diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 512940a7b2a1892adb52c6195444fa6828efcd43..05bb7826fdcdc154bf9cd4c8058844214161a58c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@ alembic.ini
 __pycache__
 *.json
 src/spiders/Test*.py
-*.log
\ No newline at end of file
+*.log
+statistics.txt
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/.env.example b/src/.env.example
index b9541b7d01a71c75f5c97abfb5ed7348a70db675..026c98a2cc9df0472c83a793d1114d83543b0d68 100644
--- a/src/.env.example
+++ b/src/.env.example
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ DB_PORT=3306
 DB_DATABASE=database
 DB_USERNAME=username
 DB_PASSWORD=secret
+DB_CHARSET=utf8mb4
 
 ### MAIL CONFIG
 MAIL_FROM = 'example@example.com'
diff --git a/src/alembic.ini.example b/src/alembic.ini.example
index fe3f6a73d740f8fbe643b428b5bdfe2a3042b052..62b4a90f32883b45c8b580509ce3a738c320dd0d 100644
--- a/src/alembic.ini.example
+++ b/src/alembic.ini.example
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ script_location = database
 # output_encoding = utf-8
 
 # sqlalchemy.url = driver://user:pass@host:port/dbname
-sqlalchemy.url = mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost/databasename
+sqlalchemy.url = mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost/databasename?utf8mb4
 
 
 # Logging configuration
diff --git a/src/settings.py b/src/settings.py
index 78802452fcfc20929a38ce20b471144971167e8d..519c03dd17b96a8562032b11b05b33cfaa1fa469 100644
--- a/src/settings.py
+++ b/src/settings.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import logging
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 import os
+
 true_list = ['True', 'true', 'TRUE', 1, '1']
 load_dotenv()
 
@@ -103,13 +104,15 @@ DB_PASSWORD = os.getenv('DB_PASSWORD')
 DB_HOST = os.getenv('DB_HOST')
 DB_PORT = int(os.getenv('DB_PORT'))
 DB_DATABASE = os.getenv('DB_DATABASE')
-CONNECTION_STRING = "{drivername}://{user}:{passwd}@{host}:{port}/{db_name}?charset=utf8".format(
+DB_CHARSET = os.getenv('DB_CHARSET')
+CONNECTION_STRING = "{drivername}://{user}:{passwd}@{host}:{port}/{db_name}?charset={db_charset}".format(
     drivername=DB_CONNECTION,
     user=DB_USERNAME,
     passwd=DB_PASSWORD,
     host=DB_HOST,
     port=str(DB_PORT),
     db_name=DB_DATABASE,
+    db_charset=DB_CHARSET,
 )
 
 # Logger config