diff --git a/src/lib/create-config.ts b/src/lib/create-config.ts
index 68f1071a72..1f9754cdaa 100644
--- a/src/lib/create-config.ts
+++ b/src/lib/create-config.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { parse } from 'pg-connection-string';
 import merge from 'deepmerge';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
 import {
     IUnleashOptions,
     IUnleashConfig,
@@ -157,9 +158,23 @@ export function createConfig(options: IUnleashOptions): IUnleashConfig {
     } else if (process.env.DATABASE_URL) {
         extraDbOptions = parse(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
     }
+    let fileDbOptions = {};
+    if (options.databaseUrlFile && fs.existsSync(options.databaseUrlFile)) {
+        fileDbOptions = parse(
+            fs.readFileSync(options.databaseUrlFile, 'utf-8'),
+        );
+    } else if (
+        process.env.DATABASE_URL_FILE &&
+        fs.existsSync(process.env.DATABASE_URL_FILE)
+    ) {
+        fileDbOptions = parse(
+            fs.readFileSync(process.env.DATABASE_URL_FILE, 'utf-8'),
+        );
+    }
     const db: IDBOption = mergeAll<IDBOption>([
         defaultDbOptions,
         dbPort(extraDbOptions),
+        dbPort(fileDbOptions),
         options.db,
     ]);
 
diff --git a/src/lib/types/option.ts b/src/lib/types/option.ts
index 63ba7a7f97..4f21f17edf 100644
--- a/src/lib/types/option.ts
+++ b/src/lib/types/option.ts
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ export interface IServerOption {
 
 export interface IUnleashOptions {
     databaseUrl?: string;
+    databaseUrlFile?: string;
     db?: Partial<IDBOption>;
     session?: Partial<ISessionOption>;
     getLogger?: LogProvider;
diff --git a/src/test/config/create-config.test.ts b/src/test/config/create-config.test.ts
index 57b6b42842..75e0747925 100644
--- a/src/test/config/create-config.test.ts
+++ b/src/test/config/create-config.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import test from 'ava';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
 import { createConfig, authTypeFromString } from '../../lib/create-config';
 import { IAuthType, IDBOption } from '../../lib/types/option';
 
@@ -96,3 +97,18 @@ test('Can set auth type programmatically with a string', t => {
     });
     t.is(config.authentication.type, IAuthType.DEMO);
 });
+
+test('should use DATABASE_URL_FILE from env', t => {
+    const databaseUrl = 'postgres://u:p@localhost:5432/name';
+    const path = '/tmp/db_url';
+    fs.writeFileSync(path, databaseUrl, { mode: 0o755 });
+    delete process.env.NODE_ENV;
+    process.env.DATABASE_URL_FILE = path;
+    const config = createConfig({});
+
+    t.is(config.db.host, 'localhost');
+    t.is(config.db.password, 'p');
+    t.is(config.db.user, 'u');
+    t.is(config.db.database, 'name');
+    t.is(config.db.schema, 'public');
+});