diff --git a/django/core/management/__init__.py b/django/core/management/__init__.py
index bb03082be0..6edfc1264c 100644
--- a/django/core/management/__init__.py
+++ b/django/core/management/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import collections
 import os
 import sys
 from optparse import OptionParser, NO_DEFAULT
@@ -5,6 +6,7 @@ import imp
 import warnings
 
 from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError, handle_default_options
+from django.core.management.color import color_style
 from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 
 # For backwards compatibility: get_version() used to be in this module.
@@ -209,16 +211,32 @@ class ManagementUtility(object):
         self.argv = argv or sys.argv[:]
         self.prog_name = os.path.basename(self.argv[0])
 
-    def main_help_text(self):
+    def main_help_text(self, commands_only=False):
         """
         Returns the script's main help text, as a string.
         """
-        usage = ['',"Type '%s help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand." % self.prog_name,'']
-        usage.append('Available subcommands:')
-        commands = get_commands().keys()
-        commands.sort()
-        for cmd in commands:
-            usage.append('  %s' % cmd)
+        if commands_only:
+            usage = sorted(get_commands().keys())
+        else:
+            usage = [
+                "",
+                "Type '%s help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand." % self.prog_name,
+                "",
+                "Available subcommands:",
+            ]
+            commands_dict = collections.defaultdict(lambda: [])
+            for name, app in get_commands().iteritems():
+                if app == 'django.core':
+                    app = 'django'
+                else:
+                    app = app.rpartition('.')[-1]
+                commands_dict[app].append(name)
+            style = color_style()
+            for app in sorted(commands_dict.keys()):
+                usage.append("")
+                usage.append(style.NOTICE("[%s]" % app))
+                for name in sorted(commands_dict[app]):
+                    usage.append("    %s" % name)
         return '\n'.join(usage)
 
     def fetch_command(self, subcommand):
@@ -340,12 +358,15 @@ class ManagementUtility(object):
             subcommand = 'help' # Display help if no arguments were given.
 
         if subcommand == 'help':
-            if len(args) > 2:
-                self.fetch_command(args[2]).print_help(self.prog_name, args[2])
-            else:
+            if len(args) <= 2:
                 parser.print_lax_help()
                 sys.stdout.write(self.main_help_text() + '\n')
-                sys.exit(1)
+            elif args[2] == '--commands':
+                sys.stdout.write(self.main_help_text(commands_only=True) + '\n')
+            else:
+                self.fetch_command(args[2]).print_help(self.prog_name, args[2])
+        elif subcommand == 'version':
+            sys.stdout.write(parser.get_version() + '\n')
         # Special-cases: We want 'django-admin.py --version' and
         # 'django-admin.py --help' to work, for backwards compatibility.
         elif self.argv[1:] == ['--version']:
diff --git a/docs/ref/django-admin.txt b/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
index aa514606e2..41f9bf649d 100644
--- a/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
@@ -47,11 +47,16 @@ for the given command.
 Getting runtime help
 --------------------
 
-.. django-admin-option:: --help
+.. django-admin:: help
 
-Run ``django-admin.py help`` to display a list of all available commands.
-Run ``django-admin.py help <command>`` to display a description of the
-given command and a list of its available options.
+Run ``django-admin.py help`` to display usage information and a list of the
+commands provided by each application.
+
+Run ``django-admin.py help --commands`` to display a list of all available
+commands.
+
+Run ``django-admin.py help <command>`` to display a description of the given
+command and a list of its available options.
 
 App names
 ---------
@@ -63,9 +68,9 @@ contains the string ``'mysite.blog'``, the app name is ``blog``.
 Determining the version
 -----------------------
 
-.. django-admin-option:: --version
+.. django-admin:: version
 
-Run ``django-admin.py --version`` to display the current Django version.
+Run ``django-admin.py version`` to display the current Django version.
 
 Examples of output::
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.4.txt b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
index 464ba571a5..e004aefd60 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.4.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
@@ -989,6 +989,14 @@ after tests' execution, then you can restore the previous behavior by
 subclassing ``DjangoTestRunner`` and overriding its ``teardown_databases()``
 method.
 
+Output of :djadmin:`manage.py help <help>`
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+:djadmin:`manage.py help <help>` now groups available commands by application.
+If you depended on its output, for instance if you parsed it, you must update
+your scripts. To obtain the list of all available management commands in a
+script, you can use :djadmin:`manage.py help --commands <help>` instead.
+
 Features deprecated in 1.4
 ==========================
 
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
index e981f54c23..dd7e4b3d15 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/tests.py
@@ -173,6 +173,10 @@ class AdminScriptTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         "Utility assertion: assert that the given message exists in the output"
         self.assertTrue(msg in stream, "'%s' does not match actual output text '%s'" % (msg, stream))
 
+    def assertNotInOutput(self, stream, msg):
+        "Utility assertion: assert that the given message doesn't exist in the output"
+        self.assertFalse(msg in stream, "'%s' matches actual output text '%s'" % (msg, stream))
+
 ##########################################################################
 # DJANGO ADMIN TESTS
 # This first series of test classes checks the environment processing
@@ -1173,25 +1177,47 @@ class CommandTypes(AdminScriptTestCase):
         self.remove_settings('settings.py')
 
     def test_version(self):
-        "--version is handled as a special case"
-        args = ['--version']
+        "version is handled as a special case"
+        args = ['version']
         out, err = self.run_manage(args)
         self.assertNoOutput(err)
         self.assertOutput(out, get_version())
 
-    def test_help(self):
-        "--help is handled as a special case"
-        args = ['--help']
-        out, err = self.run_manage(args)
-        self.assertOutput(out, "Usage: manage.py subcommand [options] [args]")
-        self.assertOutput(out, "Type 'manage.py help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.")
+    def test_version_alternative(self):
+        "--version is equivalent to version"
+        args1, args2 = ['version'], ['--version']
+        self.assertEqual(self.run_manage(args1), self.run_manage(args2))
 
-    def test_short_help(self):
-        "-h is handled as a short form of --help"
-        args = ['-h']
+    def test_help(self):
+        "help is handled as a special case"
+        args = ['help']
         out, err = self.run_manage(args)
         self.assertOutput(out, "Usage: manage.py subcommand [options] [args]")
         self.assertOutput(out, "Type 'manage.py help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.")
+        self.assertOutput(out, '[django]')
+        self.assertOutput(out, 'startapp')
+        self.assertOutput(out, 'startproject')
+
+    def test_help_commands(self):
+        "help --commands shows the list of all available commands"
+        args = ['help', '--commands']
+        out, err = self.run_manage(args)
+        self.assertNotInOutput(out, 'Usage:')
+        self.assertNotInOutput(out, 'Options:')
+        self.assertNotInOutput(out, '[django]')
+        self.assertOutput(out, 'startapp')
+        self.assertOutput(out, 'startproject')
+        self.assertNotInOutput(out, '\n\n')
+
+    def test_help_alternative(self):
+        "--help is equivalent to help"
+        args1, args2 = ['help'], ['--help']
+        self.assertEqual(self.run_manage(args1), self.run_manage(args2))
+
+    def test_help_short_altert(self):
+        "-h is handled as a short form of --help"
+        args1, args2 = ['--help'], ['-h']
+        self.assertEqual(self.run_manage(args1), self.run_manage(args2))
 
     def test_specific_help(self):
         "--help can be used on a specific command"