diff --git a/doc/configuration.rst b/doc/configuration.rst
index da21c94..8010ab9 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.rst
+++ b/doc/configuration.rst
@@ -578,6 +578,17 @@ Defaults to: ``False``.
     This does not disable emails to the email address set in ``EMAIL_ERROR``.
 
 
+ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+This configuration keys enables or disables allowing users to delete git
+branches from the user interface. In sensible pagure instance you may
+want to turn this off and with a customized gitolite configuration you can
+prevent users from deleting branches in their git repositories.
+
+Defaults to: ``True``.
+
+
 OLD_VIEW_COMMIT_ENABLED
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/pagure/default_config.py b/pagure/default_config.py
index 27a8eee..f69e788 100644
--- a/pagure/default_config.py
+++ b/pagure/default_config.py
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ ENABLE_GROUP_MNGT = True
 # Enables / Disables private projects
 PRIVATE_PROJECTS = False
 
+# Enable / Disable deleting branches in the UI
+ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH = True
+
 # Enables / Disables showing all the projects by default on the front page
 SHOW_PROJECTS_INDEX = ['repos', 'myrepos', 'myforks']
 
diff --git a/pagure/templates/repo_info.html b/pagure/templates/repo_info.html
index 8252a25..7ac00ba 100644
--- a/pagure/templates/repo_info.html
+++ b/pagure/templates/repo_info.html
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ git push -u origin master</pre>
 
                 </div>
                 <div class="branch_del col-md-4">
-                  {% if g.repo_committer and branch != head %}
+                  {% if g.repo_committer and branch != head and config.get('ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH', True) %}
                   <form id="delete_branch_form-{{ branch | replace('/', '__') }}" action="{{
                     url_for('.delete_branch',
                             repo=repo.name,
diff --git a/pagure/ui/repo.py b/pagure/ui/repo.py
index 7c273bb..b0cce44 100644
--- a/pagure/ui/repo.py
+++ b/pagure/ui/repo.py
@@ -2172,6 +2172,10 @@ def edit_file(repo, branchname, filename, username=None, namespace=None):
 def delete_branch(repo, branchname, username=None, namespace=None):
     """ Delete the branch of a project.
     """
+    if not APP.config.get('ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH', True):
+        flask.abort(
+            404, 'This pagure instance does not allow branch deletion')
+
     repo_obj = flask.g.repo_obj
 
     if not flask.g.repo_committer:
diff --git a/tests/test_pagure_flask_ui_repo.py b/tests/test_pagure_flask_ui_repo.py
index e57548b..e41b08b 100644
--- a/tests/test_pagure_flask_ui_repo.py
+++ b/tests/test_pagure_flask_ui_repo.py
@@ -4050,6 +4050,51 @@ index 0000000..fb7093d
                 '<strong title="Currently viewing branch master"',
                 output.data)
 
+    @patch.dict('pagure.APP.config', {'ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH': False})
+    def test_delete_branch_disabled_in_ui(self):
+        """ Test that the delete branch button doesn't show when the feature
+        is turned off. """
+        tests.create_projects(self.session)
+        tests.create_projects_git(os.path.join(self.path, 'repos'), bare=True)
+
+        # Add a branch that we can delete
+        path = os.path.join(self.path, 'repos', 'test.git')
+        tests.add_content_git_repo(path)
+        repo = pygit2.Repository(path)
+        repo.create_branch('foo', repo.head.get_object())
+
+        user = tests.FakeUser(username = 'pingou')
+        with tests.user_set(pagure.APP, user):
+            # Check that the UI doesn't offer the button
+            output = self.app.get('/test')
+            self.assertEqual(output.status_code, 200)
+            self.assertIn(
+                'data-toggle="tooltip">foo',
+                output.data)
+            self.assertNotIn('<form id="delete_branch_form-foo"', output.data)
+            self.assertNotIn(
+                'Are you sure you want to remove the branch',
+                output.data)
+
+    @patch.dict('pagure.APP.config', {'ALLOW_DELETE_BRANCH': False})
+    def test_delete_branch_disabled(self):
+        """ Test the delete_branch endpoint when it's disabled in the entire
+        instance. """
+        tests.create_projects(self.session)
+        tests.create_projects_git(os.path.join(self.path, 'repos'), bare=True)
+
+        # Add a branch that we can delete
+        path = os.path.join(self.path, 'repos', 'test.git')
+        tests.add_content_git_repo(path)
+        repo = pygit2.Repository(path)
+        repo.create_branch('foo', repo.head.get_object())
+
+        user = tests.FakeUser(username = 'pingou')
+        with tests.user_set(pagure.APP, user):
+            # Delete the branch
+            output = self.app.post('/test/b/foo/delete', follow_redirects=True)
+            self.assertEqual(output.status_code, 404)
+
     def test_view_docs(self):
         """ Test the view_docs endpoint. """
         output = self.app.get('/docs/foo/')