diff --git a/common/config_manager.py b/common/config_manager.py
index 9f76ce7ac..c0966321e 100644
--- a/common/config_manager.py
+++ b/common/config_manager.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import time
 import json
 
+from pymemcache.client.base import Client
 from pathlib import Path
 from common.lib.database import Database
 
@@ -17,6 +18,7 @@ class ConfigManager:
     db = None
     dbconn = None
     cache = {}
+    memcache = None
 
     core_settings = {}
     config_definition = {}
@@ -28,7 +30,8 @@ def __init__(self, db=None):
         self.load_user_settings()
 
         # establish database connection if none available
-        self.db = db
+        if db:
+            self.with_db(db)
 
     def with_db(self, db=None):
         """
@@ -43,6 +46,12 @@ def with_db(self, db=None):
                                          password=self.get("DB_PASSWORD"), host=self.get("DB_HOST"),
                                          port=self.get("DB_PORT"), appname="config-reader") if not db else db
 
+        # now we have a database connection, we can initialise the memcached
+        # client (since the address is stored in the database)
+        memcache_address = self.get("4cat.memcached_server")
+        if memcache_address:
+            self.memcache = Client(memcache_address)
+
     def load_user_settings(self):
         """
         Load settings configurable by the user
diff --git a/common/lib/config_definition.py b/common/lib/config_definition.py
index c92e7c4be..df768da2f 100644
--- a/common/lib/config_definition.py
+++ b/common/lib/config_definition.py
@@ -233,6 +233,13 @@
         "tooltip": "Sphinx is used for full-text search for collected datasources (e.g., 4chan, 8kun, 8chan) and requires additional setup (see 4CAT wiki on GitHub).",
         "global": True
     },
+    "4cat.memcached_host": {
+        "type": UserInput.OPTION_TEXT,
+        "default": "",
+        "help": "Memcached server",
+        "tooltip": "Memcached server address, e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1:11211. If empty, memcached is not used.",
+        "global": True
+    },
     "logging.slack.level": {
         "type": UserInput.OPTION_CHOICE,
         "default": "WARNING",
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7eff86382..3c3532618 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 	"psutil~=5.0",
 	"psycopg2~=2.9.0",
 	"pyahocorasick~=1.4.0",
+	"pymemcache",
 	"PyMySQL~=1.0",
 	"PyTumblr==0.1.0",
 	"requests~=2.27",