diff --git a/admin.go b/admin.go
index 33445ac..8d71aad 100644
--- a/admin.go
+++ b/admin.go
@@ -573,3 +573,30 @@ func adminResetPassword(app *App, u *User, newPass string) error {
 	}
 	return nil
 }
+
+func handleViewAdminUpdates(app *App, u *User, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) error {
+	check := r.URL.Query().Get("check")
+
+	if check == "now" && app.cfg.App.UpdateChecks {
+		app.updates.CheckNow()
+	}
+
+	p := struct {
+		*UserPage
+		LastChecked      string
+		LatestVersion    string
+		LatestReleaseURL string
+		UpdateAvailable  bool
+	}{
+		UserPage: NewUserPage(app, r, u, "Updates", nil),
+	}
+	if app.cfg.App.UpdateChecks {
+		p.LastChecked = app.updates.lastCheck.Format("January 2, 2006, 3:04 PM")
+		p.LatestVersion = app.updates.LatestVersion()
+		p.LatestReleaseURL = app.updates.ReleaseURL()
+		p.UpdateAvailable = app.updates.AreAvailable()
+	}
+
+	showUserPage(w, "app-updates", p)
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/app.go b/app.go
index 170c321..dd05c95 100644
--- a/app.go
+++ b/app.go
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ type App struct {
 	keys         *key.Keychain
 	sessionStore sessions.Store
 	formDecoder  *schema.Decoder
+	updates      *updatesCache
 
 	timeline *localTimeline
 }
@@ -371,6 +372,8 @@ func Initialize(apper Apper, debug bool) (*App, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("init keys: %s", err)
 	}
+	apper.App().InitUpdates()
+
 	apper.App().InitSession()
 
 	apper.App().InitDecoder()
diff --git a/config.ini.example b/config.ini.example
index dcbd6ee..7ac944e 100644
--- a/config.ini.example
+++ b/config.ini.example
@@ -23,4 +23,5 @@ max_blogs         = 1
 federation        = true
 public_stats      = true
 private           = false
+update_checks     = true
 
diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 2313732..78892bf 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@
 package config
 
 import (
-	"gopkg.in/ini.v1"
 	"strings"
+
+	"gopkg.in/ini.v1"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -115,6 +116,9 @@ type (
 
 		// Defaults
 		DefaultVisibility string `ini:"default_visibility"`
+
+		// Check for Updates
+		UpdateChecks bool `ini:"update_checks"`
 	}
 
 	// Config holds the complete configuration for running a writefreely instance
diff --git a/routes.go b/routes.go
index e606fbc..523cc30 100644
--- a/routes.go
+++ b/routes.go
@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@ func InitRoutes(apper Apper, r *mux.Router) *mux.Router {
 	write.HandleFunc("/admin/page/{slug}", handler.Admin(handleViewAdminPage)).Methods("GET")
 	write.HandleFunc("/admin/update/config", handler.AdminApper(handleAdminUpdateConfig)).Methods("POST")
 	write.HandleFunc("/admin/update/{page}", handler.Admin(handleAdminUpdateSite)).Methods("POST")
+	write.HandleFunc("/admin/updates", handler.Admin(handleViewAdminUpdates)).Methods("GET")
 
 	// Handle special pages first
 	write.HandleFunc("/login", handler.Web(viewLogin, UserLevelNoneRequired))
diff --git a/semver.go b/semver.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18fb276
--- /dev/null
+++ b/semver.go
@@ -0,0 +1,315 @@
+// Copyright 2018 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Package semver implements comparison of semantic version strings.
+// In this package, semantic version strings must begin with a leading "v",
+// as in "v1.0.0".
+//
+// The general form of a semantic version string accepted by this package is
+//
+//	vMAJOR[.MINOR[.PATCH[-PRERELEASE][+BUILD]]]
+//
+// where square brackets indicate optional parts of the syntax;
+// MAJOR, MINOR, and PATCH are decimal integers without extra leading zeros;
+// PRERELEASE and BUILD are each a series of non-empty dot-separated identifiers
+// using only alphanumeric characters and hyphens; and
+// all-numeric PRERELEASE identifiers must not have leading zeros.
+//
+// This package follows Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 (see semver.org)
+// with two exceptions. First, it requires the "v" prefix. Second, it recognizes
+// vMAJOR and vMAJOR.MINOR (with no prerelease or build suffixes)
+// as shorthands for vMAJOR.0.0 and vMAJOR.MINOR.0.
+
+// Package writefreely
+// copied from
+// https://github.com/golang/tools/blob/master/internal/semver/semver.go
+// slight modifications made
+package writefreely
+
+// parsed returns the parsed form of a semantic version string.
+type parsed struct {
+	major      string
+	minor      string
+	patch      string
+	short      string
+	prerelease string
+	build      string
+	err        string
+}
+
+// IsValid reports whether v is a valid semantic version string.
+func IsValid(v string) bool {
+	_, ok := semParse(v)
+	return ok
+}
+
+// CompareSemver returns an integer comparing two versions according to
+// according to semantic version precedence.
+// The result will be 0 if v == w, -1 if v < w, or +1 if v > w.
+//
+// An invalid semantic version string is considered less than a valid one.
+// All invalid semantic version strings compare equal to each other.
+func CompareSemver(v, w string) int {
+	pv, ok1 := semParse(v)
+	pw, ok2 := semParse(w)
+	if !ok1 && !ok2 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	if !ok1 {
+		return -1
+	}
+	if !ok2 {
+		return +1
+	}
+	if c := compareInt(pv.major, pw.major); c != 0 {
+		return c
+	}
+	if c := compareInt(pv.minor, pw.minor); c != 0 {
+		return c
+	}
+	if c := compareInt(pv.patch, pw.patch); c != 0 {
+		return c
+	}
+	return comparePrerelease(pv.prerelease, pw.prerelease)
+}
+
+func semParse(v string) (p parsed, ok bool) {
+	if v == "" || v[0] != 'v' {
+		p.err = "missing v prefix"
+		return
+	}
+	p.major, v, ok = parseInt(v[1:])
+	if !ok {
+		p.err = "bad major version"
+		return
+	}
+	if v == "" {
+		p.minor = "0"
+		p.patch = "0"
+		p.short = ".0.0"
+		return
+	}
+	if v[0] != '.' {
+		p.err = "bad minor prefix"
+		ok = false
+		return
+	}
+	p.minor, v, ok = parseInt(v[1:])
+	if !ok {
+		p.err = "bad minor version"
+		return
+	}
+	if v == "" {
+		p.patch = "0"
+		p.short = ".0"
+		return
+	}
+	if v[0] != '.' {
+		p.err = "bad patch prefix"
+		ok = false
+		return
+	}
+	p.patch, v, ok = parseInt(v[1:])
+	if !ok {
+		p.err = "bad patch version"
+		return
+	}
+	if len(v) > 0 && v[0] == '-' {
+		p.prerelease, v, ok = parsePrerelease(v)
+		if !ok {
+			p.err = "bad prerelease"
+			return
+		}
+	}
+	if len(v) > 0 && v[0] == '+' {
+		p.build, v, ok = parseBuild(v)
+		if !ok {
+			p.err = "bad build"
+			return
+		}
+	}
+	if v != "" {
+		p.err = "junk on end"
+		ok = false
+		return
+	}
+	ok = true
+	return
+}
+
+func parseInt(v string) (t, rest string, ok bool) {
+	if v == "" {
+		return
+	}
+	if v[0] < '0' || '9' < v[0] {
+		return
+	}
+	i := 1
+	for i < len(v) && '0' <= v[i] && v[i] <= '9' {
+		i++
+	}
+	if v[0] == '0' && i != 1 {
+		return
+	}
+	return v[:i], v[i:], true
+}
+
+func parsePrerelease(v string) (t, rest string, ok bool) {
+	// "A pre-release version MAY be denoted by appending a hyphen and
+	// a series of dot separated identifiers immediately following the patch version.
+	// Identifiers MUST comprise only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphen [0-9A-Za-z-].
+	// Identifiers MUST NOT be empty. Numeric identifiers MUST NOT include leading zeroes."
+	if v == "" || v[0] != '-' {
+		return
+	}
+	i := 1
+	start := 1
+	for i < len(v) && v[i] != '+' {
+		if !isIdentChar(v[i]) && v[i] != '.' {
+			return
+		}
+		if v[i] == '.' {
+			if start == i || isBadNum(v[start:i]) {
+				return
+			}
+			start = i + 1
+		}
+		i++
+	}
+	if start == i || isBadNum(v[start:i]) {
+		return
+	}
+	return v[:i], v[i:], true
+}
+
+func parseBuild(v string) (t, rest string, ok bool) {
+	if v == "" || v[0] != '+' {
+		return
+	}
+	i := 1
+	start := 1
+	for i < len(v) {
+		if !isIdentChar(v[i]) {
+			return
+		}
+		if v[i] == '.' {
+			if start == i {
+				return
+			}
+			start = i + 1
+		}
+		i++
+	}
+	if start == i {
+		return
+	}
+	return v[:i], v[i:], true
+}
+
+func isIdentChar(c byte) bool {
+	return 'A' <= c && c <= 'Z' || 'a' <= c && c <= 'z' || '0' <= c && c <= '9' || c == '-'
+}
+
+func isBadNum(v string) bool {
+	i := 0
+	for i < len(v) && '0' <= v[i] && v[i] <= '9' {
+		i++
+	}
+	return i == len(v) && i > 1 && v[0] == '0'
+}
+
+func isNum(v string) bool {
+	i := 0
+	for i < len(v) && '0' <= v[i] && v[i] <= '9' {
+		i++
+	}
+	return i == len(v)
+}
+
+func compareInt(x, y string) int {
+	if x == y {
+		return 0
+	}
+	if len(x) < len(y) {
+		return -1
+	}
+	if len(x) > len(y) {
+		return +1
+	}
+	if x < y {
+		return -1
+	} else {
+		return +1
+	}
+}
+
+func comparePrerelease(x, y string) int {
+	// "When major, minor, and patch are equal, a pre-release version has
+	// lower precedence than a normal version.
+	// Example: 1.0.0-alpha < 1.0.0.
+	// Precedence for two pre-release versions with the same major, minor,
+	// and patch version MUST be determined by comparing each dot separated
+	// identifier from left to right until a difference is found as follows:
+	// identifiers consisting of only digits are compared numerically and
+	// identifiers with letters or hyphens are compared lexically in ASCII
+	// sort order. Numeric identifiers always have lower precedence than
+	// non-numeric identifiers. A larger set of pre-release fields has a
+	// higher precedence than a smaller set, if all of the preceding
+	// identifiers are equal.
+	// Example: 1.0.0-alpha < 1.0.0-alpha.1 < 1.0.0-alpha.beta <
+	// 1.0.0-beta < 1.0.0-beta.2 < 1.0.0-beta.11 < 1.0.0-rc.1 < 1.0.0."
+	if x == y {
+		return 0
+	}
+	if x == "" {
+		return +1
+	}
+	if y == "" {
+		return -1
+	}
+	for x != "" && y != "" {
+		x = x[1:] // skip - or .
+		y = y[1:] // skip - or .
+		var dx, dy string
+		dx, x = nextIdent(x)
+		dy, y = nextIdent(y)
+		if dx != dy {
+			ix := isNum(dx)
+			iy := isNum(dy)
+			if ix != iy {
+				if ix {
+					return -1
+				} else {
+					return +1
+				}
+			}
+			if ix {
+				if len(dx) < len(dy) {
+					return -1
+				}
+				if len(dx) > len(dy) {
+					return +1
+				}
+			}
+			if dx < dy {
+				return -1
+			} else {
+				return +1
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	if x == "" {
+		return -1
+	} else {
+		return +1
+	}
+}
+
+func nextIdent(x string) (dx, rest string) {
+	i := 0
+	for i < len(x) && x[i] != '.' {
+		i++
+	}
+	return x[:i], x[i:]
+}
diff --git a/templates/user/admin/app-updates.tmpl b/templates/user/admin/app-updates.tmpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..540fb7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/user/admin/app-updates.tmpl
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+{{define "app-updates"}}
+{{template "header" .}}
+
+<style type="text/css">
+</style>
+
+<div class="content-container snug">
+	{{template "admin-header" .}}
+
+	{{if not .UpdateAvailable}}
+  <p class="alert info">WriteFreely is up to date.</p>
+  {{else}}
+  <p class="alert info">WriteFreely {{.LatestVersion}} is available.</p>
+  <section class="changelog">
+    For details on features, bug fixes or notes on upgrading, <a href="{{.LatestReleaseURL}}">read the release notes</a>.
+  </section>
+  {{end}}
+  <p>Last checked at: {{.LastChecked}}. <a href="/admin/updates?check=now">Check now</a>.</p>
+
+{{template "footer" .}}
+
+{{template "body-end" .}}
+{{end}}
diff --git a/templates/user/include/header.tmpl b/templates/user/include/header.tmpl
index d818336..4b53b32 100644
--- a/templates/user/include/header.tmpl
+++ b/templates/user/include/header.tmpl
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@
 		{{if not .SingleUser}}
 		<a href="/admin/users" {{if eq .Path "/admin/users"}}class="selected"{{end}}>Users</a>
 		<a href="/admin/pages" {{if eq .Path "/admin/pages"}}class="selected"{{end}}>Pages</a>
+		{{if .UpdateChecks}}<a href="/admin/updates" {{if eq .Path "/admin/updates"}}class="selected"{{end}}>Updates</a>{{end}}
 		{{end}}
 		{{if not .Forest}}
 		<a href="/admin/monitor" {{if eq .Path "/admin/monitor"}}class="selected"{{end}}>Monitor</a>
diff --git a/updates.go b/updates.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c33247b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/updates.go
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright © 2018-2019 A Bunch Tell LLC.
+ *
+ * This file is part of WriteFreely.
+ *
+ * WriteFreely is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, included
+ * in the LICENSE file in this source code package.
+ */
+
+package writefreely
+
+import (
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"net/http"
+	"strings"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// updatesCacheTime is the default interval between cache updates for new
+// software versions
+const defaultUpdatesCacheTime = 12 * time.Hour
+
+// updatesCache holds data about current and new releases of the writefreely
+// software
+type updatesCache struct {
+	mu             sync.Mutex
+	frequency      time.Duration
+	lastCheck      time.Time
+	latestVersion  string
+	currentVersion string
+}
+
+// CheckNow asks for the latest released version of writefreely and updates
+// the cache last checked time. If the version postdates the current 'latest'
+// the version value is replaced.
+func (uc *updatesCache) CheckNow() error {
+	uc.mu.Lock()
+	defer uc.mu.Unlock()
+	latestRemote, err := newVersionCheck()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	uc.lastCheck = time.Now()
+	if CompareSemver(latestRemote, uc.latestVersion) == 1 {
+		uc.latestVersion = latestRemote
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// AreAvailable updates the cache if the frequency duration has passed
+// then returns if the latest release is newer than the current running version.
+func (uc updatesCache) AreAvailable() bool {
+	if time.Since(uc.lastCheck) > uc.frequency {
+		uc.CheckNow()
+	}
+	return CompareSemver(uc.latestVersion, uc.currentVersion) == 1
+}
+
+// LatestVersion returns the latest stored version available.
+func (uc updatesCache) LatestVersion() string {
+	return uc.latestVersion
+}
+
+// ReleaseURL returns the full URL to the blog.writefreely.org release notes
+// for the latest version as stored in the cache.
+func (uc updatesCache) ReleaseURL() string {
+	ver := strings.TrimPrefix(uc.latestVersion, "v")
+	ver = strings.TrimSuffix(ver, ".0")
+	// hack until go 1.12 in build/travis
+	seg := strings.Split(ver, ".")
+	return "https://blog.writefreely.org/version-" + strings.Join(seg, "-")
+}
+
+// newUpdatesCache returns an initialized updates cache
+func newUpdatesCache(expiry time.Duration) *updatesCache {
+	cache := updatesCache{
+		frequency:      expiry,
+		currentVersion: "v" + softwareVer,
+	}
+	cache.CheckNow()
+	return &cache
+}
+
+// InitUpdates initializes the updates cache, if the config value is set
+// It uses the defaultUpdatesCacheTime for the cache expiry
+func (app *App) InitUpdates() {
+	if app.cfg.App.UpdateChecks {
+		app.updates = newUpdatesCache(defaultUpdatesCacheTime)
+	}
+}
+
+func newVersionCheck() (string, error) {
+	res, err := http.Get("https://version.writefreely.org")
+	if err == nil && res.StatusCode == http.StatusOK {
+		defer res.Body.Close()
+
+		body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+		return string(body), nil
+	}
+	return "", err
+}
diff --git a/updates_test.go b/updates_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2cb9f92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/updates_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+package writefreely
+
+import (
+	"regexp"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func TestUpdatesRoundTrip(t *testing.T) {
+	cache := newUpdatesCache(defaultUpdatesCacheTime)
+	t.Run("New Updates Cache", func(t *testing.T) {
+
+		if cache == nil {
+			t.Fatal("Returned nil cache")
+		}
+
+		if cache.frequency != defaultUpdatesCacheTime {
+			t.Fatalf("Got cache expiry frequency: %s but expected: %s", cache.frequency, defaultUpdatesCacheTime)
+		}
+
+		if cache.currentVersion != "v"+softwareVer {
+			t.Fatalf("Got current version: %s but expected: %s", cache.currentVersion, "v"+softwareVer)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("Release URL", func(t *testing.T) {
+		url := cache.ReleaseURL()
+
+		reg, err := regexp.Compile(`^https:\/\/blog.writefreely.org\/version(-\d+){1,}$`)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("Test Case Error: Failed to compile regex: %v", err)
+		}
+		match := reg.MatchString(url)
+
+		if !match {
+			t.Fatalf("Malformed Release URL: %s", url)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("Check Now", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// ensure time between init and next check
+		time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
+
+		prevLastCheck := cache.lastCheck
+
+		// force to known older version for latest and current
+		prevLatestVer := "v0.8.1"
+		cache.latestVersion = prevLatestVer
+		cache.currentVersion = "v0.8.0"
+
+		err := cache.CheckNow()
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("Error should be nil, got: %v", err)
+		}
+
+		if prevLastCheck == cache.lastCheck {
+			t.Fatal("Expected lastCheck to update")
+		}
+
+		if cache.lastCheck.Before(prevLastCheck) {
+			t.Fatal("Last check should be newer than previous")
+		}
+
+		if prevLatestVer == cache.latestVersion {
+			t.Fatal("expected latestVersion to update")
+		}
+
+	})
+
+	t.Run("Are Available", func(t *testing.T) {
+		if !cache.AreAvailable() {
+			t.Fatalf("Cache reports not updates but Current is %s and Latest is %s", cache.currentVersion, cache.latestVersion)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("Latest Version", func(t *testing.T) {
+		gotLatest := cache.LatestVersion()
+		if gotLatest != cache.latestVersion {
+			t.Fatalf("Malformed latest version. Expected: %s but got: %s", cache.latestVersion, gotLatest)
+		}
+	})
+}