diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparator.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparator.java
index 7b2c121213c1..301223ad2940 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparator.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparator.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase;
 
+import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.ByteBufferUtils;
@@ -30,7 +31,7 @@
  */
 @InterfaceAudience.Public
 @InterfaceStability.Evolving
-public interface CellComparator extends Comparator<Cell> {
+public interface CellComparator extends Comparator<Cell>, Serializable {
   /**
    * A comparator for ordering cells in user-space tables. Useful when writing cells in sorted order
    * as necessary for bulk import (i.e. via MapReduce).
diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparatorImpl.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparatorImpl.java
index 71513c89c830..4b138979beb8 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparatorImpl.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/CellComparatorImpl.java
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@
 @InterfaceStability.Evolving
 public class CellComparatorImpl implements CellComparator {
 
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = 8186411895799094989L;
+
   /**
    * Comparator for plain key/values; i.e. non-catalog table key/values. Works on Key portion of
    * KeyValue only.