diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index e88bbdf..fdb3a22 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -590,6 +590,35 @@ errors would be raised like so:
     {
 
 
+Complex JSON Filtering with Boolean Logic
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The ``ComplexJSONFilterBackend`` backend allows a user to filter using a JSON definition instead of an encoded string. Pass an encoded representation of a json object that has a top-level `or` or `and` key, mapped to an array of clauses to the `json_filters` option. These clauses can either be other `or` or `and` clauses or a mapping of query params to their values. For example to query for all resources where (title does not contain "Why") AND (title starts with "Who" OR title starts with "What"):
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    filters = {
+        "and": [
+            {
+                "or": [
+                    {
+                        "title__startswith": "Who"
+                    },
+                    {
+                        "title__startswith": "What"
+                    },
+                ]
+            },
+            {
+                "title__icontains!": "Why"
+            },
+        ]
+    }
+    querystring = "json_filters={filters}".format(
+        filters=quote(json.dumps(filters))
+    )
+
+
 Migrating to 1.0
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/rest_framework_filters/backends.py b/rest_framework_filters/backends.py
index a8476a7..03bf984 100644
--- a/rest_framework_filters/backends.py
+++ b/rest_framework_filters/backends.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+import json
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 
+from django.db.models import QuerySet
 from django.http import QueryDict
 from django_filters import compat
 from django_filters.rest_framework import backends
@@ -8,6 +10,8 @@
 from .complex_ops import combine_complex_queryset, decode_complex_ops
 from .filterset import FilterSet
 
+COMPLEX_JSON_OPERATORS = {"and": QuerySet.__and__, "or": QuerySet.__or__}
+
 
 class RestFrameworkFilterBackend(backends.DjangoFilterBackend):
     filterset_base = FilterSet
@@ -96,3 +100,60 @@ def get_filtered_querysets(self, querystrings, request, queryset, view):
         if errors:
             raise ValidationError(errors)
         return querysets
+
+
+class ComplexJSONFilterBackend(RestFrameworkFilterBackend):
+    complex_filter_param = "json_filters"
+
+    def filter_queryset(self, request, queryset, view):
+        res = super().filter_queryset(request, queryset, view)
+        if self.complex_filter_param not in request.query_params:
+            return res
+
+        encoded_querystring = request.query_params[self.complex_filter_param]
+        try:
+            complex_ops = json.loads(encoded_querystring)
+            return self.combine_filtered_querysets(complex_ops, request, res, view)
+        except ValidationError as exc:
+            raise ValidationError({self.complex_filter_param: exc.detail})
+        except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
+            raise ValidationError({self.complex_filter_param: "unable to parse json."})
+
+    def combine_filtered_querysets(self, complex_filter, request, queryset, view):
+        """
+        Function used recursively to filter the complex filter boolean logic
+        Args:
+            complex_filter: the json complex filter
+            request: request
+            queryset: starting queryset, unfiltered
+            view: the view
+
+        Returns:
+            queryset
+        """
+        operator = None
+        combined_queryset = None
+        for symbol, complex_operator in COMPLEX_JSON_OPERATORS.items():
+            if operator is None and symbol in complex_filter:
+                operator = complex_operator
+                for sub_filter in complex_filter[symbol]:
+                    filtered_queryset = self.combine_filtered_querysets(sub_filter, request, queryset, view)
+                    if combined_queryset is None:
+                        combined_queryset = filtered_queryset
+                    else:
+                        combined_queryset = complex_operator(combined_queryset, filtered_queryset)
+        if operator:
+            return combined_queryset
+
+        return self.get_filtered_queryset(
+            "&".join(["{k}={v}".format(k=k, v=v) for k, v in complex_filter.items()]), request, queryset, view
+        )
+
+    def get_filtered_queryset(self, querystring, request, queryset, view):
+        original_GET = request._request.GET
+        request._request.GET = QueryDict(querystring)
+        try:
+            res = super().filter_queryset(request, queryset, view)
+        finally:
+            request._request.GET = original_GET
+        return res
diff --git a/tests/test_backends.py b/tests/test_backends.py
index 9083df6..ad42bcb 100644
--- a/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import json
 from urllib.parse import quote, urlencode
 
 import django_filters
@@ -480,3 +481,114 @@ def test_pagination_compatibility(self):
             [r['username'] for r in response.data['results']],
             ['user3'],
         )
+
+
+class ComplexJSONFilterBackendTests(APITestCase):
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpTestData(cls):
+        models.User.objects.create(username="user1", email="user1@example.com")
+        models.User.objects.create(username="user2", email="user2@example.com")
+        models.User.objects.create(username="user3", email="user3@example.org")
+        models.User.objects.create(username="user4", email="user4@example.org")
+
+    def test_valid(self):
+        readable = json.dumps({
+            "or": [
+                {
+                    "username": "user1"
+                },
+                {
+                    "email__contains": "example.org"
+                }
+            ]
+        })
+        response = self.client.get('/ffjsoncomplex-users/?json_filters=' + quote(readable), content_type='json')
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_200_OK)
+        self.assertListEqual(
+            [r['username'] for r in response.data],
+            ['user1', 'user3', 'user4']
+        )
+
+    def test_invalid(self):
+        readable = json.dumps({
+            "or": [
+                {
+                    "username": "user1"
+                },
+                {
+                    "email__contains": "example.org"
+                }
+            ]
+        })[0:10]
+        response = self.client.get('/ffjsoncomplex-users/?json_filters=' + quote(readable), content_type='json')
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
+        self.assertDictEqual(response.json(), {
+            'json_filters': "unable to parse json.",
+        })
+
+    def test_invalid_filterset_errors(self):
+        readable = json.dumps({
+            "or": [
+                {
+                    "id": "foo"
+                },
+                {
+                    "id": "bar"
+                }
+            ]
+        })
+        response = self.client.get('/ffjsoncomplex-users/?json_filters=' + quote(readable), content_type='json')
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
+        self.assertDictEqual(response.json(), {
+            'json_filters': {
+                'id': ["Enter a number."],
+            },
+        })
+
+    def test_pagination_compatibility(self):
+        """
+        Ensure that complex-filtering does not interfere with additional query param processing.
+        """
+        readable = json.dumps({
+            "or": [
+                {
+                    "email__contains": "example.org"
+                }
+            ]
+        })
+
+        # sanity check w/o pagination
+        response = self.client.get('/ffjsoncomplex-users/?json_filters=' + quote(readable), content_type='json')
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_200_OK)
+        self.assertListEqual(
+            [r['username'] for r in response.data],
+            ['user3', 'user4']
+        )
+
+        # sanity check w/o complex-filtering
+        response = self.client.get('/ffjsoncomplex-users/?page_size=1', content_type='json')
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_200_OK)
+        self.assertIn('results', response.data)
+        self.assertListEqual(
+            [r['username'] for r in response.data['results']],
+            ['user1']
+        )
+
+        # pagination + complex-filtering
+        response = self.client.get(
+            '/ffjsoncomplex-users/?page_size=1&json_filters=' + quote(readable),
+            content_type='json'
+        )
+
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_200_OK)
+        self.assertIn('results', response.data)
+        self.assertListEqual(
+            [r['username'] for r in response.data['results']],
+            ['user3']
+        )
diff --git a/tests/testapp/urls.py b/tests/testapp/urls.py
index 3d3429c..24b1e0d 100644
--- a/tests/testapp/urls.py
+++ b/tests/testapp/urls.py
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
 router.register('ffcomplex-users',
                 views.ComplexFilterFieldsUserViewSet,
                 basename='ffcomplex-users')
+router.register(r'ffjsoncomplex-users',
+                views.ComplexJSONFilterFieldsUserViewSet,
+                basename='ffjsoncomplex-users')
 router.register('users', views.UserViewSet)
 router.register('notes', views.NoteViewSet)
 
diff --git a/tests/testapp/views.py b/tests/testapp/views.py
index 1d9e0e2..03dc668 100644
--- a/tests/testapp/views.py
+++ b/tests/testapp/views.py
@@ -52,6 +52,19 @@ class pagination_class(pagination.PageNumberPagination):
         page_size_query_param = 'page_size'
 
 
+class ComplexJSONFilterFieldsUserViewSet(FilterFieldsUserViewSet):
+    queryset = User.objects.order_by('pk')
+    filter_backends = (backends.ComplexJSONFilterBackend, )
+    filterset_fields = {
+        'id': '__all__',
+        'username': '__all__',
+        'email': '__all__',
+    }
+
+    class pagination_class(pagination.PageNumberPagination):
+        page_size_query_param = 'page_size'
+
+
 class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
     queryset = User.objects.all()
     serializer_class = UserSerializer