diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 4a10aac9..2e4afaa1 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ group :development, :test do
   gem 'capybara'
   # webkit and poltergeist don't seem to work yet
   gem 'database_cleaner'
+  gem 'simplecov', require: false
 end
 
 # Gems left for backwards compatibility
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 0c643e7d..2faaccac 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -251,6 +251,10 @@ GEM
     simple_form (2.1.0)
       actionpack (~> 3.0)
       activemodel (~> 3.0)
+    simplecov (0.7.1)
+      multi_json (~> 1.0)
+      simplecov-html (~> 0.7.1)
+    simplecov-html (0.7.1)
     sinatra (1.3.6)
       rack (~> 1.4)
       rack-protection (~> 1.3)
@@ -339,6 +343,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   simple-navigation
   simple-navigation-bootstrap
   simple_form
+  simplecov
   sqlite3
   therubyracer
   thin
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 69668880..1324abca 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
 ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
+require 'support/coverage' # needs to be first
 require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
 require 'rspec/rails'
 require 'rspec/autorun'
diff --git a/spec/support/coverage.rb b/spec/support/coverage.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c67e3172
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/coverage.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# optional test coverage
+# needs to be loaded first, e.g. add a require at top of spec_helper
+if ENV['COVERAGE']
+  require 'simplecov'
+  SimpleCov.start do
+    add_filter '/spec/'
+    add_filter '/test/'
+    add_group 'Models', '/app/models/'
+    add_group 'Controllers', '/app/controllers/'
+    add_group 'Helpers', '/app/helpers/'
+    add_group 'Documents', '/app/documents/'
+    add_group 'Libraries', '/lib/'
+  end
+end