winston
A Node.js logging library that sends logs to multiple places like the console or files.
- Stars
- 24.5k
- Forks
- 1.9k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 4 months ago
- Type
- Library
What it is
winston is a JavaScript logging library for Node.js. It records messages from your program and sends them to one or more destinations, called transports, such as the console or a log file. You can set severity levels and formats so that, for example, errors go to a file while everything goes to the console.
- Write error-level logs to error.log and all info-level logs to combined.log
- Log to the console only in non-production environments using NODE_ENV
- Add per-request metadata with logger.child({ requestId })
- Capture uncaught exceptions and promise rejections to a log file
Great for
- Node.js developers who need structured or file-based application logs
- Teams that want different log levels sent to different destinations
- Projects that need custom log formats or custom transports
- Services that want per-request metadata via child loggers
Not ideal for
- Browser-only front-end code, since the README describes a Node.js library (reason: no browser usage is documented)
- People who only need a quick console.log replacement for a tiny script (reason: setup involves creating a logger and transports)
- Projects needing a hosted log-search service (reason: winston is a library and does not provide a server or dashboard)
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Node.js
Install winston from npm
npm install winston - 2
Run it
- Install the package with npm install winston
- Require it with const winston = require('winston');
- Create a logger with winston.createLogger and at least one transport
- Call logger.info('Hello') or another level method to write a log
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use winston.format.json() for machine-readable logs and winston.format.simple() for console output
- Set separate levels on File transports to split error and combined logs
- Use logger.child() to attach request-specific metadata, keeping the caveat in mind
- Use logger.configure() or add()/remove() to change transports at runtime
- Handle uncaught exceptions and rejections with the documented Exceptions and Rejections sections
Downloads
Strengths
- Supports multiple transports at different log levels
- Formats can be combined and customized
- MIT license and widely used, with 24,527 GitHub stars
Trade-offs
- The README warns that .child may be buggy if you extend the Logger class
- The default logger has no transports, and the README says leaving it that way may cause high memory usage
- Documentation applies to winston@3; 2.x docs are separate
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| winston (this) | 24.5k | Library | intermediate | 4 months ago | Node.js developers who need structured or file-based application logs |
| pino | 18.3k | Library | beginner | 30 days ago | Node.js backend developers who want structured JSON logs |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.