diff --git a/src/node/utils/Settings.js b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
index 40576c345..7ecd9f197 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/Settings.js
+++ b/src/node/utils/Settings.js
@@ -39,9 +39,11 @@ const suppressDisableMsg = ' -- To suppress these warning messages change ' +
     'suppressErrorsInPadText to true in your settings.json\n';
 const _ = require('underscore');
 
+const logger = log4js.getLogger('settings');
+
 /* Root path of the installation */
 exports.root = absolutePaths.findEtherpadRoot();
-console.log('All relative paths will be interpreted relative to the identified ' +
+logger.info('All relative paths will be interpreted relative to the identified ' +
             `Etherpad base dir: ${exports.root}`);
 
 /**
@@ -450,7 +452,7 @@ exports.getGitCommit = () => {
     }
     version = version.substring(0, 7);
   } catch (e) {
-    console.warn(`Can't get git version for server header\n${e.message}`);
+    logger.warn(`Can't get git version for server header\n${e.message}`);
   }
   return version;
 };
@@ -469,7 +471,7 @@ const storeSettings = (settingsObj) => {
   for (const i of Object.keys(settingsObj || {})) {
     // test if the setting starts with a lowercase character
     if (i.charAt(0).search('[a-z]') !== 0) {
-      console.warn(`Settings should start with a lowercase character: '${i}'`);
+      logger.warn(`Settings should start with a lowercase character: '${i}'`);
     }
 
     // we know this setting, so we overwrite it
@@ -482,7 +484,7 @@ const storeSettings = (settingsObj) => {
       }
     } else {
       // this setting is unknown, output a warning and throw it away
-      console.warn(`Unknown Setting: '${i}'. This setting doesn't exist or it was removed`);
+      logger.warn(`Unknown Setting: '${i}'. This setting doesn't exist or it was removed`);
     }
   }
 };
@@ -598,10 +600,10 @@ const lookupEnvironmentVariables = (obj) => {
     const defaultValue = match[3];
 
     if ((envVarValue === undefined) && (defaultValue === undefined)) {
-      console.warn(`Environment variable "${envVarName}" does not contain any value for ` +
-                   `configuration key "${key}", and no default was given. Using null. ` +
-                   'THIS BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE IN A FUTURE VERSION OF ETHERPAD; you should ' +
-                   'explicitly use "null" as the default if you want to continue to use null.');
+      logger.warn(`Environment variable "${envVarName}" does not contain any value for ` +
+                  `configuration key "${key}", and no default was given. Using null. ` +
+                  'THIS BEHAVIOR MAY CHANGE IN A FUTURE VERSION OF ETHERPAD; you should ' +
+                  'explicitly use "null" as the default if you want to continue to use null.');
 
       /*
        * We have to return null, because if we just returned undefined, the
@@ -611,8 +613,8 @@ const lookupEnvironmentVariables = (obj) => {
     }
 
     if ((envVarValue === undefined) && (defaultValue !== undefined)) {
-      console.debug(`Environment variable "${envVarName}" not found for ` +
-                    `configuration key "${key}". Falling back to default value.`);
+      logger.debug(`Environment variable "${envVarName}" not found for ` +
+                   `configuration key "${key}". Falling back to default value.`);
 
       return coerceValue(defaultValue);
     }
@@ -623,7 +625,7 @@ const lookupEnvironmentVariables = (obj) => {
      * For numeric and boolean strings let's convert it to proper types before
      * returning it, in order to maintain backward compatibility.
      */
-    console.debug(
+    logger.debug(
         `Configuration key "${key}" will be read from environment variable "${envVarName}"`);
 
     return coerceValue(envVarValue);
@@ -650,11 +652,11 @@ const parseSettings = (settingsFilename, isSettings) => {
   if (isSettings) {
     settingsType = 'settings';
     notFoundMessage = 'Continuing using defaults!';
-    notFoundFunction = console.warn;
+    notFoundFunction = logger.warn.bind(logger);
   } else {
     settingsType = 'credentials';
     notFoundMessage = 'Ignoring.';
-    notFoundFunction = console.info;
+    notFoundFunction = logger.info.bind(logger);
   }
 
   try {
@@ -672,14 +674,14 @@ const parseSettings = (settingsFilename, isSettings) => {
 
     const settings = JSON.parse(settingsStr);
 
-    console.info(`${settingsType} loaded from: ${settingsFilename}`);
+    logger.info(`${settingsType} loaded from: ${settingsFilename}`);
 
     const replacedSettings = lookupEnvironmentVariables(settings);
 
     return replacedSettings;
   } catch (e) {
-    console.error(`There was an error processing your ${settingsType} ` +
-                  `file from ${settingsFilename}: ${e.message}`);
+    logger.error(`There was an error processing your ${settingsType} ` +
+                 `file from ${settingsFilename}: ${e.message}`);
 
     process.exit(1);
   }
@@ -706,8 +708,8 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
   log4js.replaceConsole();
 
   if (!exports.skinName) {
-    console.warn('No "skinName" parameter found. Please check out settings.json.template and ' +
-                 'update your settings.json. Falling back to the default "colibris".');
+    logger.warn('No "skinName" parameter found. Please check out settings.json.template and ' +
+                'update your settings.json. Falling back to the default "colibris".');
     exports.skinName = 'colibris';
   }
 
@@ -717,8 +719,8 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
     const countPieces = exports.skinName.split(path.sep).length;
 
     if (countPieces !== 1) {
-      console.error(`skinName must be the name of a directory under "${skinBasePath}". This is ` +
-                    `not valid: "${exports.skinName}". Falling back to the default "colibris".`);
+      logger.error(`skinName must be the name of a directory under "${skinBasePath}". This is ` +
+                   `not valid: "${exports.skinName}". Falling back to the default "colibris".`);
 
       exports.skinName = 'colibris';
     }
@@ -728,21 +730,20 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
 
     // what if someone sets skinName == ".." or "."? We catch him!
     if (absolutePaths.isSubdir(skinBasePath, skinPath) === false) {
-      console.error(`Skin path ${skinPath} must be a subdirectory of ${skinBasePath}. ` +
-                    'Falling back to the default "colibris".');
+      logger.error(`Skin path ${skinPath} must be a subdirectory of ${skinBasePath}. ` +
+                   'Falling back to the default "colibris".');
 
       exports.skinName = 'colibris';
       skinPath = path.join(skinBasePath, exports.skinName);
     }
 
     if (fs.existsSync(skinPath) === false) {
-      console.error(
-          `Skin path ${skinPath} does not exist. Falling back to the default "colibris".`);
+      logger.error(`Skin path ${skinPath} does not exist. Falling back to the default "colibris".`);
       exports.skinName = 'colibris';
       skinPath = path.join(skinBasePath, exports.skinName);
     }
 
-    console.info(`Using skin "${exports.skinName}" in dir: ${skinPath}`);
+    logger.info(`Using skin "${exports.skinName}" in dir: ${skinPath}`);
   }
 
   if (exports.abiword) {
@@ -754,7 +755,7 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
           if (!exports.suppressErrorsInPadText) {
             exports.defaultPadText += `\nError: ${abiwordError}${suppressDisableMsg}`;
           }
-          console.error(`${abiwordError} File location: ${exports.abiword}`);
+          logger.error(`${abiwordError} File location: ${exports.abiword}`);
           exports.abiword = null;
         }
       });
@@ -770,7 +771,7 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
         if (!exports.suppressErrorsInPadText) {
           exports.defaultPadText += `\nError: ${sofficeError}${suppressDisableMsg}`;
         }
-        console.error(`${sofficeError} File location: ${exports.soffice}`);
+        logger.error(`${sofficeError} File location: ${exports.soffice}`);
         exports.soffice = null;
       }
     });
@@ -780,18 +781,18 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
     const sessionkeyFilename = absolutePaths.makeAbsolute(argv.sessionkey || './SESSIONKEY.txt');
     try {
       exports.sessionKey = fs.readFileSync(sessionkeyFilename, 'utf8');
-      console.info(`Session key loaded from: ${sessionkeyFilename}`);
+      logger.info(`Session key loaded from: ${sessionkeyFilename}`);
     } catch (e) {
-      console.info(
+      logger.info(
           `Session key file "${sessionkeyFilename}" not found. Creating with random contents.`);
       exports.sessionKey = randomString(32);
       fs.writeFileSync(sessionkeyFilename, exports.sessionKey, 'utf8');
     }
   } else {
-    console.warn('Declaring the sessionKey in the settings.json is deprecated. ' +
-                 'This value is auto-generated now. Please remove the setting from the file. -- ' +
-                 'If you are seeing this error after restarting using the Admin User ' +
-                 'Interface then you can ignore this message.');
+    logger.warn('Declaring the sessionKey in the settings.json is deprecated. ' +
+                'This value is auto-generated now. Please remove the setting from the file. -- ' +
+                'If you are seeing this error after restarting using the Admin User ' +
+                'Interface then you can ignore this message.');
   }
 
   if (exports.dbType === 'dirty') {
@@ -801,13 +802,13 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
     }
 
     exports.dbSettings.filename = absolutePaths.makeAbsolute(exports.dbSettings.filename);
-    console.warn(`${dirtyWarning} File location: ${exports.dbSettings.filename}`);
+    logger.warn(`${dirtyWarning} File location: ${exports.dbSettings.filename}`);
   }
 
   if (exports.ip === '') {
     // using Unix socket for connectivity
-    console.warn('The settings file contains an empty string ("") for the "ip" parameter. The ' +
-                 '"port" parameter will be interpreted as the path to a Unix socket to bind at.');
+    logger.warn('The settings file contains an empty string ("") for the "ip" parameter. The ' +
+                '"port" parameter will be interpreted as the path to a Unix socket to bind at.');
   }
 
   /*
@@ -822,7 +823,7 @@ exports.reloadSettings = () => {
    * TODO: remove the "?v=randomstring" parameter, and replace with hashed filenames instead
    */
   exports.randomVersionString = randomString(4);
-  console.log(`Random string used for versioning assets: ${exports.randomVersionString}`);
+  logger.info(`Random string used for versioning assets: ${exports.randomVersionString}`);
 };
 
 exports.exportedForTestingOnly = {