diff --git a/.github/scripts/compare-release-versions.sh b/.github/scripts/compare-release-versions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..9b697c30cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/compare-release-versions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Compare the semver tag against the current release in the VERSION file
+
+set -uo pipefail
+
+# Bail if VERSION cannot be found
+if [[ ! -f version/VERSION ]]; then
+    echo "The VERSION file could not be found. Please create a VERSION file in the version/ directory. The contents of version should match the tag without the v prefix."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Bail if the input was not a tag
+if [[ ! "$GITHUB_REF_TYPE" == "tag" ]]; then
+    echo "This action only runs on tags. Please create a tag and try again."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Create a clean semver tag without the v prefix
+CLEAN_TAG=$(echo "$GITHUB_REF_NAME" | sed 's/^v//')
+
+VERSION=$(cat version/VERSION)
+if [[ "$VERSION" != "$CLEAN_TAG" ]]; then
+    echo "The VERSION file does not match the tag. Please update the version/VERSION file to match the tag without the v prefix."
+    echo "The VERSION file contains: $VERSION but the tag is: $CLEAN_TAG."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "The VERSION file matches the tag. Proceeding with the release of $VERSION."
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 4ad15135e6..726d8ec7ed 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Fetch tags
         run: git fetch --force --tags
 
+      - name: Compare versions
+        run: ./.github/scripts/compare-release-version.sh
+
       - name: Determine Go version
         id: go
         uses: ./.github/actions/go-version