diff --git a/lib/react/rails/railtie.rb b/lib/react/rails/railtie.rb
index ad287f41d..0d8c1ae2b 100644
--- a/lib/react/rails/railtie.rb
+++ b/lib/react/rails/railtie.rb
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ class Railtie < ::Rails::Railtie
       config.react.addons = false
       # Server-side rendering
       config.react.max_renderers = 10
+      config.react.benchmark = false
       config.react.timeout = 20 #seconds
       config.react.react_js = lambda {File.read(::Rails.application.assets.resolve('react.js'))}
       config.react.component_filenames = ['components.js']
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ class Railtie < ::Rails::Railtie
         do_setup = lambda do
           cfg = app.config.react
           React::Renderer.setup!( cfg.react_js, cfg.components_js,
-                                {:size => cfg.size, :timeout => cfg.timeout})
+                                {:size => cfg.size, :timeout => cfg.timeout, :benchmark => cfg.benchmark})
         end
 
         do_setup.call
diff --git a/lib/react/renderer.rb b/lib/react/renderer.rb
index 31a0bee1f..fb7342adc 100644
--- a/lib/react/renderer.rb
+++ b/lib/react/renderer.rb
@@ -13,17 +13,18 @@ def initialize(component_name, props, js_message)
     cattr_accessor :pool
 
     def self.setup!(react_js, components_js, args={})
-      args.assert_valid_keys(:size, :timeout)
+      args.assert_valid_keys(:size, :timeout, :benchmark)
       @@react_js = react_js
       @@components_js = components_js
       @@pool.shutdown{} if @@pool
       reset_combined_js!
+      @@render_method = args[:benchmark] ? :render_with_benchmark : :render
       @@pool = ConnectionPool.new(:size => args[:size]||10, :timeout => args[:timeout]||20) { self.new }
     end
 
     def self.render(component, args={})
       @@pool.with do |renderer|
-        renderer.render(component, args)
+        renderer.send(@@render_method, component, args)
       end
     end
 
@@ -74,8 +75,18 @@ def render(component, args={})
         }()
       JS
       context.eval(jscode).html_safe
-    rescue ExecJS::ProgramError => e
+    rescue ::ExecJS::ProgramError => e
       raise PrerenderError.new(component, react_props, e)
     end
+
+    def render_with_benchmark(component, args={})
+      result = ''
+      time = Benchmark.realtime do
+        result = self.render(component, args)
+      end
+      ::Rails.logger.info "[React::Renderer#render] Rendered #{component} with #{args} (#{(time*1000).round(1)}ms)"
+      result
+    end
+
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/react_renderer_test.rb b/test/react_renderer_test.rb
index f01245a43..10f96c054 100644
--- a/test/react_renderer_test.rb
+++ b/test/react_renderer_test.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,32 @@ class ReactRendererTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
     assert_match /data-react-checksum/, result
   end
 
+  test 'prerender errors are thrown with non-json-encoded string' do
+    not_json_string = %w{todo1 todo2 todo3}.to_s
+
+    err = assert_raises React::Renderer::PrerenderError do
+      React::Renderer.render "TodoList", not_json_string
+    end
+    expected_message = 'Encountered error "Error: Invariant Violation: Tried to merge an object, instead got todo1,todo2,todo3." when prerendering TodoList with ["todo1", "todo2", "todo3"]'
+    assert_equal expected_message, err.message
+  end
+
+  test 'Server rendering with a simple Ruby Hash' do
+    a_hash = {todos: %w{todo1 todo2 todo3}}
+
+    result = React::Renderer.render "TodoList", a_hash
+    assert_match /todo1.*todo2.*todo3/, result
+    assert_match /data-react-checksum/, result
+  end
+
+  test 'Server rendering with a complex Ruby Hash' do
+    a_hash_with_nest = {data: {some: {thing: [0,1,2]}}, todos: [:some,:nested,:data]}
+
+    result = React::Renderer.render "TodoList", a_hash_with_nest
+    assert_match /some.*nested.*data/, result
+    assert_match /data-react-checksum/, result
+  end
+
   test 'Rendering does not throw an exception when console log api is used' do
     %W(error info log warn).each do |fn|
       assert_nothing_raised(ExecJS::ProgramError) do
diff --git a/test/view_helper_test.rb b/test/view_helper_test.rb
index 7f3445528..0121c3d3e 100644
--- a/test/view_helper_test.rb
+++ b/test/view_helper_test.rb
@@ -49,6 +49,38 @@ class ViewHelperTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
     assert html.include?('data-foo="1"')
   end
 
+  test 'react_component prerender:true and a simple Ruby Hash does not raise' do
+    a_hash = {todos: %w{todo1 todo2 todo3}}
+
+    assert_nothing_raised(StandardError) do
+      @helper.react_component('TodoList', a_hash, {prerender:true, tag: :span})
+    end
+  end
+
+  test 'react_component prerender:true and a complex Ruby Hash does not raise' do
+    a_hash = {data: {some: {thing: [0,1,2]}}, todos: [:some,:nested,:data]}
+
+    assert_nothing_raised(StandardError) do
+      @helper.react_component('TodoList', a_hash, {prerender:true, tag: :span})
+    end
+  end
+
+  test 'react_component prerender:true and a simple Ruby Hash' do
+    a_hash = {todos: %w{todo1 todo2 todo3}}
+
+    html = @helper.react_component('TodoList', a_hash, {prerender:true, tag: :span})
+    assert html.match(/<span\s.*><\/span>/)
+    assert html.match(/<li\sdata-reactid=\".*\">todo1<\/li>/)
+  end
+
+  test 'react_component prerender:true and a complex Ruby Hash' do
+    a_hash = {data: {some: {thing: [0,1,2]}}, todos: [:some,:nested,:data]}
+
+    html = @helper.react_component('TodoList', a_hash, {prerender:true, tag: :span})
+    assert html.match(/<span\s.*><\/span>/)
+    assert html.match(/<li\sdata-reactid=\".*\">some<\/li>/)
+  end
+
   test 'react_ujs works with rendered HTML' do
     visit '/pages/1'
     assert page.has_content?('Hello Bob')
@@ -98,7 +130,7 @@ class ViewHelperTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
     assert_match /data-react-checksum/, page.html
     assert_match /yep/, page.find("#status").text
   end
-  
+
   test 'react server rendering does not include internal properties' do
     visit '/server/1'
     assert_no_match /tag=/, page.html