diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
index c051155b5..7d64384d9 100644
--- a/.coveragerc
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ omit =
     test/integration/example_test.py
     test/integration/noise_realisation_test.py
     test/integration/other_test.py
+    bilby/_version.py
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 887178188..48e4c01a1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -15,3 +15,4 @@ MANIFEST
 *.ipynb_checkpoints
 outdir/*
 .idea/*
+bilby/_version.py
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index d6ac4a644..331a31917 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@ include gw_requirements.txt
 include mcmc_requirements.txt
 include optional_requirements.txt
 include sampler_requirements.txt
+include bilby/_version.py
 recursive-include test *.py *.prior
diff --git a/bilby/__init__.py b/bilby/__init__.py
index 04a29e1bc..092f05a1a 100644
--- a/bilby/__init__.py
+++ b/bilby/__init__.py
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@
 from .core.sampler import run_sampler
 from .core.likelihood import Likelihood
 
-__version__ = utils.get_version_information()
+try:
+    from ._version import version as __version__
+except ModuleNotFoundError:  # development mode
+    __version__ = 'unknown'
 
 
 if sys.version_info < (3,):
diff --git a/bilby/core/utils/log.py b/bilby/core/utils/log.py
index d9db7581c..dd9bcfd95 100644
--- a/bilby/core/utils/log.py
+++ b/bilby/core/utils/log.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import logging
-import os
 from pathlib import Path
 import sys
 
@@ -60,13 +59,8 @@ def setup_logger(outdir='.', label=None, log_level='INFO', print_version=False):
 
 
 def get_version_information():
-    version_file = os.path.join(
-        os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))), '.version')
-    try:
-        with open(version_file, 'r') as f:
-            return f.readline().rstrip()
-    except EnvironmentError:
-        print("No version information file '.version' found")
+    from bilby import __version__
+    return __version__
 
 
 def loaded_modules_dict():
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41b21bf94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = [
+    "setuptools>=42",
+    "setuptools_scm[toml]>=3.4.3",
+    "wheel",
+]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+write_to = "bilby/_version.py"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 57da57e2c..2d55f5d54 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from setuptools import setup
-import subprocess
 import sys
 import os
 
@@ -10,44 +9,6 @@
     sys.exit("Python < 3.8 is not supported, aborting setup")
 
 
-def write_version_file(version):
-    """Writes a file with version information to be used at run time
-
-    Parameters
-    ----------
-    version: str
-        A string containing the current version information
-
-    Returns
-    -------
-    version_file: str
-        A path to the version file
-
-    """
-    try:
-        git_log = subprocess.check_output(
-            ["git", "log", "-1", "--pretty=%h %ai"]
-        ).decode("utf-8")
-        git_diff = (
-            subprocess.check_output(["git", "diff", "."])
-            + subprocess.check_output(["git", "diff", "--cached", "."])
-        ).decode("utf-8")
-        if git_diff == "":
-            git_status = "(CLEAN) " + git_log
-        else:
-            git_status = "(UNCLEAN) " + git_log
-    except Exception as e:
-        print("Unable to obtain git version information, exception: {}".format(e))
-        git_status = "release"
-
-    version_file = ".version"
-    if os.path.isfile(version_file) is False:
-        with open("bilby/" + version_file, "w+") as f:
-            f.write("{}: {}".format(version, git_status))
-
-    return version_file
-
-
 def get_long_description():
     """Finds the README and reads in the description"""
     here = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
@@ -73,8 +34,6 @@ def readfile(filename):
     return filecontents
 
 
-VERSION = '1.2.0'
-version_file = write_version_file(VERSION)
 long_description = get_long_description()
 
 setup(
@@ -86,7 +45,6 @@ def readfile(filename):
     author="Greg Ashton, Moritz Huebner, Paul Lasky, Colm Talbot",
     author_email="paul.lasky@monash.edu",
     license="MIT",
-    version=VERSION,
     packages=[
         "bilby",
         "bilby.bilby_mcmc",
@@ -107,7 +65,6 @@ def readfile(filename):
         "bilby.gw": ["prior_files/*"],
         "bilby.gw.detector": ["noise_curves/*.txt", "detectors/*"],
         "bilby.gw.eos": ["eos_tables/*.dat"],
-        "bilby": [version_file],
     },
     python_requires=">=3.8",
     install_requires=get_requirements(),