diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7f7cccc..e9153cb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -58,3 +58,4 @@ docs/_build/
 # PyBuilder
 target/
 
+_version.py
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 11ec636..a3cf634 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,14 +1,30 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from io import open
-import os
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+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/utils/__init__.py b/shared/utils/__init__.py
index 3db79a6..849caa4 100644
--- a/shared/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/shared/utils/__init__.py
@@ -3,8 +3,14 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 # Erik Stein <code@classlibrary.net>, 2007-2016
 
 __version__ = '0.2.1'
-VERSION = tuple(int(d) for d in __version__.split('.'))
 
+try:
+    from ._version import __version__
+except ImportError:
+    pass
+
+VERSION = __version__.split('+')
+VERSION = tuple(list(map(int, VERSION[0].split('.'))) + VERSION[1:])
 
 try:
     from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _