diff --git a/tools/provision.py b/tools/provision.py
index 1f8da30fff..8ec793d8fe 100755
--- a/tools/provision.py
+++ b/tools/provision.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ TRAVIS_NODE_PATH = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], 'node')
 VAR_DIR_PATH = os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, 'var')
 LOG_DIR_PATH = os.path.join(VAR_DIR_PATH, 'log')
 TEST_UPLOAD_DIR_PATH = os.path.join(VAR_DIR_PATH, 'test_uploads')
+COVERAGE_DIR_PATH = os.path.join(VAR_DIR_PATH, 'coverage')
 
 if PY2:
     VENV_PATH = PY2_VENV_PATH
@@ -186,6 +187,8 @@ def main():
     run(["mkdir", "-p", LOG_DIR_PATH])
     # create test upload directory `var/test_upload`
     run(["mkdir", "-p", TEST_UPLOAD_DIR_PATH])
+    # create coverage directory`var/coverage`
+    run(["mkdir", "-p", COVERAGE_DIR_PATH])
 
     if "--travis" in sys.argv:
         run(["tools/setup/install-phantomjs", "--travis"])
diff --git a/tools/test-backend b/tools/test-backend
index 4dd841ab3a..2496a55c89 100755
--- a/tools/test-backend
+++ b/tools/test-backend
@@ -103,8 +103,8 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         if options.verbose_coverage:
             print("Printing coverage data")
             cov.report(show_missing=False)
-        cov.html_report()
-        print("HTML report saved to htmlcov/")
+        cov.html_report(directory='var/coverage')
+        print("HTML report saved to var/coverage")
     if options.profile:
         prof.disable()
         prof.dump_stats("/tmp/profile.data")