diff --git a/helpers/PrerequisiteChecker.php b/helpers/PrerequisiteChecker.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5730081a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/PrerequisiteChecker.php
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+<?php
+
+class ERequirementNotMet extends Exception {
+}
+
+
+const REQUIRED_PHP_EXTENSIONS = array("fileinfo", "pdo_sqlite", "gd");
+
+class PrerequisiteChecker {
+    
+    public function checkRequirements() {
+        self::checkForConfigFile();
+        self::checkForConfigDistFile();
+        self::checkForComposer();
+        self::checkForYarn();
+        self::checkForPhpExtensions();
+    }
+    
+    
+    private function checkForConfigFile() {
+        if (!file_exists(__DIR__ . "/../data/config.php"))
+            throw new ERequirementNotMet("/data/config.php not found. Have you copied config-dist.php to the data directory and renamed it to config.php?");
+    }
+
+    private function checkForConfigDistFile() {
+        if (!file_exists(__DIR__ . "/../config-dist.php"))
+            throw new ERequirementNotMet("config-dist.php not found. Please do not remove this file.");
+    }
+
+    private function checkForComposer() {
+        if (!file_exists(__DIR__ . "/../vendor/autoload.php"))
+            throw new ERequirementNotMet("/vendor/autoload.php not found. Have you run Composer?");
+    }
+
+    private function checkForYarn() {
+        if (!file_exists(__DIR__ . "/../public/node_modules"))
+            throw new ERequirementNotMet("/public/node_modules not found. Have you run Yarn?");
+    }
+
+    private function checkForPhpExtensions() {
+        $loadedExtensions = get_loaded_extensions();
+        foreach (REQUIRED_PHP_EXTENSIONS as $extension) {
+            if (!in_array($extension, $loadedExtensions))
+                throw new ERequirementNotMet("PHP module '{$extension}' not installed, but required.");
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+
+?>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/public/index.php b/public/index.php
index 64e013e1..f65a1f7a 100644
--- a/public/index.php
+++ b/public/index.php
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 <?php
 
+require_once __DIR__ . '/../helpers/PrerequisiteChecker.php';
+
+try {
+	(new PrerequisiteChecker)->checkRequirements();
+} catch (ERequirementNotMet $e) {
+    die("Unable to run grocy: " . $e->getMessage());
+}
+
 require_once __DIR__ . '/../app.php';
+
+?>
\ No newline at end of file