, 'w') as fd:
+                fd.write(version_py)
+        return version
+    else:
+        for f in ('_version.py', '__init__.py'):
+            f = os.path.join(prefix, f)
+            if os.path.exists(f):
+                with open(f) as fd:
+                    metadata = dict(re.findall("__([a-z]+)__ = '([^']+)'", fd.read()))
+                if 'version' in metadata:
+                    break
     return metadata['version']
 
 
diff --git a/shared/people/__init__.py b/shared/people/__init__.py
index cac05ea..2f83f35 100644
--- a/shared/people/__init__.py
+++ b/shared/people/__init__.py
@@ -1,32 +1,11 @@
-import subprocess
-
+__version__ = '0.0'
 
 try:
-    git_describe = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'describe', '--tags'], universal_newlines=True, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL).strip()
-    # v0.2-69-g181f854
-    if git_describe[0] in "vr":
-        git_describe = git_describe[1:]
-    parts = git_describe.split("-")
-    VERSION = parts[0].split(".")[:3]
-    VERSION += [0] * (3 - len(VERSION))
-    git_version = parts[1:]
-
-except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-    # Not yet tagged
-    VERSION = [0, 0, 0]
-    git_version = []
-    try:
-        git_version = (
-            subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', '--count', 'HEAD'], universal_newlines=True).strip(),
-            subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-parse', '--short', 'HEAD'], universal_newlines=True).strip()
-        )
-    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-        git_version = []
-
-
-# 1.3.0-64-g1f9a30
-__version__ = '-'.join(map(str, ['.'.join(map(str, VERSION)), *git_version]))
-VERSION.extend(git_version)
+    from ._version import __version__
+except ImportError:
+    pass
 
+VERSION = __version__.split('+')
+VERSION = tuple(list(map(int, VERSION[0].split('.'))) + VERSION[1:])
 
 default_app_config = 'people.apps.PeopleConfig'