diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
index d422a88..4f19c09 100644
--- a/backend/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -1,10 +1,22 @@
 FROM python:3.8-slim-buster
 WORKDIR /app
 
-COPY requirements.txt /app/requirements.txt
-RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+ENV PYTHONFAULTHANDLER=1 \
+  PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+  PYTHONHASHSEED=random \
+  PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=off \
+  PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=on \
+  PIP_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT=100 \
+  POETRY_VERSION=1.1.6 \
+  GUNICORN_VERSION=20.1.0
 
-RUN pip3 install gunicorn
+RUN pip install poetry==$POETRY_VERSION gunicorn==$GUNICORN_VERSION
+
+# copy requirements first for caching
+COPY poetry.lock pyproject.toml /app/
+
+RUN poetry config virtualenvs.create false \
+ && poetry install --no-dev --no-interaction --no-ansi
 
 COPY . /app/backend
 CMD ["gunicorn", "--bind=0.0.0.0:5000", "backend.wsgi:app"]
diff --git a/backend/README.md b/backend/README.md
index 74bc2e9..40b0406 100644
--- a/backend/README.md
+++ b/backend/README.md
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Backend service
 
 ## Setup dev environment
+Requirements:
+ - Python > 3.8 is installed
+ - Poetry is installed (https://python-poetry.org/docs/)
+
 ```
 pip3 install virtualenv
 virtualenv venv
-pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+source venv/bin/activate
+poetry install
 ```
 
 ## Startup in development
diff --git a/backend/pyproject.toml b/backend/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b920fd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+[tool.poetry]
+name = "openenergize-backend"
+version = "0.1.0"
+description = ""
+authors = ["Jan Bucher <jan@bucher.cloud>"]
+
+[tool.poetry.dependencies]
+python = "^3.8"
+Flask = "^1.1.4"
+flask-restx = "^0.4.0"
+requests = "^2.25.1"
+PyYAML = "^5.4.1"
+pymodbus = "^2.5.2"
+cachetools = "^4.2.2"
+
+[tool.poetry.dev-dependencies]
+pytest = "^6.2.4"
+
+[build-system]
+requires = ["poetry-core>=1.0.0"]
+build-backend = "poetry.core.masonry.api"
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 6e31308..0000000
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-flask
-flask_restx
-requests
-pyyaml
-pymodbus
-cachetools