diff --git a/changelog.d/4273.misc b/changelog.d/4273.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2583372d26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/4273.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Update the example systemd config to use a virtualenv
diff --git a/contrib/systemd/matrix-synapse.service b/contrib/systemd/matrix-synapse.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..efb157e941
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/systemd/matrix-synapse.service
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# Example systemd configuration file for synapse. Copy into
+#    /etc/systemd/system/, update the paths if necessary, then:
+#
+#    systemctl enable matrix-synapse
+#    systemctl start matrix-synapse
+#
+# This assumes that Synapse has been installed in a virtualenv in
+# /opt/synapse/env.
+#
+# **NOTE:** This is an example service file that may change in the future. If you
+# wish to use this please copy rather than symlink it.
+
+[Unit]
+Description=Synapse Matrix homeserver
+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+Restart=on-abort
+
+User=synapse
+Group=nogroup
+
+WorkingDirectory=/opt/synapse
+ExecStart=/opt/synapse/env/bin/python -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path=/opt/synapse/homeserver.yaml
+
+# adjust the cache factor if necessary
+# Environment=SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR=2.0
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+
diff --git a/contrib/systemd/synapse.service b/contrib/systemd/synapse.service
deleted file mode 100644
index b81ce3915d..0000000000
--- a/contrib/systemd/synapse.service
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-# This assumes that Synapse has been installed as a system package
-# (e.g. https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/matrix-synapse/ for ArchLinux)
-# rather than in a user home directory or similar under virtualenv.
-
-# **NOTE:** This is an example service file that may change in the future. If you
-# wish to use this please copy rather than symlink it.
-
-[Unit]
-Description=Synapse Matrix homeserver
-
-[Service]
-Type=simple
-User=synapse
-Group=synapse
-WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/synapse
-ExecStart=/usr/bin/python2.7 -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path=/etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml
-ExecStop=/usr/bin/synctl stop /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml
-# EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/synapse  # Can be used to e.g. set SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR 
-
-[Install]
-WantedBy=multi-user.target
-