diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@
 build/
 dist/
 .hypothesis
-.pytest_cache
+.cache
+.pytest_cache
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 include Makefile
+include pytest.ini
 include requirements.txt
 include requirements-swh.txt
+include requirements-test.txt
 include version.txt
 recursive-include swh/web/static *
 recursive-include swh/web/templates *
diff --git a/Makefile.local b/Makefile.local
--- a/Makefile.local
+++ b/Makefile.local
@@ -16,11 +16,6 @@
 run-migrations:
 	python3 swh/web/manage.py migrate 2>/dev/null
 
-.PHONY: run-tests-migrations
-run-tests-migrations:
-	rm -f swh/web/settings/testdb.sqlite3 2>/dev/null
-	django-admin migrate --settings=swh.web.settings.tests 2>/dev/null
-
 run-django-webpack-devserver: run-migrations
 	bash -c "trap 'trap - SIGINT SIGTERM ERR; kill %1' SIGINT SIGTERM ERR; npm run start-dev & cd swh/web && python3 manage.py runserver --nostatic"
 
@@ -39,5 +34,5 @@
 run-gunicorn-server: run-migrations
 	gunicorn3 -b 127.0.0.1:5004 swh.web.wsgi
 
-test: build-webpack-dev-no-verbose run-tests-migrations
+test: build-webpack-dev-no-verbose
 
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@
                python3-htmlmin,
                python3-magic (>= 0.3.0~),
                python3-lxml,
-               python3-nose,
+               python3-pytest,
+               python3-pytest-django,
                python3-pygments,
                python3-pypandoc,
                python3-requests,
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 
 export PYBUILD_NAME=swh.web
-export PYBUILD_TEST_ARGS=--with-doctest -sv ./swh/web/tests
-export PYBUILD_BEFORE_TEST=cd {build_dir}; python3 swh/web/manage.py migrate
-export PYBUILD_AFTER_TEST=cd {build_dir}; rm -f swh/web/settings/testdb.sqlite3
-export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=swh.web.settings.tests
+export PYBUILD_OPTION=--test-pytest
+export PYBUILD_TEST_ARGS=./swh/web/tests
 
 %:
 	dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem=pybuild
diff --git a/pytest.ini b/pytest.ini
--- a/pytest.ini
+++ b/pytest.ini
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 [pytest]
 norecursedirs = docs node_modules
+DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = swh.web.settings.tests
+
diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
-nose
+pytest
+pytest-django
+
diff --git a/swh/web/settings/tests.py b/swh/web/settings/tests.py
--- a/swh/web/settings/tests.py
+++ b/swh/web/settings/tests.py
@@ -75,11 +75,5 @@
 
 ALLOWED_HOSTS += ['testserver']
 
-# As nose is used as a test runner, we cannot benefit from the in-memory
-# django test database used when running tests through '$ python3 manage.py test'.
-# So instead use a different database file that will be created on the fly
-# when running the tests.
-DATABASES['default']['NAME'] = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'testdb.sqlite3')
-
 # Silent DEBUG output when running unit tests
 LOGGING['handlers']['console']['level'] = 'INFO'
diff --git a/swh/web/tests/__init__.py b/swh/web/tests/__init__.py
--- a/swh/web/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/swh/web/tests/__init__.py
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2017-2018  The Software Heritage developers
-# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
-# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
-# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
-
-# this configuration is needed to successfully run the tests locally
-# when calling 'make test'
-
-import django
-import os
-
-os.environ["DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"] = "swh.web.settings.tests"
-django.setup()