diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6b20ceeb90..03e40aa7ea 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ build/timestamps/check-%-timestamp: $(BUILD_HOSTED)/examples/%.html \
                                     $(BUILD_HOSTED)/build/ol.js \
                                     $(BUILD_HOSTED)/css/ol.css
 	@mkdir -p $(@D)
-	./node_modules/.bin/serve-files 8000 . & pid=$$! && ./node_modules/.bin/phantomjs --ssl-protocol=any --ignore-ssl-errors=true bin/check-example.js http://localhost:8000/$< && kill -9 $$pid
+	node tasks/check-example.js $<
 	@touch $@
 
 build/compiled-examples/all.js: $(EXAMPLES_JS)
diff --git a/tasks/check-example.js b/tasks/check-example.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8fba261a33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tasks/check-example.js
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+/*eslint-env es6*/
+
+const http       = require('http');
+const path       = require('path');
+const serveFiles = require('serve-files');
+const spawn      = require('child_process').spawn;
+
+if (!process.argv[2]) {
+  process.stdout.write(`USAGE: node ${path.basename(module.filename)} [example_path]\n`);
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+const root = process.cwd();
+const port = 8000;
+const host = null;
+const examplePath = process.argv[2];
+const phantomPath = require('phantomjs-prebuilt').path;
+
+const server = http.createServer(serveFiles.createFileResponseHandler({
+  documentRoot       : root,
+  followSymbolicLinks: false,
+  cacheTimeInSeconds : 3600
+}));
+
+server.listen(port, host, null, function() {
+  const childProcess = spawn(phantomPath, ['--ssl-protocol=any', '--ignore-ssl-errors=true', path.join(__dirname, '..', 'bin', 'check-example.js'), 'http://localhost:8000/' + examplePath]);
+  childProcess.stdout.pipe(process.stdout);
+  childProcess.stderr.pipe(process.stderr);
+  process.stdin.pipe(childProcess.stdin);
+
+  childProcess.on('error', function(err) {
+    process.stderr.write(`Error executing phantom on ${phantomPath}\n`);
+    process.stderr.write(err.stack + '\n');
+    process.exit(1);
+  });
+
+  childProcess.on('exit', function(code) {
+    process.exit(code);
+  });
+
+});
+
+// Keep track of connections, to enforce killing them when server must be stopped.
+var connections = {};
+server.on('connection', function(socket) {
+  socket._cid = process.hrtime();
+  connections[socket._cid] = socket;
+
+  socket.on('end', function() {
+    delete connections[this._cid];
+  });
+});
+
+['SIGHUP', 'SIGINT', 'SIGQUIT', 'SIGILL', 'SIGTRAP', 'SIGABRT',
+ 'SIGBUS', 'SIGFPE', 'SIGUSR1', 'SIGSEGV', 'SIGUSR2', 'SIGTERM'].forEach(signal => {
+   process.once(signal, () => {
+     process.stdout.write(`Got ${signal}, stopping...\n`),
+     server.close(() => {
+       process.stdout.write('Stopped.\n');
+       process.exit(0);
+     });
+
+     Object.keys(connections).forEach(cid => connections[cid].destroy());
+   });
+ });
diff --git a/tasks/readme.md b/tasks/readme.md
index 081e3f7885..adf67fef39 100644
--- a/tasks/readme.md
+++ b/tasks/readme.md
@@ -109,6 +109,14 @@ Called internally to parse the library for annotations and write out a `build/in
 
 Builds examples and the example index.
 
+## `check-example.js`
+
+Runs an example in PhantomJS and returns an exit code != 0 after printing a stack trace when something is wrong with the example.
+
+To check the `simple.html` example when on master, first run the `build-examples.js` task, then invoke
+
+    node tasks/check-example.js build/hosted/master/simple.html
+
 
 ## `serve.js`