diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 168a1f6b..b368891c 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -1,13 +1,41 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/bash
 set -e
 
+# Set the database variable to the default first.
+# Don't forget to change this string to your actual database parameters
+# if you don't plan to initialize the database in this script.
 export LEMMY_DATABASE_URL=postgres://lemmy:password@localhost:5432/lemmy
+
+# Set other environment variables
 export JWT_SECRET=changeme
 export HOSTNAME=rrr
 
+# Optionally initialize the database
+init_db_valid=0
+init_db_final=0
+while [ "$init_db_valid" == 0 ]
+do
+  read -p "Initialize database (y/n)? " init_db
+  case "${init_db,,}" in 
+    y|yes ) init_db_valid=1; init_db_final=1;;
+    n|no ) init_db_valid=1; init_db_final=0;;
+    * ) echo "Invalid input" 1>&2;;
+  esac
+  echo
+done
+if [ "$init_db_final" = 1 ]
+then
+  source ./server/db-init.sh
+  read -n 1 -s -r -p "Press ANY KEY to continue execution of this script, press CTRL+C to quit..."
+  echo
+fi
+
+# Build the web client
 cd ui
 yarn
 yarn build
+
+# Build and run the backend
 cd ../server
 cargo run