diff --git a/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pxd b/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pxd
index 1af9908..d3b15f7 100644
--- a/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pxd
+++ b/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pxd
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 cdef class HashTableNT:
     cdef int key_size
+    cdef object byte_order
     cdef object value_type
     cdef object value_format
     cdef object value_struct
diff --git a/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pyx b/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pyx
index bbf01dd..03311cd 100644
--- a/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pyx
+++ b/src/borghash/HashTableNT.pyx
@@ -17,12 +17,14 @@ assert len(MAGIC) == 8
 VERSION = 1  # version of the on-disk (serialized) format produced by .write().
 HEADER_FMT = "<8sII"  # magic, version, meta length
 
+BYTE_ORDER = dict(big=">", little="<", network="!", native="=")  # struct format chars
+
 _NoDefault = object()
 
 cdef class HashTableNT:
     def __init__(self, items=None, *,
                  key_size: int, value_type: Any, value_format: Any,
-                 capacity: int = MIN_CAPACITY) -> None:
+                 capacity: int = MIN_CAPACITY, byte_order="little") -> None:
         if not isinstance(key_size, int) or not key_size > 0:
             raise ValueError("key_size must be an integer and > 0.")
         if type(value_type) is not type:
@@ -33,10 +35,13 @@ cdef class HashTableNT:
             raise TypeError("value_format's and value_type's element names must correspond.")
         if not all(isinstance(fmt, str) and len(fmt) > 0 for fmt in value_format):
             raise ValueError("value_format's elements must be str and non-empty.")
+        if byte_order not in BYTE_ORDER:
+            raise ValueError("byte_order must be one of: {','.join(BYTE_ORDER.keys())}")
         self.key_size = key_size
         self.value_type = value_type
         self.value_format = value_format
-        self.value_struct = struct.Struct("".join(value_format))
+        self.byte_order = byte_order
+        self.value_struct = struct.Struct(BYTE_ORDER[byte_order] + "".join(value_format))
         self.value_size = self.value_struct.size
         self.inner = HashTable(key_size=self.key_size, value_size=self.value_size, capacity=capacity)
         _fill(self, items)
@@ -164,6 +169,7 @@ cdef class HashTableNT:
         meta = {
             'key_size': self.key_size,
             'value_size': self.value_size,
+            'byte_order': self.byte_order,
             'value_type_name': self.value_type.__name__,
             'value_type_fields': self.value_type._fields,
             'value_format_name': self.value_format.__class__.__name__,
@@ -210,7 +216,8 @@ cdef class HashTableNT:
         value_type = namedtuple(meta['value_type_name'], meta['value_type_fields'])
         value_format_t = namedtuple(meta['value_format_name'], meta['value_format_fields'])
         value_format = value_format_t(*meta['value_format'])
-        ht = cls(key_size=meta['key_size'], value_format=value_format, value_type=value_type, capacity=meta['capacity'])
+        ht = cls(key_size=meta['key_size'], value_format=value_format, value_type=value_type,
+                 capacity=meta['capacity'], byte_order=meta['byte_order'])
         count = 0
         ksize, vsize = meta['key_size'], meta['value_size']
         for i in range(meta['used']):
diff --git a/src/borghash/__main__.py b/src/borghash/__main__.py
index 01b4a51..8c49b4d 100644
--- a/src/borghash/__main__.py
+++ b/src/borghash/__main__.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ def demo():
 count = 50000
 value_type = namedtuple("Chunk", ["refcount", "size"])
 value_format_t = namedtuple("ChunkFormat", ["refcount", "size"])
-value_format = value_format_t(refcount="<I", size="I")
+value_format = value_format_t(refcount="I", size="I")
 # 256bit (32Byte) key, 2x 32bit (4Byte) values
 ht = HashTableNT(key_size=32, value_type=value_type, value_format=value_format)
 
diff --git a/tests/benchmark_test.py b/tests/benchmark_test.py
index c62f4c2..e0da009 100644
--- a/tests/benchmark_test.py
+++ b/tests/benchmark_test.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 VALUE_TYPE = namedtuple("value_type", "value")
 VALUE_FMT_TYPE = namedtuple("value_format", "value")
-VALUE_FMT = VALUE_FMT_TYPE("<I")
+VALUE_FMT = VALUE_FMT_TYPE("I")
 KEY_SIZE = len(H2(0))
 VALUE_SIZE = len(struct.pack("".join(VALUE_FMT), 0))
 VALUE_BITS = VALUE_SIZE * 8
diff --git a/tests/hashtablent_test.py b/tests/hashtablent_test.py
index 31b7cb1..306f7c1 100644
--- a/tests/hashtablent_test.py
+++ b/tests/hashtablent_test.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 key_size = 32  # 32 bytes = 256bits key
 value_type = namedtuple("vt", "v1 v2 v3")
 value_format_t = namedtuple("vf", "v1 v2 v3")
-value_format = value_format_t(v1="<I", v2="I", v3="I")  # 3x little endian 32bit unsigned int
+value_format = value_format_t(v1="I", v2="I", v3="I")  # 3x little endian 32bit unsigned int
 
 key1, value1 = b"a" * 32, value_type(11, 12, 13)
 key2, value2 = b"b" * 32, value_type(21, 22, 23)