diff --git a/src/Encoder.ts b/src/Encoder.ts
index cda0822..73fccc5 100644
--- a/src/Encoder.ts
+++ b/src/Encoder.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,14 @@ export type EncoderOptions<ContextType = undefined> = Partial<
      */
     ignoreUndefined: boolean;
 
+    /**
+     * If `true`, undefineds are not handled by the library and are instead
+     * made available to extension codecs
+     *
+     * Defaults to `false`
+     */
+    allowUndefinedCustomEncoding: boolean;
+
     /**
      * If `true`, integer numbers are encoded as floating point numbers,
      * with the `forceFloat32` option taken into account.
@@ -80,6 +88,7 @@ export class Encoder<ContextType = undefined> {
   private readonly sortKeys: boolean;
   private readonly forceFloat32: boolean;
   private readonly ignoreUndefined: boolean;
+  private readonly allowUndefinedCustomEncoding: boolean;
   private readonly forceIntegerToFloat: boolean;
 
   private pos: number;
@@ -96,6 +105,7 @@ export class Encoder<ContextType = undefined> {
     this.sortKeys = options?.sortKeys ?? false;
     this.forceFloat32 = options?.forceFloat32 ?? false;
     this.ignoreUndefined = options?.ignoreUndefined ?? false;
+    this.allowUndefinedCustomEncoding = options?.allowUndefinedCustomEncoding ?? false;
     this.forceIntegerToFloat = options?.forceIntegerToFloat ?? false;
 
     this.pos = 0;
@@ -132,7 +142,8 @@ export class Encoder<ContextType = undefined> {
       throw new Error(`Too deep objects in depth ${depth}`);
     }
 
-    if (object == null) {
+    const objectIsNil = this.allowUndefinedCustomEncoding ? object === null : object == null
+    if (objectIsNil) {
       this.encodeNil();
     } else if (typeof object === "boolean") {
       this.encodeBoolean(object);
diff --git a/test/ExtensionCodec.test.ts b/test/ExtensionCodec.test.ts
index 21ae8db..e825eca 100644
--- a/test/ExtensionCodec.test.ts
+++ b/test/ExtensionCodec.test.ts
@@ -96,6 +96,32 @@ describe("ExtensionCodec", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  context("undefined", () => {
+    const extensionCodec = new ExtensionCodec();
+
+    // undefined
+    extensionCodec.register({
+      type: 0x1,
+      encode: (object: unknown): Uint8Array | null => {
+        if (object === undefined) {
+          return new Uint8Array(0);
+        }
+        return null;
+      },
+      decode: (data: Uint8Array) => {
+        if (data.length === 0) {
+          return undefined;
+        }
+        throw new Error("invalid data");
+      },
+    });
+
+    it("encodes and decodes undefined (synchronously)", () => {
+      const encoded = encode([undefined], { extensionCodec, allowUndefinedCustomEncoding: true });
+      assert.deepStrictEqual(decode(encoded, { extensionCodec }), [undefined]);
+    });
+  });
+
   context("custom extensions with custom context", () => {
     class Context {
       public expectations: Array<any> = [];