diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 77a62c1e..cda5cf92 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ _vimrc_local.vim
 /public/coverage
 /coverage
 /unittests.xml
+/resources/lang/*/*.mo
 
 # Composer files
 /vendor/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5cf9f652..9b4a3aaf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@ The following instructions explain how to get, build and run the latest engelsys
     ```bash
     yarn build
     ```
+ * Optionally (for better performance)
+   * Generate translation files
+      ```bash
+      find resources/lang/ -type f -name '*.po' -exec sh -c 'file="{}"; msgfmt "${file%.*}.po" -o "${file%.*}.mo"' \;
+      ```
 
 ### Configuration and Setup
  * The webserver must have write access to the ```import``` and ```storage``` directories and read access for all other directories
diff --git a/contrib/Dockerfile b/contrib/Dockerfile
index a7fd403b..013ccf1d 100644
--- a/contrib/Dockerfile
+++ b/contrib/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@ COPY ./ /app/
 RUN composer --no-ansi install --no-dev --ignore-platform-reqs
 RUN composer --no-ansi dump-autoload --optimize
 
-# Intermediate container for less layers
+# Intermediate containers for less layers
+FROM alpine as translation
+RUN apk add gettext
+COPY resources/lang/ /data
+RUN find /data -type f -name '*.po' -exec sh -c 'file="{}"; msgfmt "${file%.*}.po" -o "${file%.*}.mo"' \;
+
 FROM alpine as data
 COPY .babelrc .browserslistrc composer.json LICENSE package.json README.md webpack.config.js yarn.lock /app/
 COPY bin/ /app/bin
@@ -13,11 +18,11 @@ COPY db/ /app/db
 RUN mkdir /app/import/
 COPY includes/ /app/includes
 COPY public/ /app/public
-COPY resources/lang /app/resources/lang
 COPY resources/views /app/resources/views
 COPY src/ /app/src
 COPY storage/ /app/storage
 
+COPY --from=translation /data/ /app/resources/lang
 COPY --from=composer /app/vendor/ /app/vendor
 COPY --from=composer /app/composer.lock /app/
 
diff --git a/resources/lang/de_DE/default.mo b/resources/lang/de_DE/default.mo
deleted file mode 100644
index fb93d590..00000000
Binary files a/resources/lang/de_DE/default.mo and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/resources/lang/en_US/default.mo b/resources/lang/en_US/default.mo
deleted file mode 100644
index 7ef9c3b2..00000000
Binary files a/resources/lang/en_US/default.mo and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/resources/lang/pt_BR/default.mo b/resources/lang/pt_BR/default.mo
deleted file mode 100644
index 8b864156..00000000
Binary files a/resources/lang/pt_BR/default.mo and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/src/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProvider.php b/src/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProvider.php
index 09337dad..62247000 100644
--- a/src/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProvider.php
+++ b/src/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProvider.php
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ namespace Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation;
 use Engelsystem\Config\Config;
 use Engelsystem\Container\ServiceProvider;
 use Gettext\Translations;
+use Illuminate\Support\Str;
 use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Session;
 
 class TranslationServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
@@ -67,14 +68,18 @@ class TranslationServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
     public function getTranslator(string $locale): GettextTranslator
     {
         if (!isset($this->translators[$locale])) {
-            $file = $this->app->get('path.lang') . '/' . $locale . '/default.mo';
+            $file = $this->getFile($locale);
 
             /** @var GettextTranslator $translator */
             $translator = $this->app->make(GettextTranslator::class);
 
             /** @var Translations $translations */
             $translations = $this->app->make(Translations::class);
-            $translations->addFromMoFile($file);
+            if (Str::endsWith($file, '.mo')) {
+                $translations->addFromMoFile($file);
+            } else {
+                $translations->addFromPoFile($file);
+            }
 
             $translator->loadTranslations($translations);
 
@@ -83,4 +88,20 @@ class TranslationServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
 
         return $this->translators[$locale];
     }
+
+    /**
+     * @param string $locale
+     * @return string
+     */
+    protected function getFile(string $locale): string
+    {
+        $filepath = $file = $this->app->get('path.lang') . '/' . $locale . '/default';
+        $file = $filepath . '.mo';
+
+        if (!file_exists($file)) {
+            $file = $filepath . '.po';
+        }
+
+        return $file;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/Assets/ba_RR/default.po b/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/Assets/ba_RR/default.po
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..887e2daa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/Assets/ba_RR/default.po
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Testing content
+msgid "foo.bar"
+msgstr "B Arr!"
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProviderTest.php b/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProviderTest.php
index 91307bdd..dc8e8af5 100644
--- a/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProviderTest.php
+++ b/tests/Unit/Helpers/Translation/TranslationServiceProviderTest.php
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Session;
 class TranslationServiceProviderTest extends ServiceProviderTest
 {
     /**
-     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::register()
+     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::register
      */
     public function testRegister(): void
     {
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ class TranslationServiceProviderTest extends ServiceProviderTest
         /** @var TranslationServiceProvider|MockObject $serviceProvider */
         $serviceProvider = $this->getMockBuilder(TranslationServiceProvider::class)
             ->setConstructorArgs([$app])
-            ->setMethods(['setLocale'])
+            ->onlyMethods(['setLocale'])
             ->getMock();
 
         $app->expects($this->exactly(2))
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ class TranslationServiceProviderTest extends ServiceProviderTest
     }
 
     /**
-     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::getTranslator()
+     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::getTranslator
      */
     public function testGetTranslator(): void
     {
@@ -87,4 +87,20 @@ class TranslationServiceProviderTest extends ServiceProviderTest
         // Retry from cache
         $serviceProvider->getTranslator('fo_OO');
     }
+
+    /**
+     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::getTranslator
+     * @covers \Engelsystem\Helpers\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider::getFile
+     */
+    public function testGetTranslatorFromPo(): void
+    {
+        $app = $this->getApp(['get']);
+        $this->setExpects($app, 'get', ['path.lang'], __DIR__ . '/Assets');
+
+        $serviceProvider = new TranslationServiceProvider($app);
+
+        // Get translator using a .po file
+        $translator = $serviceProvider->getTranslator('ba_RR');
+        $this->assertEquals('B Arr!', $translator->gettext('foo.bar'));
+    }
 }