diff --git a/cmd/migrate.go b/cmd/migrate.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d5dd3068cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/migrate.go
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+// Copyright 2018 The Gitea Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a MIT-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package cmd
+
+import (
+	"code.gitea.io/gitea/models"
+	"code.gitea.io/gitea/models/migrations"
+	"code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/log"
+	"code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/setting"
+
+	"github.com/urfave/cli"
+)
+
+// CmdMigrate represents the available migrate sub-command.
+var CmdMigrate = cli.Command{
+	Name:        "migrate",
+	Usage:       "Migrate the database",
+	Description: "This is a command for migrating the database, so that you can run gitea admin create-user before starting the server.",
+	Action:      runMigrate,
+	Flags: []cli.Flag{
+		cli.StringFlag{
+			Name:  "config, c",
+			Value: "custom/conf/app.ini",
+			Usage: "Custom configuration file path",
+		},
+	},
+}
+
+func runMigrate(ctx *cli.Context) error {
+	if ctx.IsSet("config") {
+		setting.CustomConf = ctx.String("config")
+	}
+
+	if err := initDB(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	log.Trace("AppPath: %s", setting.AppPath)
+	log.Trace("AppWorkPath: %s", setting.AppWorkPath)
+	log.Trace("Custom path: %s", setting.CustomPath)
+	log.Trace("Log path: %s", setting.LogRootPath)
+	models.LoadConfigs()
+
+	if err := models.NewEngine(migrations.Migrate); err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(4, "Failed to initialize ORM engine: %v", err)
+		return err
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index e73f1d60a9..a331de4733 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ arguments - which can alternatively be run by running the subcommand web.`
 		cmd.CmdCert,
 		cmd.CmdAdmin,
 		cmd.CmdGenerate,
+		cmd.CmdMigrate,
 	}
 	app.Flags = append(app.Flags, []cli.Flag{}...)
 	app.Action = cmd.CmdWeb.Action