diff --git a/snappass/main.py b/snappass/main.py
index 73393333..3e04d0d3 100644
--- a/snappass/main.py
+++ b/snappass/main.py
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@
 from redis.exceptions import ConnectionError
 from werkzeug.urls import url_quote_plus
 from werkzeug.urls import url_unquote_plus
+from distutils.util import strtobool
 
-NO_SSL = os.environ.get('NO_SSL', False)
+NO_SSL = bool(strtobool(os.environ.get('NO_SSL', 'False')))
 URL_PREFIX = os.environ.get('URL_PREFIX', None)
 TOKEN_SEPARATOR = '~'