Chalk and kleur are both lightweight Node.js libraries designed to add ANSI color styling to terminal output, making CLI tools and logging more readable. Chalk, authored by Sindre Sorhus, has become the de facto standard with 131M weekly npm downloads and comprehensive color support including truecolor, 256-color, and HEX values. Kleur positions itself as a minimalist alternative at ~2.7KB, focusing on basic ANSI colors with a simple API.
This comparison matters for JavaScript developers building command-line tools, logging systems, or any Node.js application that outputs to terminals. Chalk targets developers who need full-featured terminal styling with maximum compatibility and performance, while kleur appeals to those optimizing for minimal bundle size in size-critical applications like serverless functions or embedded scripts. Both offer chainable APIs, but differ significantly in capability and ecosystem maturity.
Chalk is the clear choice for the vast majority of Node.js development scenarios. It delivers superior performance (2-5x faster than kleur in benchmarks), comprehensive color support including truecolor and HEX values essential for modern CLI tools, and unmatched ecosystem adoption with 131M weekly downloads. The larger bundle size is negligible in most Node.js applications where a few extra kilobytes are irrelevant compared to the benefits of full-featured terminal styling. Chalk's maintenance by Sindre Sorhus and integration into major tools like Jest ensures long-term reliability.
Kleur should only be selected for highly specialized use cases where bundle size is the absolute priority and basic 8-color ANSI is sufficient—such as ultra-lightweight serverless functions or embedded scripts with strict size budgets under 10KB total. However, even in these scenarios, alternatives like picocolors (2.6KB) often provide better performance than kleur while maintaining similar size. For any project requiring precise colors, brand consistency, or optimal performance, chalk is the only reasonable choice despite its larger footprint.