diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 1f084c7c..5c67da11 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+Version 0.5.0
+-------------
+
+Unreleased
+
+-   Cache types now have configurable serializers. :pr:`63`
+
+
 Version 0.4.1
 -------------
 
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c2ff47d1..e9792477 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ testpaths = tests
 filterwarnings =
     error
     default::DeprecationWarning:cachelib.uwsgi
+    default::DeprecationWarning:cachelib.redis
 
 [coverage:run]
 branch = True
diff --git a/src/cachelib/file.py b/src/cachelib/file.py
index ef17fea4..bcaae405 100644
--- a/src/cachelib/file.py
+++ b/src/cachelib/file.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import errno
 import logging
 import os
-import pickle
 import tempfile
 import typing as _t
 from hashlib import md5
@@ -9,6 +8,7 @@
 from time import time
 
 from cachelib.base import BaseCache
+from cachelib.serializers import FileSystemSerializer
 
 
 class FileSystemCache(BaseCache):
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ class FileSystemCache(BaseCache):
     #: keep amount of files in a cache element
     _fs_count_file = "__wz_cache_count"
 
+    serializer = FileSystemSerializer()
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         cache_dir: str,
@@ -96,7 +98,8 @@ def _remove_expired(self, now: float) -> None:
         for fname in self._list_dir():
             try:
                 with open(fname, "rb") as f:
-                    expires = pickle.load(f)
+                    expires = self.serializer.load(f)
+                    print(expires)
                 if expires != 0 and expires < now:
                     os.remove(fname)
                     self._update_count(delta=-1)
@@ -114,7 +117,7 @@ def _remove_older(self) -> bool:
         for fname in self._list_dir():
             try:
                 with open(fname, "rb") as f:
-                    exp_fname_tuples.append((pickle.load(f), fname))
+                    exp_fname_tuples.append((self.serializer.load(f), fname))
             except FileNotFoundError:
                 pass
             except (OSError, EOFError):
@@ -181,12 +184,12 @@ def get(self, key: str) -> _t.Any:
         filename = self._get_filename(key)
         try:
             with open(filename, "rb") as f:
-                pickle_time = pickle.load(f)
+                pickle_time = self.serializer.load(f)
                 if pickle_time == 0 or pickle_time >= time():
-                    return pickle.load(f)
+                    return self.serializer.load(f)
         except FileNotFoundError:
             pass
-        except (OSError, EOFError, pickle.PickleError):
+        except (OSError, EOFError):
             logging.warning(
                 "Exception raised while handling cache file '%s'",
                 filename,
@@ -223,8 +226,8 @@ def set(
                 suffix=self._fs_transaction_suffix, dir=self._path
             )
             with os.fdopen(fd, "wb") as f:
-                pickle.dump(timeout, f, 1)
-                pickle.dump(value, f, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
+                self.serializer.dump(timeout, f)  # this returns bool
+                self.serializer.dump(value, f)
             os.replace(tmp, filename)
             os.chmod(filename, self._mode)
             fsize = Path(filename).stat().st_size
@@ -259,14 +262,14 @@ def has(self, key: str) -> bool:
         filename = self._get_filename(key)
         try:
             with open(filename, "rb") as f:
-                pickle_time = pickle.load(f)
+                pickle_time = self.serializer.load(f)
                 if pickle_time == 0 or pickle_time >= time():
                     return True
                 else:
                     return False
         except FileNotFoundError:  # if there is no file there is no key
             return False
-        except (OSError, EOFError, pickle.PickleError):
+        except (OSError, EOFError):
             logging.warning(
                 "Exception raised while handling cache file '%s'",
                 filename,
diff --git a/src/cachelib/redis.py b/src/cachelib/redis.py
index 41afbf3e..ddc641f4 100644
--- a/src/cachelib/redis.py
+++ b/src/cachelib/redis.py
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-import pickle
 import typing as _t
+import warnings
 
 from cachelib.base import BaseCache
+from cachelib.serializers import RedisSerializer
 
 
 class RedisCache(BaseCache):
@@ -26,6 +27,8 @@ class RedisCache(BaseCache):
     Any additional keyword arguments will be passed to ``redis.Redis``.
     """
 
+    serializer = RedisSerializer()
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         host: _t.Any = "localhost",
@@ -60,29 +63,22 @@ def _normalize_timeout(self, timeout: _t.Optional[int]) -> int:
         return timeout
 
     def dump_object(self, value: _t.Any) -> bytes:
-        """Dumps an object into a string for redis.  By default it serializes
-        integers as regular string and pickle dumps everything else.
-        """
-        if isinstance(type(value), int):
-            return str(value).encode("ascii")
-        return b"!" + pickle.dumps(value)
-
-    def load_object(self, value: _t.Optional[bytes]) -> _t.Any:
-        """The reversal of :meth:`dump_object`.  This might be called with
-        None.
-        """
-        if value is None:
-            return None
-        if value.startswith(b"!"):
-            try:
-                return pickle.loads(value[1:])
-            except pickle.PickleError:
-                return None
-        try:
-            return int(value)
-        except ValueError:
-            # before 0.8 we did not have serialization.  Still support that.
-            return value
+        warnings.warn(
+            "'dump_object' is deprecated and will be removed in the future."
+            "This is a proxy call to 'RedisCache.serializer.dumps'",
+            DeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+        return self.serializer.dumps(value)
+
+    def load_object(self, value: _t.Any) -> _t.Any:
+        warnings.warn(
+            "'load_object' is deprecated and will be removed in the future."
+            "This is a proxy call to 'RedisCache.serializer.loads'",
+            DeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+        return self.serializer.loads(value)
 
     def get(self, key: str) -> _t.Any:
         return self.load_object(self._client.get(self.key_prefix + key))
diff --git a/src/cachelib/serializers.py b/src/cachelib/serializers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b3e0d55b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cachelib/serializers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+import logging
+import pickle
+import typing as _t
+
+
+class BaseSerializer:
+    """This is the base interface for all default serializers.
+
+    BaseSerializer.load and BaseSerializer.dump will
+    default to pickle.load and pickle.dump. This is currently
+    used only by FileSystemCache which dumps/loads to/from a file stream.
+    """
+
+    def _warn(self, e: pickle.PickleError) -> None:
+        logging.warning(
+            f"An exception has been raised during a pickling operation: {e}"
+        )
+
+    def dump(
+        self, value: int, f: _t.IO, protocol: int = pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL
+    ) -> None:
+        try:
+            pickle.dump(value, f, protocol)
+        except (pickle.PickleError, pickle.PicklingError) as e:
+            self._warn(e)
+
+    def load(self, f: _t.BinaryIO) -> _t.Any:
+        try:
+            data = pickle.load(f)
+        except pickle.PickleError as e:
+            self._warn(e)
+            return None
+        else:
+            return data
+
+    """BaseSerializer.loads and BaseSerializer.dumps
+    work on top of pickle.loads and pickle.dumps. Dumping/loading
+    strings and byte strings is the default for most cache types.
+    """
+
+    def dumps(self, value: _t.Any, protocol: int = pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL) -> bytes:
+        try:
+            serialized = pickle.dumps(value, protocol)
+        except (pickle.PickleError, pickle.PicklingError) as e:
+            self._warn(e)
+        return serialized
+
+    def loads(self, bvalue: bytes) -> _t.Any:
+        try:
+            data = pickle.loads(bvalue)
+        except pickle.PickleError as e:
+            self._warn(e)
+            return None
+        else:
+            return data
+
+
+"""Default serializers for each cache type.
+
+The following classes can be used to further customize
+serialiation behaviour. Alternatively, any serializer can be
+overriden in order to use a custom serializer with a different
+strategy altogether.
+"""
+
+
+class UWSGISerializer(BaseSerializer):
+    """Default serializer for UWSGICache."""
+
+
+class SimpleSerializer(BaseSerializer):
+    """Default serializer for SimpleCache."""
+
+
+class FileSystemSerializer(BaseSerializer):
+    """Default serializer for FileSystemCache."""
+
+
+class RedisSerializer(BaseSerializer):
+    """Default serializer for RedisCache."""
+
+    def dumps(self, value: _t.Any, protocol: int = pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL) -> bytes:
+        """Dumps an object into a string for redis. By default it serializes
+        integers as regular string and pickle dumps everything else.
+        """
+        if isinstance(type(value), int):
+            return str(value).encode("ascii")
+        return b"!" + pickle.dumps(value, protocol)
+
+    def loads(self, value: _t.Optional[bytes]) -> _t.Any:
+        """The reversal of :meth:`dump_object`. This might be called with
+        None.
+        """
+        if value is None:
+            return None
+        if value.startswith(b"!"):
+            try:
+                return pickle.loads(value[1:])
+            except pickle.PickleError:
+                return None
+        try:
+            return int(value)
+        except ValueError:
+            # before 0.8 we did not have serialization. Still support that.
+            return value
diff --git a/src/cachelib/simple.py b/src/cachelib/simple.py
index f3d459c1..14302cfc 100644
--- a/src/cachelib/simple.py
+++ b/src/cachelib/simple.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-import pickle
 import typing as _t
 from time import time
 
 from cachelib.base import BaseCache
+from cachelib.serializers import SimpleSerializer
 
 
 class SimpleCache(BaseCache):
@@ -19,7 +19,13 @@ class SimpleCache(BaseCache):
                             0 indicates that the cache never expires.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, threshold: int = 500, default_timeout: int = 300):
+    serializer = SimpleSerializer()
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        threshold: int = 500,
+        default_timeout: int = 300,
+    ):
         BaseCache.__init__(self, default_timeout)
         self._cache: _t.Dict[str, _t.Any] = {}
         self._threshold = threshold or 500  # threshold = 0
@@ -62,8 +68,8 @@ def get(self, key: str) -> _t.Any:
         try:
             expires, value = self._cache[key]
             if expires == 0 or expires > time():
-                return pickle.loads(value)
-        except (KeyError, pickle.PickleError):
+                return self.serializer.loads(value)
+        except KeyError:
             return None
 
     def set(
@@ -71,13 +77,13 @@ def set(
     ) -> _t.Optional[bool]:
         expires = self._normalize_timeout(timeout)
         self._prune()
-        self._cache[key] = (expires, pickle.dumps(value, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL))
+        self._cache[key] = (expires, self.serializer.dumps(value))
         return True
 
     def add(self, key: str, value: _t.Any, timeout: _t.Optional[int] = None) -> bool:
         expires = self._normalize_timeout(timeout)
         self._prune()
-        item = (expires, pickle.dumps(value, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL))
+        item = (expires, self.serializer.dumps(value))
         if key in self._cache:
             return False
         self._cache.setdefault(key, item)
diff --git a/src/cachelib/uwsgi.py b/src/cachelib/uwsgi.py
index beab19b2..9d2600c9 100644
--- a/src/cachelib/uwsgi.py
+++ b/src/cachelib/uwsgi.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-import pickle
 import platform
 import typing as _t
 
 from cachelib.base import BaseCache
+from cachelib.serializers import UWSGISerializer
 
 
 class UWSGICache(BaseCache):
@@ -20,7 +20,13 @@ class UWSGICache(BaseCache):
         the cache.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, default_timeout: int = 300, cache: str = ""):
+    serializer = UWSGISerializer()
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        default_timeout: int = 300,
+        cache: str = "",
+    ):
         BaseCache.__init__(self, default_timeout)
 
         if platform.python_implementation() == "PyPy":
@@ -44,7 +50,7 @@ def get(self, key: str) -> _t.Any:
         rv = self._uwsgi.cache_get(key, self.cache)
         if rv is None:
             return
-        return pickle.loads(rv)
+        return self.serializer.loads(rv)
 
     def delete(self, key: str) -> bool:
         return bool(self._uwsgi.cache_del(key, self.cache))
@@ -53,14 +59,20 @@ def set(
         self, key: str, value: _t.Any, timeout: _t.Optional[int] = None
     ) -> _t.Optional[bool]:
         result = self._uwsgi.cache_update(
-            key, pickle.dumps(value), self._normalize_timeout(timeout), self.cache
+            key,
+            self.serializer.dumps(value),
+            self._normalize_timeout(timeout),
+            self.cache,
         )  # type: bool
         return result
 
     def add(self, key: str, value: _t.Any, timeout: _t.Optional[int] = None) -> bool:
         return bool(
             self._uwsgi.cache_set(
-                key, pickle.dumps(value), self._normalize_timeout(timeout), self.cache
+                key,
+                self.serializer.dumps(value),
+                self._normalize_timeout(timeout),
+                self.cache,
             )
         )
 
diff --git a/tests/test_file_system_cache.py b/tests/test_file_system_cache.py
index c05fa68f..a1993aaa 100644
--- a/tests/test_file_system_cache.py
+++ b/tests/test_file_system_cache.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 from time import sleep
 
 import pytest
@@ -8,10 +9,38 @@
 from cachelib import FileSystemCache
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+class SillySerializer:
+    """A pointless serializer only for testing"""
+
+    def dump(self, value, fs):
+        fs.write(f"{repr(value)}{os.linesep}".encode())
+
+    def load(self, fs):
+        try:
+            loaded = eval(fs.readline().decode())
+        # When all file content has been read eval will
+        # turn the EOFError into SyntaxError wich is not
+        # handled by cachelib
+        except SyntaxError as e:
+            raise EOFError from e
+        return loaded
+
+
+class CustomCache(FileSystemCache):
+    """Our custom cache client with non-default serializer"""
+
+    # overwrite serializer
+    serializer = SillySerializer()
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, params=[FileSystemCache, CustomCache])
 def cache_factory(request, tmpdir):
     def _factory(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        return FileSystemCache(tmpdir, *args, **kwargs)
+        client = request.param(tmpdir, *args, **kwargs)
+        return client
 
     request.cls.cache_factory = _factory
 
diff --git a/tests/test_redis_cache.py b/tests/test_redis_cache.py
index f33978a0..25c3f94e 100644
--- a/tests/test_redis_cache.py
+++ b/tests/test_redis_cache.py
@@ -6,10 +6,32 @@
 from cachelib import RedisCache
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+class SillySerializer:
+    """A pointless serializer only for testing"""
+
+    def dumps(self, value):
+        return repr(value).encode()
+
+    def loads(self, bvalue):
+        if bvalue is None:
+            return None
+        return eval(bvalue.decode())
+
+
+class CustomCache(RedisCache):
+    """Our custom cache client with non-default serializer"""
+
+    # overwrite serializer
+    serializer = SillySerializer()
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, params=[RedisCache, CustomCache])
 def cache_factory(request):
     def _factory(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        rc = RedisCache(*args, port=6360, **kwargs)
+        rc = request.param(*args, port=6360, **kwargs)
         rc._client.flushdb()
         return rc
 
diff --git a/tests/test_simple_cache.py b/tests/test_simple_cache.py
index 1f6de3d8..4f4de68c 100644
--- a/tests/test_simple_cache.py
+++ b/tests/test_simple_cache.py
@@ -8,10 +8,30 @@
 from cachelib import SimpleCache
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+class SillySerializer:
+    """A pointless serializer only for testing"""
+
+    def dumps(self, value):
+        return repr(value).encode()
+
+    def loads(self, bvalue):
+        return eval(bvalue.decode())
+
+
+class CustomCache(SimpleCache):
+    """Our custom cache client with non-default serializer"""
+
+    # overwrite serializer
+    serializer = SillySerializer()
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, params=[SimpleCache, CustomCache])
 def cache_factory(request):
     def _factory(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        return SimpleCache(*args, **kwargs)
+        return request.param(*args, **kwargs)
 
     request.cls.cache_factory = _factory
 
diff --git a/tests/test_uwsgi_cache.py b/tests/test_uwsgi_cache.py
index da8c7dbc..c82a09a7 100644
--- a/tests/test_uwsgi_cache.py
+++ b/tests/test_uwsgi_cache.py
@@ -6,10 +6,30 @@
 from cachelib import UWSGICache
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+class SillySerializer:
+    """A pointless serializer only for testing"""
+
+    def dumps(self, value):
+        return repr(value).encode()
+
+    def loads(self, bvalue):
+        return eval(bvalue.decode())
+
+
+class CustomCache(UWSGICache):
+    """Our custom cache client with non-default serializer"""
+
+    # overwrite serializer
+    serializer = SillySerializer()
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, params=[UWSGICache, CustomCache])
 def cache_factory(request):
     def _factory(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        uwc = UWSGICache(*args, **kwargs)
+        uwc = request.param(*args, **kwargs)
         uwc.clear()
         return uwc