diff --git a/common/.gitmodules b/common/.gitmodules
index 363485649..c3a60a9cd 100644
--- a/common/.gitmodules
+++ b/common/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 [submodule "thirdparty/spdlog"]
 	path = thirdparty/spdlog
 	url = https://github.com/gabime/spdlog.git
+[submodule "thirdparty/fmtlib"]
+	path = thirdparty/fmtlib
+	url = https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt.git
diff --git a/common/CMakeLists.txt b/common/CMakeLists.txt
index 9b0f054ee..d95a8a3ce 100644
--- a/common/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/common/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ set(SPDLOG_BUILD_EXAMPLES OFF)
 set(SPDLOG_BUILD_TESTING OFF)
 set(SPDLOG_BUILD_BENCH OFF)
 add_subdirectory(thirdparty/spdlog)
+add_subdirectory(thirdparty/fmtlib)
 
 pkg_check_modules(JANSSON IMPORTED_TARGET REQUIRED jansson>=2.7)
 pkg_check_modules(LIBCONFIG IMPORTED_TARGET libconfig>=1.4.9)
diff --git a/common/include/villas/log.hpp b/common/include/villas/log.hpp
index 6f06cd6e4..dffb22e24 100644
--- a/common/include/villas/log.hpp
+++ b/common/include/villas/log.hpp
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 
 #define SPDLOG_LEVEL_NAMES { "trace", "debug", "info ",  "warn ", "error", "crit ", "off   " }
 #define SPDLOG_NAME_WIDTH 17
+#define SPDLOG_FMT_EXTERNAL
 
 #include <spdlog/spdlog.h>
 #include <spdlog/sinks/stdout_color_sinks.h>
diff --git a/common/lib/CMakeLists.txt b/common/lib/CMakeLists.txt
index 5a23fdc49..43847336f 100644
--- a/common/lib/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/common/lib/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ target_link_libraries(villas-common PUBLIC
 	${CURL_LIBRARIES}
 	${CMAKE_DL_LIBS}
 	spdlog
+	fmt
 )
 
 target_compile_definitions(villas-common PUBLIC
diff --git a/common/thirdparty/fmtlib b/common/thirdparty/fmtlib
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..c2ce7e4f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/thirdparty/fmtlib
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit c2ce7e4f07f7b34b2c7bbd0a4d0798b1d7007f4f