diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b4c2e09..3c0dff5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -114,3 +114,4 @@ venv
 
 # config
 config.json
+config.yml
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index da20e66..20793e8 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -1,20 +1,23 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-import json
 import sys
 from os import environ
 from pathlib import Path
 
+from ruamel.yaml import YAML
+from ruamel.yaml.parser import ParserError
+from ruamel.yaml.scanner import ScannerError
+
 
 class Config:
     def __init__(self):
         # class variables
         self.content = None
-        self.conf_file = Path('/etc/ejabberd-metrics.conf')
+        self.conf_file = Path('/etc/ejabberd-metrics.yml')
 
         # dev config overwrite
         if environ.get('ejabberd_metrics_dev'):
-            self.conf_file = Path('config.json')
+            self.conf_file = Path('config.yml')
 
         # read config file
         self._read()
@@ -23,13 +26,13 @@ class Config:
         """init the config object with this method"""
         self._check()
 
-        # open and load json content from config
+        # open file as an iostream
         with open(self.conf_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
             try:
-                self.content = json.load(f)
+                self.content = YAML(typ='safe').load(f)
 
             # catch json decoding errors
-            except json.JSONDecodeError as err:
+            except (ParserError, ScannerError) as err:
                 print(err, file=sys.stderr)
                 exit(1)
 
diff --git a/ejabberd-metrics.conf.default b/ejabberd-metrics.conf.default
deleted file mode 100644
index ad984aa..0000000
--- a/ejabberd-metrics.conf.default
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-{
-	"url": "http://[::1]:5280/api",
-	"login": {
-		"user": "metric-user",
-		"server": "chat.sum7.eu",
-		"password": "password"
-	},
-	"api": "rest",
-
-	"--comment": "influxdb",
-	"influxdb_host": "localhost",
-	"influxdb_port": 8086,
-	"influxdb_db": "ejabberd",
-
-	"--comment": "prometheus",
-	"prometheus_port": 8080,
-	"prometheus_refresh": 10
-}
diff --git a/ejabberd-metrics.yml.default b/ejabberd-metrics.yml.default
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41487e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ejabberd-metrics.yml.default
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+# endpoint url
+url: "http://[::1]:5280/api"
+
+# user credentials to the endpoint url
+login:
+  user: "metric-user"
+  server: "chat.sum7.eu"
+  password: "password"
+
+# muc subdomain
+# default : "conference"
+muc_host: "chat"
+
+# api configuration
+# default : rpc
+api: "rest"
+
+# influx db configuration
+influxdb_host: "localhost"
+influxdb_port: 8086
+influxdb_db: "example"
+
+# prometheus configuration
+prometheus_port: 8080
+prometheus_refresh: 10