diff --git a/base_requirements.txt b/base_requirements.txt
index ed42b6c08..e1c29a2a2 100644
--- a/base_requirements.txt
+++ b/base_requirements.txt
@@ -98,3 +98,7 @@ redis
 # SVG image rendering (used for rack elevations)
 # https://github.com/mozman/svgwrite
 svgwrite
+
+# Python package management tool
+# https://pythonwheels.com/
+wheel
diff --git a/contrib/netbox-rq.service b/contrib/netbox-rq.service
index 7a300a195..58662dccf 100644
--- a/contrib/netbox-rq.service
+++ b/contrib/netbox-rq.service
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Group=www-data
 
 WorkingDirectory=/opt/netbox
 
-ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /opt/netbox/netbox/manage.py rqworker
+ExecStart=/opt/netbox/venv/bin/python3 /opt/netbox/netbox/manage.py rqworker
 
 Restart=on-failure
 RestartSec=30
diff --git a/contrib/netbox.service b/contrib/netbox.service
index 3cc9069c6..076879254 100644
--- a/contrib/netbox.service
+++ b/contrib/netbox.service
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Group=www-data
 PIDFile=/var/tmp/netbox.pid
 WorkingDirectory=/opt/netbox
 
-ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gunicorn --pid /var/tmp/netbox.pid --pythonpath /opt/netbox/netbox --config /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py netbox.wsgi
+ExecStart=/opt/netbox/venv/bin/gunicorn --pid /var/tmp/netbox.pid --pythonpath /opt/netbox/netbox --config /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py netbox.wsgi
 
 Restart=on-failure
 RestartSec=30
diff --git a/docs/installation/3-netbox.md b/docs/installation/3-netbox.md
index 5c29b3996..b58391769 100644
--- a/docs/installation/3-netbox.md
+++ b/docs/installation/3-netbox.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ This section of the documentation discusses installing and configuring the NetBo
 #### Ubuntu
 
 ```no-highlight
-# apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-dev build-essential libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libffi-dev libpq-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev
+# apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv python3-dev build-essential libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libffi-dev libpq-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev
 ```
 
 #### CentOS
@@ -73,31 +73,35 @@ Checking connectivity... done.
 
     `# chown -R netbox:netbox /opt/netbox/netbox/media/`
 
-## Install Python Packages
+## Set Up Python Environment
 
-Install the required Python packages using pip. (If you encounter any compilation errors during this step, ensure that you've installed all of the system dependencies listed above.)
+We'll use a Python [virtual environment](https://docs.python.org/3.6/tutorial/venv.html) to ensure NetBox's required packages don't conflict with anything in the base system. This will create a directory named `venv` in our NetBox root.
 
 ```no-highlight
-# pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+# python3 -m venv /opt/netbox/venv
 ```
 
-!!! note
-    If you encounter errors while installing the required packages, check that you're running a recent version of pip (v9.0.1 or higher) with the command `pip3 -V`.
-
-### NAPALM Automation (Optional)
-
-NetBox supports integration with the [NAPALM automation](https://napalm-automation.net/) library. NAPALM allows NetBox to fetch live data from devices and return it to a requester via its REST API. Installation of NAPALM is optional. To enable it, install the `napalm` package using pip or pip3:
+Next, activate the virtual environment and install the required Python packages. You should see your console prompt change to indicate the active environment. (Activating the virtual environment updates your command shell to use the local copy of Python that we just installed for NetBox instead of the system's Python interpreter.)
 
 ```no-highlight
-# pip3 install napalm
+# source venv/bin/activate
+(venv) # pip3 install -r requirements.txt
 ```
 
-### Remote File Storage (Optional)
+#### NAPALM Automation (Optional)
+
+NetBox supports integration with the [NAPALM automation](https://napalm-automation.net/) library. NAPALM allows NetBox to fetch live data from devices and return it to a requester via its REST API. Installation of NAPALM is optional. To enable it, install the `napalm` package:
+
+```no-highlight
+(venv) # pip3 install napalm
+```
+
+#### Remote File Storage (Optional)
 
 By default, NetBox will use the local filesystem to storage uploaded files. To use a remote filesystem, install the [`django-storages`](https://django-storages.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) library and configure your [desired backend](../../configuration/optional-settings/#storage_backend) in `configuration.py`.
 
 ```no-highlight
-# pip3 install django-storages
+(venv) # pip3 install django-storages
 ```
 
 ## Configuration
@@ -105,8 +109,8 @@ By default, NetBox will use the local filesystem to storage uploaded files. To u
 Move into the NetBox configuration directory and make a copy of `configuration.example.py` named `configuration.py`.
 
 ```no-highlight
-# cd netbox/netbox/
-# cp configuration.example.py configuration.py
+(venv) # cd netbox/netbox/
+(venv) # cp configuration.example.py configuration.py
 ```
 
 Open `configuration.py` with your preferred editor and set the following variables:
@@ -182,8 +186,8 @@ You may use the script located at `netbox/generate_secret_key.py` to generate a
 Before NetBox can run, we need to install the database schema. This is done by running `python3 manage.py migrate` from the `netbox` directory (`/opt/netbox/netbox/` in our example):
 
 ```no-highlight
-# cd /opt/netbox/netbox/
-# python3 manage.py migrate
+(venv) # cd /opt/netbox/netbox/
+(venv) # python3 manage.py migrate
 Operations to perform:
   Apply all migrations: dcim, sessions, admin, ipam, utilities, auth, circuits, contenttypes, extras, secrets, users
 Running migrations:
@@ -201,7 +205,7 @@ If this step results in a PostgreSQL authentication error, ensure that the usern
 NetBox does not come with any predefined user accounts. You'll need to create a super user to be able to log into NetBox:
 
 ```no-highlight
-# python3 manage.py createsuperuser
+(venv) # python3 manage.py createsuperuser
 Username: admin
 Email address: admin@example.com
 Password:
@@ -212,7 +216,7 @@ Superuser created successfully.
 ## Collect Static Files
 
 ```no-highlight
-# python3 manage.py collectstatic --no-input
+(venv) # python3 manage.py collectstatic --no-input
 
 959 static files copied to '/opt/netbox/netbox/static'.
 ```
@@ -222,7 +226,7 @@ Superuser created successfully.
 At this point, NetBox should be able to run. We can verify this by starting a development instance:
 
 ```no-highlight
-# python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000 --insecure
+(venv) # python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000 --insecure
 Performing system checks...
 
 System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
diff --git a/docs/installation/4-http-daemon.md b/docs/installation/4-http-daemon.md
index c50d71e4c..43206b26e 100644
--- a/docs/installation/4-http-daemon.md
+++ b/docs/installation/4-http-daemon.md
@@ -104,10 +104,10 @@ To enable SSL, consider this guide on [securing Apache with Let's Encrypt](https
 
 ## gunicorn Installation
 
-Install gunicorn:
+Check that the Python virtual environment created in [the previous step](3-netbox.md#set-up-python-environment) is still active, and install the `gunicorn` Python package. (If the virtual environment is not active, activate it with the command `source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate`.)
 
 ```no-highlight
-# pip3 install gunicorn
+(venv) # pip3 install gunicorn
 ```
 
 Copy `/opt/netbox/contrib/gunicorn.py` to `/opt/netbox/gunicorn.py`. We make a copy of this file to ensure that any changes to it do not get overwritten by a future upgrade.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b0b1b971d..3b04494ed 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -23,3 +23,4 @@ pycryptodome==3.9.4
 PyYAML==5.3
 redis==3.3.11
 svgwrite==1.3.1
+wheel==0.34.2