diff --git a/.ci/variables.json b/.ci/variables.json
index 64e7ce3af..4bdd64342 100644
--- a/.ci/variables.json
+++ b/.ci/variables.json
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 {
   "prerequisite_versions": {
+    "HATCH": "1.3.1",
+    "HATCHLING": "1.6.0",
     "PIP": "22.2",
     "WHEEL": "0.37.1"
   },
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
deleted file mode 100644
index fe21ee43e..000000000
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-include CHANGELOG.md
-include CONTRIBUTING.md
-include LICENSE
-include MANIFEST.in
-include README.md
-include setup.py
-include esrally/min-es-version.txt
-recursive-include docs *
-recursive-include esrally/resources *
-# recursive-exclude * __pycache__
-# recursive-exclude * *.py[co]
-# prune docs/_build
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5a0504bd9..53f18daf5 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ PIP_WRAPPER = $(PY_BIN) -m pip
 export PY38 = $(shell jq -r '.python_versions.PY38' .ci/variables.json)
 export PY39 = $(shell jq -r '.python_versions.PY39' .ci/variables.json)
 export PY310 = $(shell jq -r '.python_versions.PY310' .ci/variables.json)
+export HATCH_VERSION = $(shell jq -r '.prerequisite_versions.HATCH' .ci/variables.json)
+export HATCHLING_VERSION = $(shell jq -r '.prerequisite_versions.HATCHLING' .ci/variables.json)
 export PIP_VERSION = $(shell jq -r '.prerequisite_versions.PIP' .ci/variables.json)
 export WHEEL_VERSION = $(shell jq -r '.prerequisite_versions.WHEEL' .ci/variables.json)
 VIRTUAL_ENV ?= .venv
@@ -59,7 +61,7 @@ check-venv:
 	fi
 
 install-user: venv-create
-	. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); $(PIP_WRAPPER) install --upgrade pip==$(PIP_VERSION) wheel==$(WHEEL_VERSION)
+	. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); $(PIP_WRAPPER) install --upgrade hatch==$(HATCH_VERSION) hatchling==$(HATCHLING_VERSION) pip==$(PIP_VERSION) wheel==$(WHEEL_VERSION)
 	. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); $(PIP_WRAPPER) install -e .
 
 install: install-user
@@ -89,7 +91,7 @@ tox-env-clean:
 	rm -rf .tox
 
 lint: check-venv
-	@. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); find esrally benchmarks scripts tests it setup.py -name "*.py" -exec pylint -j0 -rn --rcfile=$(CURDIR)/.pylintrc \{\} +
+	@. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); find esrally benchmarks scripts tests it -name "*.py" -exec pylint -j0 -rn --rcfile=$(CURDIR)/.pylintrc \{\} +
 	@. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); black --check --diff .
 	@. $(VENV_ACTIVATE_FILE); isort --check --diff .
 
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-dev b/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-dev
index efcb8482b..4eb52c924 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-dev
+++ b/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-dev
@@ -11,10 +11,8 @@ RUN apt-get -y update && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 RUN mkdir -p /rally/esrally
-COPY setup.py /rally/
 COPY pyproject.toml /rally/
 COPY README.md /rally/
-COPY MANIFEST.in /rally/
 COPY esrally/ /rally/esrally/
 
 RUN python3 -m venv /rally/venv
@@ -24,7 +22,7 @@ WORKDIR /rally
 # Wipe away any lingering caches, copied over from the local machine
 RUN find /rally -name "__pycache__" -exec rm -rf -- \{\} \; 2>/dev/null || true
 RUN find /rally -name ".pyc" -exec rm -rf -- \{\} \; 2>/dev/null || true
-RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip wheel
+RUN pip3 install --upgrade hatch hatchling pip wheel
 RUN pip3 install /rally
 
 ################################################################################
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-release b/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-release
index 6f87b2668..22dc13f6c 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-release
+++ b/docker/Dockerfiles/Dockerfile-release
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ RUN apt-get -y update && \
 RUN groupadd --gid 1000 rally && \
     useradd -d /rally -m -k /dev/null -g 1000 -N -u 1000 -l -s /bin/bash rally
 
-RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip wheel
+RUN pip3 install --upgrade hatch hatchling pip wheel
 RUN pip3 install esrally==$RALLY_VERSION
 
 WORKDIR /rally
diff --git a/docs/create_scheduler_plot.py b/docs/create_scheduler_plot.py
index 4afeb95db..bcc9d57da 100644
--- a/docs/create_scheduler_plot.py
+++ b/docs/create_scheduler_plot.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 import sys
 
-# we don't include matplotlib in setup.py as it's just a development dependency
+# we don't add matplotlib as a dependency as it's infrequently used and heavy
 try:
     import matplotlib
     import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3bec61c73..0c56dfb2f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=61.0"]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+requires = ["hatchling"]
+build-backend = "hatchling.build"
+
+[tool.hatch.version]
+path = "esrally/_version.py"
+
 
 [project]
 name = "esrally"
@@ -93,7 +97,7 @@ develop = [
     "sphinx==4.2.0",
     "furo==2022.06.21",
     "twine==1.15.0",
-    "wheel==0.33.6",
+    "wheel==0.37.1",
     "github3.py==1.3.0",
     "pylint==2.6.0",
     "black==22.3.0",
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index d9a1de582..7e57ab4ff 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -46,19 +46,17 @@ then
 fi
 
 echo "Updating changelog"
-# For exit on error to work we have to separate 
+# For exit on error to work we have to separate
 #  CHANGELOG.md generation into two steps.
 CHANGELOG="$(python3 changelog.py ${RELEASE_VERSION})"
 printf "$CHANGELOG\n\n$(cat CHANGELOG.md)" > CHANGELOG.md
 git commit -a -m "Update changelog for Rally release $RELEASE_VERSION"
 
-# * Update version in `setup.py` and `docs/conf.py`
 echo "Updating release version number"
 printf '__version__ = "%s"\n' $RELEASE_VERSION > esrally/_version.py
 git commit -a -m "Bump version to $RELEASE_VERSION"
 
-# --upgrade is required for virtualenv
-python3 setup.py develop --upgrade
+pip install --editable .
 
 # Check version
 if ! [[ $(esrally --version) =~ "esrally ${RELEASE_VERSION} (git revision" ]]
@@ -68,7 +66,7 @@ then
 fi
 
 # Build new version
-python3 setup.py bdist_wheel
+hatch build -t wheel
 # Upload to PyPI with retries in case of authentication failure
 printf "\033[0;31mUploading to PyPI. Please enter your credentials ...\033[0m\n"
 for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do twine upload dist/esrally-${RELEASE_VERSION}-*.whl && break || sleep 1; done
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index a31441798..000000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-# Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
-# license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
-# this work for additional information regarding copyright
-# ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
-# the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-# not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-# 	http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
-# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
-# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
-# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
-# specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-import os.path
-import re
-
-from setuptools import find_packages, setup
-
-with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "esrally/_version.py")) as f:
-    raw_version = f.read().strip()
-    version = re.match(r'__version__ = "(.+)"', raw_version).group(1)
-
-
-setup(
-    version=version,
-    packages=find_packages(where=".", exclude=("tests*", "benchmarks*", "it*")),
-    include_package_data=True,
-    package_data={"": ["*.json", "*.yml"]},
-    zip_safe=False,
-)