diff --git a/beat/editor/scripts/server.py b/beat/editor/scripts/server.py
index bf130cdd7960aa1834025675e83f281f53c3eec2..cdf2ceb225e03f03be08b3bfcd0e7a7678b0dc1b 100644
--- a/beat/editor/scripts/server.py
+++ b/beat/editor/scripts/server.py
@@ -125,4 +125,9 @@ def main(user_input=None):
                          resource_class_kwargs={'config': config})
 
 
+    # open the browser tab right before starting the server
+    # the latency of opening the tab will keep us from getting 404s
+    import webbrowser
+    webbrowser.open('http://localhost:5000/')
+
     app.run(debug=args['--debug'])