diff --git a/server/index.ts b/server/index.ts
index d6ca0940e..8688b8b74 100644
--- a/server/index.ts
+++ b/server/index.ts
@@ -20,7 +20,11 @@ import { requestErrorHandler } from "./logging/sentry";
 import services from "./services";
 import { getArg } from "./utils/args";
 import { getSSLOptions } from "./utils/ssl";
-import { checkEnv, checkMigrations } from "./utils/startup";
+import {
+  checkEnv,
+  checkMigrations,
+  checkPendingMigrations,
+} from "./utils/startup";
 import { checkUpdates } from "./utils/updates";
 
 // If a services flag is passed it takes priority over the environment variable
@@ -53,6 +57,7 @@ if (serviceNames.includes("collaboration")) {
 // This function will only be called once in the original process
 async function master() {
   await checkEnv();
+  checkPendingMigrations();
   await checkMigrations();
 
   if (env.TELEMETRY && env.ENVIRONMENT === "production") {
diff --git a/server/utils/startup.ts b/server/utils/startup.ts
index fb6e0993b..8f5a67e54 100644
--- a/server/utils/startup.ts
+++ b/server/utils/startup.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,35 @@
+import { execSync } from "child_process";
 import chalk from "chalk";
 import env from "@server/env";
 import Logger from "@server/logging/Logger";
 import AuthenticationProvider from "@server/models/AuthenticationProvider";
 import Team from "@server/models/Team";
 
+export function checkPendingMigrations() {
+  const commandResult = execSync("yarn sequelize db:migrate:status");
+  const commandResultArray = Buffer.from(commandResult)
+    .toString("utf-8")
+    .split("\n");
+
+  const pendingMigrations = commandResultArray.filter((line) =>
+    line.startsWith("down")
+  );
+
+  if (pendingMigrations.length) {
+    Logger.warn("You have pending migrations");
+    Logger.warn(
+      pendingMigrations
+        .map((line, i) => `${i + 1}. ${line.replace("down ", "")}`)
+        .join("\n")
+    );
+    Logger.warn(
+      "Please run `yarn db:migrate` or `yarn db:migrate --env production-ssl-disabled` to run all pending migrations"
+    );
+
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+}
+
 export async function checkMigrations() {
   if (env.DEPLOYMENT === "hosted") {
     return;