diff --git a/ebean-api/pom.xml b/ebean-api/pom.xml
index d3868ff91..649f85822 100644
--- a/ebean-api/pom.xml
+++ b/ebean-api/pom.xml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>io.ebean</groupId>
       <artifactId>ebean-annotation</artifactId>
-      <version>7.0</version>
+      <version>7.1</version>
     </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
diff --git a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/BeanPropertyJsonMapper.java b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/BeanPropertyJsonMapper.java
index 40c90d853..c7fba7b8b 100644
--- a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/BeanPropertyJsonMapper.java
+++ b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/BeanPropertyJsonMapper.java
@@ -15,16 +15,24 @@ import java.util.Objects;
 
 public class BeanPropertyJsonMapper extends BeanProperty {
 
+  private static final NoDirtyDetection NO_DIRTY_DETECTION = new NoDirtyDetection();
+  private final boolean dirtyDetection;
+  private final boolean keepSource;
+
   public BeanPropertyJsonMapper(BeanDescriptor<?> desc, DeployBeanProperty deployProp) {
     super(desc, deployProp);
+    this.dirtyDetection = deployProp.isDirtyDetection();
+    this.keepSource = deployProp.isKeepSource();
   }
 
   @Override
   public MutableHash createMutableHash(String json) {
-    if (false) { // TODO should we make that configurable?
-      return new Md5MutableHash(json);
-    } else {
+    if (keepSource) {
       return new JsonMutableHash(scalarType, json);
+    } else if (dirtyDetection) {
+      return new Md5MutableHash(scalarType, json);
+    } else {
+      return NO_DIRTY_DETECTION;
     }
   }
 
@@ -67,8 +75,10 @@ public class BeanPropertyJsonMapper extends BeanProperty {
   private static class Md5MutableHash implements MutableHash {
 
     private final String hash;
+    private final ScalarType<?> parent;
 
-    Md5MutableHash(String json) {
+    Md5MutableHash(ScalarType<?> parent, String json) {
+      this.parent = parent;
       this.hash = hash(json);
     }
 
@@ -78,7 +88,7 @@ public class BeanPropertyJsonMapper extends BeanProperty {
 
     @Override
     public boolean isEqualToObject(Object obj) {
-      return true; // we cannot determine differences...
+      return isEqualToJson(parent.format(obj));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -119,4 +129,20 @@ public class BeanPropertyJsonMapper extends BeanProperty {
     }
 
   }
+
+  /**
+   * No dirty detection on JSON content.
+   */
+  private static class NoDirtyDetection implements MutableHash {
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean isEqualToJson(String json) {
+      return true;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean isEqualToObject(Object obj) {
+      return true;
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/meta/DeployBeanProperty.java b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/meta/DeployBeanProperty.java
index 92ad7f1e9..060ce802f 100644
--- a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/meta/DeployBeanProperty.java
+++ b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/meta/DeployBeanProperty.java
@@ -109,6 +109,8 @@ public class DeployBeanProperty {
 
   private boolean jsonSerialize = true;
   private boolean jsonDeserialize = true;
+  private boolean dirtyDetection;
+  private boolean keepSource;
 
   private boolean dbEncrypted;
   private DbEncryptFunction dbEncryptFunction;
@@ -327,6 +329,20 @@ public class DeployBeanProperty {
     this.jsonDeserialize = jsonDeserialize;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Return true if we should have JSON dirty detection on this property.
+   */
+  public boolean isDirtyDetection() {
+    return dirtyDetection;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Return true if we should store source JSON content on this property.
+   */
+  public boolean isKeepSource() {
+    return keepSource;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Return the sortOrder for the properties.
    */
@@ -1204,4 +1220,9 @@ public class DeployBeanProperty {
   boolean isJsonMapper() {
     return scalarType != null && scalarType.isJsonMapper();
   }
+
+  public void setJsonOptions(boolean dirtyDetection, boolean keepSource) {
+    this.dirtyDetection = dirtyDetection;
+    this.keepSource = keepSource;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/parse/DeployUtil.java b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/parse/DeployUtil.java
index 65c7cf45e..2245b0c4c 100644
--- a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/parse/DeployUtil.java
+++ b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/deploy/parse/DeployUtil.java
@@ -213,23 +213,22 @@ public class DeployUtil {
    * This property is marked as a Lob object.
    */
   void setDbJsonType(DeployBeanProperty prop, DbJson dbJsonType) {
-
     int dbType = getDbJsonStorage(dbJsonType.storage());
-    setDbJsonType(prop, dbType, dbJsonType.length());
+    setDbJsonType(prop, dbType, dbJsonType.length(), dbJsonType.dirtyDetection(), dbJsonType.keepSource());
   }
 
   void setDbJsonBType(DeployBeanProperty prop, DbJsonB dbJsonB) {
-    setDbJsonType(prop, DbPlatformType.JSONB, dbJsonB.length());
+    setDbJsonType(prop, DbPlatformType.JSONB, dbJsonB.length(), dbJsonB.dirtyDetection(), dbJsonB.keepSource());
   }
 
-  private void setDbJsonType(DeployBeanProperty prop, int dbType, int dbLength) {
-
+  private void setDbJsonType(DeployBeanProperty prop, int dbType, int dbLength, boolean dirtyDetection, boolean keepSource) {
     ScalarType<?> scalarType = typeManager.getJsonScalarType(prop, dbType, dbLength);
     if (scalarType == null) {
       throw new RuntimeException("No ScalarType for JSON property [" + prop + "] [" + dbType + "]");
     }
     prop.setDbType(dbType);
     prop.setScalarType(scalarType);
+    prop.setJsonOptions(dirtyDetection, keepSource);
     if (dbType == Types.VARCHAR || dbLength > 0) {
       // determine the db column size
       int columnLength = (dbLength > 0) ? dbLength : DEFAULT_JSON_VARCHAR_LENGTH;
diff --git a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/type/ScalarTypeJsonObjectMapper.java b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/type/ScalarTypeJsonObjectMapper.java
index 2c3be2fa3..14425c6c9 100644
--- a/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/type/ScalarTypeJsonObjectMapper.java
+++ b/ebean-core/src/main/java/io/ebeaninternal/server/type/ScalarTypeJsonObjectMapper.java
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@ import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JavaType;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectWriter;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.introspect.AnnotatedField;
-
-import io.ebean.bean.MutableHash;
 import io.ebean.core.type.DataBinder;
 import io.ebean.core.type.DataReader;
 import io.ebean.core.type.DocPropertyType;
@@ -17,7 +15,6 @@ import io.ebean.text.TextException;
 import io.ebeaninternal.json.ModifyAwareList;
 import io.ebeaninternal.json.ModifyAwareMap;
 import io.ebeaninternal.json.ModifyAwareSet;
-import io.ebeaninternal.server.util.Md5;
 
 import javax.persistence.PersistenceException;
 import java.io.DataInput;
@@ -27,7 +24,6 @@ import java.sql.SQLException;
 import java.sql.Types;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Set;
 
 /**
diff --git a/ebean-core/src/test/java/org/tests/model/json/EBasicJsonList.java b/ebean-core/src/test/java/org/tests/model/json/EBasicJsonList.java
index 22b32e3e1..05d9807b5 100644
--- a/ebean-core/src/test/java/org/tests/model/json/EBasicJsonList.java
+++ b/ebean-core/src/test/java/org/tests/model/json/EBasicJsonList.java
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ public class EBasicJsonList {
   @DbJson(length = 700)
   Map<String, PlainBean> beanMap = new LinkedHashMap<>();
 
-  @DbJson(length = 500)
+  @DbJson(length = 500, keepSource = true) // such that we can rebuild old values
   PlainBean plainBean;
 
   @DbJson(length = 50)