diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index bd211cf9..a91e5570 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -27,3 +27,6 @@ style = pep440
 versionfile_source = qcelemental/_version.py
 versionfile_build = qcelemental/_version.py
 tag_prefix = ''
+
+[aliases]
+test=pytest
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 87f2c9b6..6d611b59 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 import os
+import sys
 import setuptools
 import versioneer
 
 short_description = "QCElemental is a resource module for quantum chemistry containing physical"
 "constants and periodic table data from NIST and molecule handlers."
 
+# from https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-runner#conditional-requirement
+needs_pytest = {'pytest', 'test', 'ptr'}.intersection(sys.argv)
+pytest_runner = ['pytest-runner'] if needs_pytest else []
+
 try:
     with open("README.md", "r") as handle:
         long_description = handle.read()
@@ -24,6 +29,7 @@
         packages=setuptools.find_packages(exclude=['*checkup*']),
         include_package_data=True,
         package_data={'': [os.path.join('qcelemental', 'data', '*.json')]},
+        setup_requires=[] + pytest_runner,
         install_requires=[
             'numpy',
             'pint',