diff --git a/public/app/core/components/grafana_app.ts b/public/app/core/components/grafana_app.ts
index 17aecb68d32f..286c3f743c78 100644
--- a/public/app/core/components/grafana_app.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/components/grafana_app.ts
@@ -105,6 +105,8 @@ export function grafanaAppDirective(playlistSrv, contextSrv, $timeout, $rootScop
       // see https://github.com/zenorocha/clipboard.js/issues/155
       $.fn.modal.Constructor.prototype.enforceFocus = function() {};
 
+      $('.preloader').remove();
+
       sidemenuOpen = scope.contextSrv.sidemenu;
       body.toggleClass('sidemenu-open', sidemenuOpen);
 
diff --git a/public/views/index.template.html b/public/views/index.template.html
index f4c5d183fc80..0a6af5992802 100644
--- a/public/views/index.template.html
+++ b/public/views/index.template.html
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@
 
   <base href="[[.AppSubUrl]]/" />
 
-  <link rel="stylesheet" href="public/build/grafana.[[ .Theme ]].css?v[[ .BuildVersion ]]+[[ .BuildCommit ]]">
-
   <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="public/img/fav32.png">
   <link rel="mask-icon" href="public/img/grafana_mask_icon.svg" color="#F05A28">
   <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="public/img/apple-touch-icon.png">
@@ -22,9 +20,148 @@
   <meta name="msapplication-config" content="public/img/browserconfig.xml">
 </head>
 
-<body ng-cloak class="theme-[[ .Theme ]]">
-  <grafana-app class="grafana-app">
+<body class="theme-[[ .Theme ]]">
+
+  <style>
+    body {
+      margin: 0;
+      height: 100%;
+      width: 100%;
+      position: absolute;
+    }
+
+    .preloader {
+      height: 100%;
+      flex-direction: column;
+      display: flex;
+      justify-content: center;
+      align-items: center;
+    }
+
+    .theme-light .preloader {
+      background: linear-gradient(-60deg, #f7f8fa, #f5f6f9 70%, #f7f8fa 98%);
+    }
+
+    .theme-dark .preloader {
+      background: linear-gradient(180deg, #222426 10px, #161719 100px);
+    }
+
+    .preloader__enter {
+      opacity: 0;
+      animation-name: preloader-fade-in;
+      animation-iteration-count: 1;
+      animation-duration: .9s;
+      animation-delay: 1.35s;
+      animation-fill-mode: forwards;
+    }
+
+    .preloader__bounce {
+      text-align: center;
+      animation-name: preloader-bounce;
+      animation-duration: .9s;
+      animation-iteration-count: infinite;
+    }
+
+    .preloader__logo {
+      display: inline-block;
+      animation-name: preloader-squash;
+      animation-duration: .9s;
+      animation-iteration-count: infinite;
+      width: 60px;
+      height: 60px;
+      background-repeat: no-repeat;
+      background-size: contain;
+      background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg version='1.1' id='Layer_1' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' xmlns:xlink='http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink' x='0px' y='0px' width='351px' height='365px' viewBox='0 0 351 365' style='enable-background:new 0 0 351 365%3b' xml:space='preserve'%3e %3cstyle type='text/css'%3e .st0%7bfill:url(%23SVGID_1_)%3b%7d %3c/style%3e %3cg id='Layer_1_1_'%3e %3c/g%3e %3clinearGradient id='SVGID_1_' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse' x1='175.5' y1='445.4948' x2='175.5' y2='114.0346'%3e %3cstop offset='0' style='stop-color:%23FFF100'/%3e %3cstop offset='1' style='stop-color:%23F05A28'/%3e %3c/linearGradient%3e %3cpath class='st0' d='M342%2c161.2c-0.6-6.1-1.6-13.1-3.6-20.9c-2-7.7-5-16.2-9.4-25c-4.4-8.8-10.1-17.9-17.5-26.8 c-2.9-3.5-6.1-6.9-9.5-10.2c5.1-20.3-6.2-37.9-6.2-37.9c-19.5-1.2-31.9%2c6.1-36.5%2c9.4c-0.8-0.3-1.5-0.7-2.3-1 c-3.3-1.3-6.7-2.6-10.3-3.7c-3.5-1.1-7.1-2.1-10.8-3c-3.7-0.9-7.4-1.6-11.2-2.2c-0.7-0.1-1.3-0.2-2-0.3 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c0.8-0.2%2c1.5-0.3%2c2.3-0.5c0.8-0.1%2c1.5-0.3%2c2.3-0.4l1.1-0.2l1.2-0.2c0.8-0.1%2c1.5-0.2%2c2.3-0.3c0.9-0.1%2c1.7-0.2%2c2.6-0.3 c0.7-0.1%2c1.9-0.2%2c2.6-0.3c0.5-0.1%2c1.1-0.1%2c1.6-0.2l1.1-0.1l0.5-0.1l0.6%2c0c0.9-0.1%2c1.7-0.1%2c2.6-0.2l1.3-0.1c0%2c0%2c0.5%2c0%2c0.1%2c0l0.3%2c0 l0.6%2c0c0.7%2c0%2c1.5-0.1%2c2.2-0.1c2.9-0.1%2c5.9-0.1%2c8.8%2c0c5.8%2c0.2%2c11.5%2c0.9%2c17%2c1.9c11.1%2c2.1%2c21.5%2c5.6%2c31%2c10.3 c9.5%2c4.6%2c17.9%2c10.3%2c25.3%2c16.5c0.5%2c0.4%2c0.9%2c0.8%2c1.4%2c1.2c0.4%2c0.4%2c0.9%2c0.8%2c1.3%2c1.2c0.9%2c0.8%2c1.7%2c1.6%2c2.6%2c2.4c0.9%2c0.8%2c1.7%2c1.6%2c2.5%2c2.4 c0.8%2c0.8%2c1.6%2c1.6%2c2.4%2c2.5c3.1%2c3.3%2c6%2c6.6%2c8.6%2c10c5.2%2c6.7%2c9.4%2c13.5%2c12.7%2c19.9c0.2%2c0.4%2c0.4%2c0.8%2c0.6%2c1.2c0.2%2c0.4%2c0.4%2c0.8%2c0.6%2c1.2 c0.4%2c0.8%2c0.8%2c1.6%2c1.1%2c2.4c0.4%2c0.8%2c0.7%2c1.5%2c1.1%2c2.3c0.3%2c0.8%2c0.7%2c1.5%2c1%2c2.3c1.2%2c3%2c2.4%2c5.9%2c3.3%2c8.6c1.5%2c4.4%2c2.6%2c8.3%2c3.5%2c11.7 c0.3%2c1.4%2c1.6%2c2.3%2c3%2c2.1c1.5-0.1%2c2.6-1.3%2c2.6-2.8C342.6%2c170.4%2c342.5%2c166.1%2c342%2c161.2z'/%3e %3c/svg%3e");
+    }
+
+    .preloader__text {
+      margin-top: 16px;
+      font-weight: 500;
+      font-size: 14px;
+      font-family: Sans-serif;
+      opacity: 0;
+      animation-name: preloader-fade-in;
+      animation-duration: .9s;
+      animation-delay: 1.8s;
+      animation-fill-mode: forwards;
+    }
+
+    .theme-light .preloader__text {
+      color: #52545c;
+    }
 
+    .theme-dark .preloader__text {
+      color: #d8d9da;
+    }
+
+    @keyframes preloader-fade-in {
+      0% {
+        opacity: 0;
+        /*animation-timing-function: linear;*/
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.5, 1)
+      }
+      100% {
+        opacity: 1;
+      }
+    }
+
+    @keyframes preloader-bounce {
+      from,
+      to {
+        transform: translateY(0px);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.3, 0.0, 0.1, 1)
+      }
+      50% {
+        transform: translateY(-50px);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(.9, 0, .7, 1)
+      }
+    }
+
+    @keyframes preloader-squash {
+      0% {
+        transform: scaleX(1.3) scaleY(.8);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(.3, 0, .1, 1);
+        transform-origin: bottom center;
+      }
+      15% {
+        transform: scaleX(.75) scaleY(1.25);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0, 0, .7, .75);
+        transform-origin: bottom center;
+      }
+      55% {
+        transform: scaleX(1.05) scaleY(.95);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(.9, 0, 1, 1);
+        transform-origin: top center;
+      }
+      95% {
+        transform: scaleX(.75) scaleY(1.25);
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0, 1);
+        transform-origin: bottom center;
+      }
+      100% {
+        transform: scaleX(1.3) scaleY(.8);
+        transform-origin: bottom center;
+        animation-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.7, 1);
+      }
+    }
+
+    [ng\:cloak],
+    [ng-cloak],
+    .ng-cloak {
+      display: none !important;
+    }
+  </style>
+
+  <div class="preloader">
+    <div class="preloader__enter">
+      <div class="preloader__bounce">
+        <div class="preloader__logo"></div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="preloader__text">Loading Grafana</div>
+  </div>
+
+  <grafana-app class="grafana-app" ng-cloak>
     <sidemenu class="sidemenu"></sidemenu>
 
     <div class="page-alert-list">
@@ -91,6 +228,14 @@
       settings: [[.Settings]],
       navTree: [[.NavTree]]
     };
+
+    // load css async
+    var myCSS = document.createElement("link");
+    myCSS.rel = "stylesheet";
+    myCSS.href = "public/build/grafana.[[ .Theme ]].css?v[[ .BuildVersion ]]+[[ .BuildCommit ]]";
+
+    // insert it at the end of the head in a legacy-friendly manner
+    document.head.insertBefore(myCSS, document.head.childNodes[document.head.childNodes.length - 1].nextSibling);
   </script> [[if .GoogleTagManagerId]]
   <script>
     dataLayer = [{
@@ -115,4 +260,4 @@
 
 </body>
 
-</html>
\ No newline at end of file
+</html>
