consola vs tslog vs roarr: Structured Logging Beyond pino & winston (2026)

TL;DR

consola (by UnJS) is the elegant logging utility — beautiful console output in development, structured JSON in production, browser-compatible, integrates with Nuxt/Nitro. tslog is the TypeScript-native structured logger — zero dependencies, source-mapped stack traces, circular reference handling, and runtime type safety. roarr is the environment-agnostic JSON logger — always outputs JSON (never pretty-prints), designed for log aggregation pipelines, works in Node.js and browser. In 2026: consola for full-stack apps and UnJS projects, tslog for TypeScript-first structured logging, roarr for strict JSON-only log pipelines.

Key Takeaways

• consola: ~8M weekly downloads — UnJS, pretty dev output + JSON production, reporters, browser
• tslog: ~200K weekly downloads — zero deps, TypeScript-first, source-mapped errors, log masking
• roarr: ~500K weekly downloads — always JSON, environment-agnostic, log context inheritance
• consola auto-detects environment — pretty in terminal, JSON in CI/production
• tslog has built-in sensitive data masking — redact passwords, tokens from logs automatically
• roarr NEVER pretty-prints — every log is JSON, ideal for log shipping (Loki, Datadog, ELK)

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When to Use These vs pino/winston

pino / winston:
  Production HTTP logging, high throughput (100K+ logs/sec)
  Established ecosystem with transport plugins
  Most popular for Express/Fastify API logging

consola / tslog / roarr:
  Application logging (business logic, errors, debugging)
  Beautiful dev output that switches to JSON in production
  TypeScript-first projects that want type-safe logging
  Full-stack apps (Node + browser)

Many teams use BOTH:
  pino → HTTP request/response logging (middleware)
  consola/tslog → Application-level logging (services, utils)

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consola

consola — elegant universal logger:

Basic usage

import { consola } from "consola"

// Log levels (auto-pretty in dev, JSON in production):
consola.info("Server started on port 3000")
consola.success("Package data cached successfully")
consola.warn("Rate limit approaching threshold")
consola.error("Failed to fetch npm data", new Error("ECONNREFUSED"))
consola.debug("Cache hit for package: react")

// In development terminal (pretty):
// ℹ Server started on port 3000
// ✔ Package data cached successfully
// ⚠ Rate limit approaching threshold
// ✖ Failed to fetch npm data
//   Error: ECONNREFUSED
//     at ...

// In production (JSON):
// {"level":3,"type":"info","message":"Server started on port 3000","timestamp":"2026-03-09T..."}

Scoped loggers (with tags)

import { consola } from "consola"

// Create scoped logger:
const dbLog = consola.withTag("database")
const cacheLog = consola.withTag("cache")
const apiLog = consola.withTag("api")

dbLog.info("Connected to PostgreSQL")
// [database] ℹ Connected to PostgreSQL

cacheLog.warn("Redis connection slow: 500ms")
// [cache] ⚠ Redis connection slow: 500ms

apiLog.error("npm API returned 503")
// [api] ✖ npm API returned 503

Log level control

import { consola, LogLevels } from "consola"

// Set log level:
consola.level = LogLevels.warn  // Only warn + error

// Or from environment:
// CONSOLA_LEVEL=debug → shows everything
// CONSOLA_LEVEL=warn → warn + error only
// CONSOLA_LEVEL=silent → nothing

// Per-scope level:
const debugLog = consola.create({ level: LogLevels.debug })

Custom reporters

import { consola, createConsola } from "consola"

const logger = createConsola({
  reporters: [
    // Pretty reporter for terminal:
    { log: (logObj) => console.log(JSON.stringify(logObj)) },
  ],
  // Or use built-in reporters:
  fancy: process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production",
})

Box and prompt utilities

import { consola } from "consola"

// Box (highlighted message):
consola.box("PkgPulse API v2.0.0\nRunning on port 3000")
// ╭──────────────────────────╮
// │ PkgPulse API v2.0.0     │
// │ Running on port 3000     │
// ╰──────────────────────────╯

// Interactive prompt:
const name = await consola.prompt("Package name:", { type: "text" })
const confirm = await consola.prompt("Deploy?", { type: "confirm" })

---

tslog

tslog — TypeScript-native structured logger:

Setup

import { Logger } from "tslog"

const log = new Logger({
  name: "pkgpulse-api",
  type: "pretty",            // "pretty" | "json" | "hidden"
  minLevel: 0,               // 0=silly, 1=trace, 2=debug, 3=info, 4=warn, 5=error, 6=fatal
  prettyLogTemplate: "{{yyyy}}.{{mm}}.{{dd}} {{hh}}:{{MM}}:{{ss}} {{logLevelName}} ",
})

log.info("Server started")
log.warn("Rate limit approaching")
log.error("Database connection failed", new Error("ECONNREFUSED"))

// Pretty output:
// 2026.03.09 14:30:00 INFO  Server started
// 2026.03.09 14:30:01 WARN  Rate limit approaching
// 2026.03.09 14:30:02 ERROR Database connection failed
//   Error: ECONNREFUSED
//     at Object.<anonymous> (/src/db.ts:42:11)  ← source-mapped!

Child loggers

const log = new Logger({ name: "app" })

const dbLog = log.getSubLogger({ name: "database" })
const cacheLog = log.getSubLogger({ name: "cache" })
const apiLog = log.getSubLogger({ name: "api" })

dbLog.info("Query executed in 12ms")
// 2026.03.09 14:30:00 INFO [app → database] Query executed in 12ms

cacheLog.warn("Cache miss rate: 45%")
// 2026.03.09 14:30:01 WARN [app → cache] Cache miss rate: 45%

Sensitive data masking

const log = new Logger({
  name: "api",
  maskValuesOfKeys: ["password", "token", "secret", "authorization"],
  maskPlaceholder: "[REDACTED]",
})

log.info("User login", {
  email: "user@example.com",
  password: "super-secret-123",       // Will be masked
  token: "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...",   // Will be masked
})

// Output:
// INFO User login
//   email: "user@example.com"
//   password: "[REDACTED]"
//   token: "[REDACTED]"

JSON mode (production)

const log = new Logger({
  name: "pkgpulse",
  type: process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? "json" : "pretty",
})

log.info("Package fetched", { name: "react", score: 92 })

// Pretty (dev):
// INFO  Package fetched { name: "react", score: 92 }

// JSON (production):
// {"0":"Package fetched","1":{"name":"react","score":92},"_meta":{"name":"pkgpulse","date":"2026-03-09T...","logLevelId":3,"logLevelName":"INFO"}}

Transport to external services

import { Logger, ILogObj } from "tslog"

const log = new Logger()

// Attach transport:
log.attachTransport((logObj: ILogObj) => {
  // Send to Loki, Datadog, ELK, etc.:
  fetch("https://logs.example.com/ingest", {
    method: "POST",
    body: JSON.stringify(logObj),
  })
})

---

roarr

roarr — always-JSON logger:

Basic usage

import { Roarr as log } from "roarr"

log.info("Server started")
log.warn("Rate limit warning")
log.error("Database error")

// ALWAYS outputs JSON (even in dev):
// {"context":{},"message":"Server started","sequence":"0","time":1709985600,"version":"2.0.0"}

Context (structured data)

import { Roarr } from "roarr"

const log = Roarr.child({ service: "pkgpulse-api", version: "2.0.0" })

log.info({ packageName: "react", score: 92 }, "Package score calculated")
// {"context":{"service":"pkgpulse-api","version":"2.0.0","packageName":"react","score":92},
//  "message":"Package score calculated","sequence":"1","time":...}

// Child with additional context:
const dbLog = log.child({ module: "database" })
dbLog.error({ query: "SELECT * FROM packages", duration: 5000 }, "Slow query")
// context includes: service, version, module, query, duration

Adopt pattern (per-request context)

import { Roarr } from "roarr"

// Middleware — add request context:
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  const requestLog = Roarr.child({
    requestId: crypto.randomUUID(),
    method: req.method,
    path: req.path,
  })

  req.log = requestLog
  next()
})

// In route handler:
app.get("/api/packages/:name", async (req, res) => {
  req.log.info({ packageName: req.params.name }, "Fetching package")
  // All logs from this request include requestId, method, path
})

Environment control

# roarr is SILENT by default — enable with env var:
ROARR_LOG=true node server.js

# Filter by context:
ROARR_LOG=true ROARR_FILTER='{"context.service":"pkgpulse-api"}' node server.js

# Pretty print in dev (via roarr-cli):
ROARR_LOG=true node server.js | npx roarr pretty-print

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Feature Comparison

Feature	consola	tslog	roarr
Pretty dev output	✅ (auto)	✅	❌ (always JSON)
JSON production	✅ (auto)	✅	✅ (always)
Child/scoped loggers	✅ (withTag)	✅ (getSubLogger)	✅ (child)
Sensitive data masking	❌	✅	❌
Source maps	❌	✅	❌
Browser support	✅	✅	✅
Interactive prompts	✅	❌	❌
Zero dependencies	❌	✅	✅
Log level env var	✅ (CONSOLA_LEVEL)	❌ (config)	✅ (ROARR_LOG)
Weekly downloads	~8M	~200K	~500K

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When to Use Each

Choose consola if:

• Building with Nuxt, Nitro, or UnJS ecosystem
• Want beautiful terminal output in dev, JSON in production automatically
• Need interactive prompts alongside logging
• Full-stack app that logs in both Node.js and browser

Choose tslog if:

• TypeScript-first project that wants structured logging
• Need automatic sensitive data masking (passwords, tokens)
• Want source-mapped stack traces in error logs
• Zero dependencies is a priority

Choose roarr if:

• All logs MUST be JSON — no exceptions, no pretty-printing
• Building for log aggregation pipelines (ELK, Loki, Datadog)
• Want context inheritance across deeply nested function calls
• Strict structured logging discipline

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Methodology

Download data from npm registry (weekly average, February 2026). Feature comparison based on consola v3.x, tslog v4.x, and roarr v7.x.

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