diff --git a/docs/installation/config.rst b/docs/installation/config.rst
index 01dac6fb..c88b83ad 100644
--- a/docs/installation/config.rst
+++ b/docs/installation/config.rst
@@ -43,6 +43,18 @@ Database settings
 
 * ``DB_PORT``: Port number of the database. Defaults to ``5432``.
 
+Elastic APM settings
+--------------------
+
+An integration with `Elastic APM <https://www.elastic.co/observability/application-performance-monitoring>`_
+can be configured by setting the following environment variables
+
+* ``ELASTIC_APM_SERVICE_NAME``: the name of the service in APM, i.e. "Objects API - staging"
+
+* ``ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL``: the URL of the APM instance to connect with
+
+* ``ELASTIC_APM_SECRET_TOKEN``: the token that is required to communicate with the APM instance
+
 Other settings
 --------------
 
diff --git a/src/objects/conf/base.py b/src/objects/conf/base.py
index 61940296..2498e7a8 100644
--- a/src/objects/conf/base.py
+++ b/src/objects/conf/base.py
@@ -388,13 +388,23 @@
         **SENTRY_CONFIG, integrations=SENTRY_SDK_INTEGRATIONS, send_default_pii=True
     )
 
+#
 # Elastic APM
-
+#
+ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL = os.getenv("ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL", None)
 ELASTIC_APM = {
-    "SERVICE_NAME": "objects",
+    "SERVICE_NAME": os.getenv("ELASTIC_APM_SERVICE_NAME", "Objects API"),
     "SECRET_TOKEN": os.getenv("ELASTIC_APM_SECRET_TOKEN", "default"),
-    "SERVER_URL": os.getenv("ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL", "http://example.com"),
+    "SERVER_URL": ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL,
 }
+if not ELASTIC_APM_SERVER_URL:
+    ELASTIC_APM["ENABLED"] = False
+    ELASTIC_APM["SERVER_URL"] = None
+else:
+    MIDDLEWARE = ["elasticapm.contrib.django.middleware.TracingMiddleware"] + MIDDLEWARE
+    INSTALLED_APPS = INSTALLED_APPS + [
+        "elasticapm.contrib.django",
+    ]
 
 SITE_ID = os.getenv("SITE_ID", 1)