diff --git a/cmd/utils/flags.go b/cmd/utils/flags.go
index 5fd5013f00..72be2dbeb7 100644
--- a/cmd/utils/flags.go
+++ b/cmd/utils/flags.go
@@ -695,8 +695,11 @@ func setHTTP(ctx *cli.Context, cfg *node.Config) {
 	if ctx.GlobalIsSet(RPCApiFlag.Name) {
 		cfg.HTTPModules = splitAndTrim(ctx.GlobalString(RPCApiFlag.Name))
 	}
-
-	cfg.HTTPVirtualHosts = splitAndTrim(ctx.GlobalString(RPCVirtualHostsFlag.Name))
+	if ctx.GlobalIsSet(RPCVirtualHostsFlag.Name) {
+		cfg.HTTPVirtualHosts = splitAndTrim(ctx.GlobalString(RPCVirtualHostsFlag.Name))
+	} else if len(cfg.HTTPVirtualHosts) == 0 {
+		cfg.HTTPVirtualHosts = splitAndTrim(ctx.GlobalString(RPCVirtualHostsFlag.Name))
+	}
 }
 
 // setWS creates the WebSocket RPC listener interface string from the set