diff --git a/defineRenderer.js b/defineRenderer.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..89b99ef1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/defineRenderer.js
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+var marko = require('./');
+var createRenderFunc = require('raptor-renderer').createRenderFunc;
+
+function defineRenderer(def) {
+    var template = def.template;
+    var getTemplateData = def.getTemplateData;
+    var renderer = def.renderer;
+
+    var loadedTemplate;
+
+
+    if (!renderer) {
+        // Create a renderer function that takes care of translating
+        // the input properties to a view state. Also, this renderer
+        // takes care of re-using existing widgets.
+        renderer = function renderer(input, out) {
+            var newProps = input;
+
+            if (!newProps) {
+                // Make sure we always have a non-null input object
+                newProps = {};
+            }
+
+            if (!loadedTemplate) {
+                // Lazily load the template on first render to avoid potential problems
+                // with circular dependencies
+                loadedTemplate = template.render ? template : marko.load(template);
+            }
+
+            // Use getTemplateData(state, props, out) to get the template
+            // data. If that method is not provided then just use the
+            // the state (if provided) or the input data.
+            var templateData = getTemplateData ?
+                getTemplateData(newProps, out) :
+                newProps;
+
+            // Render the template associated with the component using the final template
+            // data that we constructed
+            loadedTemplate.render(templateData, out);
+        };
+    }
+
+    renderer.render = createRenderFunc(renderer);
+
+    return renderer;
+}
+
+module.exports = defineRenderer;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/javascript-api.md b/docs/javascript-api.md
index 15190dbe0..6fdcd5a11 100644
--- a/docs/javascript-api.md
+++ b/docs/javascript-api.md
@@ -251,4 +251,46 @@ Default options:
      */
     assumeUpToDate: NODE_ENV == null ? false : (NODE_ENV !== 'development' && NODE_ENV !== 'dev')
 };
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
+
+# require('marko/defineRenderer')
+
+Utility module for building a UI component with both a `renderer(input, out)` (for use as a Marko custom tag renderer) a `render(input)` method (for rendering the UI component and inserting the HTML in the DOM):
+
+
+_src/components/app-hello/index.js_
+
+```javascript
+var defineRenderer = require('marko/defineRenderer');
+
+module.exports = defineRenderer({
+	template: require('./template.marko'),
+	getTemplateData: function(input) {
+		var firstName = input.firstName;
+		var lastName = input.lastName;
+
+		return {
+			fullName: firstName + ' ' + lastName
+		};
+	}
+})
+```
+
+The UI component can be used as a custom tag:
+
+```xml
+<app-hello first-name="John" last-name="Doe" />
+```
+
+And it can also be rendered and inserted into the DOM:
+
+```javascript
+require('./src/components/app-hello')
+	.render({
+		firstName: 'John',
+		lastName: 'Doe'
+	})
+	.appendTo(document.body);
+```
+
+The return value of `render()` will be a [RenderResult](https://github.com/raptorjs/raptor-renderer#renderresult) instance.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ea575cafb..69f9fb0af 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
     "raptor-polyfill": "^1.0.0",
     "raptor-promises": "^1.0.1",
     "raptor-regexp": "^1.0.0",
+    "raptor-renderer": "^1.4.4",
     "raptor-strings": "^1.0.0",
     "raptor-util": "^1.0.0",
     "resolve-from": "^1.0.0",
diff --git a/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/template.marko b/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/template.marko
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..47279a6b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/template.marko
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+<div>
+    Hello ${data.fullName}!
+</div>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/test.js b/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/test.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67208cf17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/autotests/api/defineRenderer/test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+exports.check = function(marko, markoCompiler, expect, done) {
+
+    var defineRenderer = require('../../../../defineRenderer');
+    var renderer = defineRenderer({
+        template: require('./template.marko'),
+        getTemplateData: function(input) {
+            return {
+                fullName: input.firstName + ' ' + input.lastName
+            };
+        }
+    });
+
+    var renderResult = renderer.render({ firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe' });
+    expect(renderResult.html).to.equal('<div>Hello John Doe!</div>');
+    done();
+};
\ No newline at end of file