diff --git a/src/useIntersectionObserver.ts b/src/useIntersectionObserver.ts
index 7c3c894..db64b40 100644
--- a/src/useIntersectionObserver.ts
+++ b/src/useIntersectionObserver.ts
@@ -2,30 +2,61 @@ import { useState } from 'react'
 
 import useStableMemo from './useStableMemo'
 import useEffect from './useIsomorphicEffect'
+import useEventCallback from './useEventCallback'
 
 /**
  * Setup an [`IntersectionObserver`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IntersectionObserver) on
- * a DOM Element.
+ * a DOM Element that returns it's entries as they arrive.
  *
  * @param element The DOM element to observe
  * @param init IntersectionObserver options
  */
-export default function useIntersectionObserver<TElement extends Element>(
+function useIntersectionObserver<TElement extends Element>(
   element: TElement | null | undefined,
-  { threshold, root, rootMargin }: IntersectionObserverInit = {},
-) {
+  options: IntersectionObserverInit,
+): IntersectionObserverEntry[]
+/**
+ * Setup an [`IntersectionObserver`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IntersectionObserver) on
+ * a DOM Element. This overload does not trigger component updates when receiving new
+ * entries. This allows for finer grained performance optimizations by the consumer.
+ *
+ * @param element The DOM element to observe
+ * @param callback A listener for intersection updates.
+ * @param init IntersectionObserver options
+ */
+function useIntersectionObserver<TElement extends Element>(
+  element: TElement | null | undefined,
+  callback: IntersectionObserverCallback,
+  options: IntersectionObserverInit,
+): void
+function useIntersectionObserver<TElement extends Element>(
+  element: TElement | null | undefined,
+  callbackOrOptions: IntersectionObserverCallback | IntersectionObserverInit,
+  maybeOptions?: IntersectionObserverInit,
+): void | IntersectionObserverEntry[] {
+  let callback: IntersectionObserverCallback | undefined
+  let options: IntersectionObserverInit
+  if (typeof callbackOrOptions === 'function') {
+    callback = callbackOrOptions
+    options = maybeOptions || {}
+  } else {
+    options = callbackOrOptions || {}
+  }
+  const { threshold, root, rootMargin } = options
   const [entries, setEntry] = useState<IntersectionObserverEntry[] | null>(null)
 
+  const handler = useEventCallback(callback || setEntry)
+
   const observer = useStableMemo(
     () =>
       typeof IntersectionObserver !== 'undefined' &&
-      new IntersectionObserver(entries => setEntry(entries), {
+      new IntersectionObserver(handler, {
         threshold,
         root,
         rootMargin,
       }),
 
-    [root, rootMargin, threshold && JSON.stringify(threshold)],
+    [handler, root, rootMargin, threshold && JSON.stringify(threshold)],
   )
 
   useEffect(() => {
@@ -38,5 +69,7 @@ export default function useIntersectionObserver<TElement extends Element>(
     }
   }, [observer, element])
 
-  return entries || []
+  return callback ? undefined : entries || []
 }
+
+export default useIntersectionObserver
diff --git a/src/useMutationObserver.ts b/src/useMutationObserver.ts
index a6066c0..47a1c45 100644
--- a/src/useMutationObserver.ts
+++ b/src/useMutationObserver.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import useCustomEffect from './useCustomEffect'
 import { dequal } from 'dequal'
 import useImmediateUpdateEffect from './useImmediateUpdateEffect'
 import useEventCallback from './useEventCallback'
+import { useState } from 'react'
 
 type Deps = [Element | null | undefined, MutationObserverInit]
 
@@ -16,7 +17,7 @@ function isDepsEqual(
  * Observe mutations on a DOM node or tree of DOM nodes.
  * Depends on the `MutationObserver` api.
  *
- * ```ts
+ * ```tsx
  * const [element, attachRef] = useCallbackRef(null);
  *
  * useMutationObserver(element, { subtree: true }, (records) => {
@@ -36,8 +37,35 @@ function useMutationObserver(
   element: Element | null | undefined,
   config: MutationObserverInit,
   callback: MutationCallback,
-): void {
-  const fn = useEventCallback(callback)
+): void
+/**
+ * Observe mutations on a DOM node or tree of DOM nodes.
+ * use a `MutationObserver` and return records as the are received.
+ *
+ * ```tsx
+ * const [element, attachRef] = useCallbackRef(null);
+ *
+ * const records = useMutationObserver(element, { subtree: true });
+ *
+ * return (
+ *   <div ref={attachRef} />
+ * )
+ * ```
+ *
+ * @param element The DOM element to observe
+ * @param config The observer configuration
+ */
+function useMutationObserver(
+  element: Element | null | undefined,
+  config: MutationObserverInit,
+): MutationRecord[]
+function useMutationObserver(
+  element: Element | null | undefined,
+  config: MutationObserverInit,
+  callback?: MutationCallback,
+): MutationRecord[] | void {
+  const [records, setRecords] = useState<MutationRecord[] | null>(null)
+  const handler = useEventCallback(callback || setRecords)
 
   useCustomEffect(
     () => {
@@ -47,7 +75,7 @@ function useMutationObserver(
       // observing again _should_ disable the last listener but doesn't
       // seem to always be the case, maybe just in JSDOM? In any case the cost
       // to redeclaring it is gonna be fairly low anyway, so make it simple
-      const observer = new MutationObserver(fn)
+      const observer = new MutationObserver(handler)
 
       observer.observe(element, config)
 
@@ -63,6 +91,8 @@ function useMutationObserver(
       effectHook: useImmediateUpdateEffect,
     },
   )
+
+  return callback ? void 0 : records || []
 }
 
 export default useMutationObserver