diff --git a/geopandas/base.py b/geopandas/base.py
index ad31a6d..d426bfd 100644
--- a/geopandas/base.py
+++ b/geopandas/base.py
@@ -790,6 +790,34 @@ class GeoPandasBase(object):
         """
         return _CoordinateIndexer(self)
 
+    def equals(self, other):
+        """
+        Test whether two objects contain the same elements.
+
+        This function allows two GeoSeries or GeoDataFrames to be compared
+        against each other to see if they have the same shape and elements.
+        Missing values in the same location are considered equal. The
+        row/column index do not need to have the same type (as long as the
+        values are still considered equal), but the dtypes of the respective
+        columns must be the same.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        other : GeoSeries or GeoDataFrame
+            The other GeoSeries or GeoDataFrame to be compared with the first.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        bool
+            True if all elements are the same in both objects, False
+            otherwise.
+        """
+        # we override this because pandas is using `self._constructor` in the
+        # isinstance check (https://github.com/geopandas/geopandas/issues/1420)
+        if not isinstance(other, type(self)):
+            return False
+        return self._data.equals(other._data)
+
 
 class _CoordinateIndexer(object):
     # see docstring GeoPandasBase.cx property above
diff --git a/geopandas/tests/test_pandas_methods.py b/geopandas/tests/test_pandas_methods.py
index 3318a19..7078331 100644
--- a/geopandas/tests/test_pandas_methods.py
+++ b/geopandas/tests/test_pandas_methods.py
@@ -314,6 +314,22 @@ def test_select_dtypes(df):
     assert_frame_equal(res, exp)
 
 
+def test_equals(s, df):
+    # https://github.com/geopandas/geopandas/issues/1420
+    s2 = s.copy()
+    assert s.equals(s2) is True
+    s2.iloc[0] = None
+    assert s.equals(s2) is False
+
+    df2 = df.copy()
+    assert df.equals(df2) is True
+    df2.loc[0, "geometry"] = Point(10, 10)
+    assert df.equals(df2) is False
+    df2 = df.copy()
+    df2.loc[0, "value1"] = 10
+    assert df.equals(df2) is False
+
+
 # Missing values
 
 
@@ -460,7 +476,7 @@ def test_groupby(df):
 
     # apply on geometry column not resulting in new geometry
     res = df.groupby("value2")["geometry"].apply(lambda x: x.unary_union.area)
-    exp = pd.Series([0.0, 0.0], index=pd.Index([1, 2], name="value2"), name="geometry",)
+    exp = pd.Series([0.0, 0.0], index=pd.Index([1, 2], name="value2"), name="geometry")
 
     assert_series_equal(res, exp)