diff --git a/lib/dpl/providers/pages.rb b/lib/dpl/providers/pages.rb
index a26c7d1d4..7e571b14a 100644
--- a/lib/dpl/providers/pages.rb
+++ b/lib/dpl/providers/pages.rb
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ class Pages < Provider
       opt '--repo SLUG', 'Repo slug', default: :repo_slug
       opt '--target_branch BRANCH', 'Branch to push force to', default: 'gh-pages'
       opt '--keep_history', 'Create incremental commit instead of doing push force', default: true
+      opt '--commit_message MSG', default: 'Deploy %{project_name} to %{url}:%{target_branch}'
       opt '--allow_empty_commit', 'Allow an empty commit to be created', requires: :keep_history
       opt '--committer_from_gh', 'Use the token\'s owner name and email for commit. Overrides the email and name options'
       opt '--verbose', 'Be verbose about the deploy process'
@@ -24,12 +25,9 @@ class Pages < Provider
       opt '--project_name NAME', 'Used in the commit message only (defaults to fqdn or the current repo slug)'
       opt '--email EMAIL', 'Committer email', default: 'deploy@travis-ci.org'
       opt '--name NAME', 'Committer name', default: 'Deploy Bot'
-      # what is the purpose of this file in the first place? a file name with
-      # spaces seems highly irregular, but this has been there from the start
-      # https://github.com/travis-ci/dpl/commit/58f6c7dd4f0fd49df2e93a8495fd01c7784d4f58#diff-cc5438ae072229825b07abf38951a912R47
       opt '--deployment_file', 'Enable creation of a deployment-info file'
-      # not mentioned in the readme
       opt '--github_url URL', default: 'github.com'
+
       # how about the octokit options?
 
       needs :git
@@ -59,7 +57,7 @@ class Pages < Provider
            deployment_file:     'touch "deployed at %{now} by %{committer_name}"',
            cname:               'echo "%{fqdn}" > CNAME',
            git_add:             'git add -A .',
-           git_commit:          'git commit%{git_commit_opts} -qm "Deploy %{project_name} to %{url}:%{target_branch}"',
+           git_commit:          'git commit%{git_commit_opts} -qm "%{commit_message}"',
            git_show:            'git show --stat-count=10 HEAD',
            git_push:            'git push%{git_push_opts} --quiet "%{url_with_token}" "%{target_branch}":"%{target_branch}" > /dev/null 2>&1'
 
@@ -162,6 +160,10 @@ def committer_email
         committer_from_gh? ? user.email || email : email
       end
 
+      def commit_message
+        interpolate(super)
+      end
+
       def project_name
         super || fqdn || repo_slug
       end
diff --git a/spec/dpl/providers/pages_spec.rb b/spec/dpl/providers/pages_spec.rb
index b238b143b..3b021264f 100644
--- a/spec/dpl/providers/pages_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/dpl/providers/pages_spec.rb
@@ -5,8 +5,9 @@
   let!(:cwd)    { File.expand_path('.') }
   let(:tmp)     { File.expand_path('tmp') }
 
-  before { stub_request(:get, 'https://api.github.com/user').and_return(status: 200, body: user, headers: headers) }
+  env FOO: 'foo'
 
+  before { stub_request(:get, 'https://api.github.com/user').and_return(status: 200, body: user, headers: headers) }
   before { subject.run }
 
   describe 'by default', record: true do
@@ -88,4 +89,8 @@
   describe 'given --email other' do
     it { should have_run 'git config user.email "other"' }
   end
+
+  describe 'given --commit_message "msg %{repo} %{$FOO}"' do
+    it { should have_run 'git commit -qm "msg travis-ci/dpl foo"' }
+  end
 end