diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cfc1e63cf8..a9d49ffdc1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -29,8 +29,11 @@ devstack.provision: ## Provision all services
 devstack.reset: ## Remove all service containers
 	docker-compose down
 
-devstack.start: ## Start all services
-	docker-compose up
+devstack.start: ## Start all services (with host volumes)
+	docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose-host.yml up
+
+devstack.start.sync: ## Start all services (with docker-sync)
+	docker-sync-stack start
 
 devstack.stop: ## Stop all services
 	docker-compose stop
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7c479a8101..600191c721 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,7 +42,8 @@ configure Docker with a sufficient amount of resources. Our testing found that [
   $ make devstack.provision
   ```
 
-3. Start the services.
+3. Start the services. By default this command will use host directories for source code. This is known to be slow on
+   macOS. macOS users should follow the steps below for Docker Sync to avoid this performance hit.
 
   ```
   $ make devstack.start
@@ -55,6 +56,25 @@ For example to access the Catalog/Course Discovery Service, you can run:
 $ make devstack.open.discovery
 ```
 
+### Docker Sync
+
+Docker for Mac has known filesystem issues that significantly decrease performance. In order to mitigate these issues,
+we use [Docker Sync](https://github.com/EugenMayer/docker-sync/wiki) to synchronize file data from the host machine to
+the containers. Follow the steps below to setup Docker Sync.
+
+1. Ensure all containers are stopped.
+```
+$ make devstack.stop
+```
+
+2. Follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/EugenMayer/docker-sync/wiki to install Docker Sync.
+
+3. Run Docker Sync and devstack.
+```
+$ make devstack.start.sync
+```
+
+
 ## Usernames and Passwords
 
 The provisioning script creates a Django superuser for every service.
diff --git a/docker-compose-host.yml b/docker-compose-host.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e2c369e266
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-host.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+version: "2.1"
+
+services:
+  credentials:
+    volumes:
+      - ../credentials:/edx/app/credentials/credentials
+  discovery:
+      volumes:
+      - ../course-discovery:/edx/app/discovery/discovery
+  ecommerce:
+    volumes:
+      - ../ecommerce:/edx/app/ecommerce/ecommerce
+  edxapp:
+    volumes:
+      - ../edx-platform:/edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform
diff --git a/docker-compose-sync.yml b/docker-compose-sync.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4a124634ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-sync.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+version: "2.1"
+
+services:
+  credentials:
+    volumes:
+      - credentials-sync:/edx/app/credentials/credentials:rw
+  discovery:
+      volumes:
+        - discovery-sync:/edx/app/discovery/discovery:rw
+  ecommerce:
+    volumes:
+      - ecommerce-sync:/edx/app/ecommerce/ecommerce:rw
+  edxapp:
+    volumes:
+      - edxapp-sync:/edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform:rw
+
+volumes:
+  credentials-sync:
+    external: true
+  discovery-sync:
+    external: true
+  ecommerce-sync:
+    external: true
+  edxapp-sync:
+    external: true
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index d0d5e94406..b8595b8c29 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -66,8 +66,6 @@ services:
     image: edxops/credentials:devstack
     ports:
       - "18150:18150"
-    volumes:
-      - ../credentials:/edx/app/credentials/credentials
 
   discovery:
     command: /edx/app/discovery/devstack.sh start
@@ -82,8 +80,6 @@ services:
     image: edxops/discovery:devstack
     ports:
       - "18381:18381"
-    volumes:
-      - ../course-discovery:/edx/app/discovery/discovery
 
   ecommerce:
     command: /edx/app/ecommerce/devstack.sh start
@@ -97,8 +93,6 @@ services:
     image: edxops/ecommerce:devstack
     ports:
       - "18130:18130"
-    volumes:
-      - ../ecommerce:/edx/app/ecommerce/ecommerce
 
   edxapp:
     command: /edx/app/edxapp/devstack.sh start
@@ -111,8 +105,6 @@ services:
     ports:
       - "18000:18000"
       - "18010:18010"
-    volumes:
-      - ../edx-platform:/edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform
 
 volumes:
   elasticsearch_data:
diff --git a/docker-sync.yml b/docker-sync.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..32ddf37a0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-sync.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+version: "2"
+
+options:
+  compose-file-path: 'docker-compose.yml'
+  compose-dev-file-path: 'docker-compose-sync.yml'
+
+syncs:
+  credentials-sync:
+    src: '../credentials/'
+    dest: '/edx/app/credentials/credentials'
+    sync_args: '-v --copy-links --hard-links'
+    sync_host_ip: 'localhost'
+    sync_host_port: 10872
+    sync_strategy: 'rsync'
+
+  discovery-sync:
+    src: '../course-discovery/'
+    dest: '/edx/app/discovery/discovery'
+    sync_args: '-v --copy-links --hard-links'
+    sync_host_ip: 'localhost'
+    sync_host_port: 10873
+    sync_strategy: 'rsync'
+
+  ecommerce-sync:
+    src: '../ecommerce/'
+    dest: '/edx/app/ecommerce/ecommerce'
+    sync_args: '-v --copy-links --hard-links'
+    sync_host_ip: 'localhost'
+    sync_host_port: 10874
+    sync_strategy: 'rsync'
+
+  edxapp-sync:
+    src: '../edx-platform/'
+    dest: '/edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform'
+    sync_args: '-v --copy-links --hard-links'
+    sync_host_ip: 'localhost'
+    sync_host_port: 10875
+    sync_strategy: 'rsync'