diff --git a/src/main/java/io/ebean/config/ServerConfigProvider.java b/src/main/java/io/ebean/config/ServerConfigProvider.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b6ba8571a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/io/ebean/config/ServerConfigProvider.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package io.ebean.config;
+
+/**
+ * Provides a ServiceLoader based mechanism to configure a ServerConfig.
+ * <p>
+ * Provide an implementation and register it via the standard Java ServiceLoader mechanism
+ * via a file at <code>META-INF/services/io.ebean.config.ServerConfigProvider</code>.
+ * </p>
+ * <p>
+ * If you are using a DI container like Spring or Guice you are unlikely to use this but instead use a
+ * spring specific configuration.  When we are not using a DI container we may use this mechanism to
+ * explicitly register the entity beans and avoid classpath scanning.
+ * </p>
+ * <pre>{@code
+ *
+ * public class EbeanConfigProvider implements ServerConfigProvider {
+ *
+ *   @Override
+ *   public void apply(ServerConfig config) {
+ *
+ *     // register the entity bean classes explicitly
+ *     config.addClass(Customer.class);
+ *     config.addClass(User.class);
+ *     ...
+ *   }
+ * }
+ *
+ * }</pre>
+ */
+public interface ServerConfigProvider {
+
+  /**
+   * Apply the configuration to the ServerConfig.
+   * <p>
+   * Typically we explicitly register entity bean classes and thus avoid classpath scanning.
+   * </p>
+   */
+  void apply(ServerConfig config);
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/core/DefaultContainer.java b/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/core/DefaultContainer.java
index 01cc62637..a8cf20c08 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/core/DefaultContainer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/core/DefaultContainer.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import io.ebean.cache.ServerCacheOptions;
 import io.ebean.cache.ServerCachePlugin;
 import io.ebean.config.ContainerConfig;
 import io.ebean.config.ServerConfig;
+import io.ebean.config.ServerConfigProvider;
 import io.ebean.config.TenantMode;
 import io.ebean.config.UnderscoreNamingConvention;
 import io.ebean.config.dbplatform.DatabasePlatform;
@@ -102,8 +103,13 @@ public class DefaultContainer implements SpiContainer {
   public SpiEbeanServer createServer(ServerConfig serverConfig) {
 
     synchronized (this) {
-      setNamingConvention(serverConfig);
+      if (serverConfig.isDefaultServer()) {
+        for (ServerConfigProvider configProvider : ServiceLoader.load(ServerConfigProvider.class)) {
+          configProvider.apply(serverConfig);
+        }
+      }
 
+      setNamingConvention(serverConfig);
       BootupClasses bootupClasses = getBootupClasses(serverConfig);
 
       boolean online = true;