diff --git a/server/utils/args.ts b/server/utils/args.ts
index d596d4fe8..d0b374491 100644
--- a/server/utils/args.ts
+++ b/server/utils/args.ts
@@ -10,10 +10,11 @@ export function getArg(name: string, shortName?: string) {
     .slice(2)
     .filter(
       (arg) =>
+        arg === `--${name}` ||
         arg.startsWith(`--${name}=`) ||
         (shortName && arg.startsWith(`-${shortName}=`))
     )
-    .map((arg) => arg.split("=")[1])
+    .map((arg) => arg.split("=")[1] ?? "true")
     .map((arg) => arg.trim())
     .join(",");
 
diff --git a/server/utils/startup.ts b/server/utils/startup.ts
index b922d83c3..4a9a3e508 100644
--- a/server/utils/startup.ts
+++ b/server/utils/startup.ts
@@ -5,13 +5,23 @@ import Logger from "@server/logging/Logger";
 import AuthenticationProvider from "@server/models/AuthenticationProvider";
 import Team from "@server/models/Team";
 import { migrations } from "@server/storage/database";
+import { getArg } from "./args";
 
 export async function checkPendingMigrations() {
   try {
     const pending = await migrations.pending();
     if (!isEmpty(pending)) {
-      Logger.info("database", "Running migrations…");
-      await migrations.up();
+      if (getArg("no-migrate")) {
+        Logger.warn(
+          chalk.red(
+            `Database migrations are pending and were not ran because --no-migrate flag was passed.\nRun the migrations with "yarn db:migrate".`
+          )
+        );
+        process.exit(1);
+      } else {
+        Logger.info("database", "Running migrations…");
+        await migrations.up();
+      }
     }
     await checkDataMigrations();
   } catch (err) {