diff --git a/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/Pipfile b/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/Pipfile
index b5dc76a85506..82ebe76feabc 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/Pipfile
+++ b/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/Pipfile
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ bleach = "*"
 "bz2file" = {version = "*", markers = "python_version < '3.3'"}
 ipaddress = {version = "*", markers = "python_version < '3.3'"}
 boltons = "*"
+gunicorn = "*"
 Paste = "*"
 docutils = "*"
 Routes = "*"
diff --git a/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/pinned-requirements.txt b/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/pinned-requirements.txt
index e627f746c3d6..a7f569f22b30 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/pinned-requirements.txt
+++ b/lib/galaxy/dependencies/pipfiles/default/pinned-requirements.txt
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ functools32==3.2.3.post2; python_version == '2.7'
 future==0.16.0
 futures==3.2.0; python_version == '2.6' or python_version == '2.7'
 galaxy-sequence-utils==1.1.3
+gunicorn==19.9.0
 h5py==2.8.0
 html5lib==1.0.1
 idna==2.7
diff --git a/scripts/common_startup_functions.sh b/scripts/common_startup_functions.sh
index be9b23bee814..4b4575b2f562 100644
--- a/scripts/common_startup_functions.sh
+++ b/scripts/common_startup_functions.sh
@@ -157,6 +157,10 @@ find_server() {
         fi
         server_args="$server_args $uwsgi_args"
         pid_log_paster_args=""
+    elif [ "$APP_WEBSERVER" = "gunicorn" ];
+    then
+        export GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS=${GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS:-"--bind=localhost:8080"}
+        server_args="$APP_WEBSERVER --pythonpath lib --paste \"$server_config\""
     else
         run_server="python"
         server_args="./scripts/paster.py serve \"$server_config\" $paster_args"