diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index e4c88534b0..aac002d13a 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -127,7 +127,6 @@ env = Environment(
     "#phonelibs/bzip2",
     "#phonelibs/libyuv/include",
     "#phonelibs/openmax/include",
-    "#phonelibs/json/src",
     "#phonelibs/json11",
     "#phonelibs/eigen",
     "#phonelibs/curl/include",
@@ -212,7 +211,7 @@ Import('_common', '_visionipc', '_gpucommon', '_gpu_libs')
 if SHARED:
   common, visionipc, gpucommon = abspath(common), abspath(visionipc), abspath(gpucommon)
 else:
-  common = [_common, 'json']
+  common = [_common, 'json11']
   visionipc = _visionipc
   gpucommon = [_gpucommon] + _gpu_libs
 
diff --git a/phonelibs/SConscript b/phonelibs/SConscript
index f4fc07ab23..d333c475d3 100644
--- a/phonelibs/SConscript
+++ b/phonelibs/SConscript
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1
-oid sha256:a5934a6cb5c1dd3031adb8eccee3c6419c7c966882c02dd978e772130c8f397e
-size 446
+oid sha256:d1c7a88b02354d583772474d437fff10a191740d5f06d471a0b61ee9a7957f7a
+size 366
diff --git a/phonelibs/json/get.txt b/phonelibs/json/get.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 2ac1077146..0000000000
--- a/phonelibs/json/get.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1
-oid sha256:2eb191c6ab7a457fe54a1fa04597ead10876111ffdd936c9ccfca010c258bd11
-size 80
diff --git a/phonelibs/json/src/json.c b/phonelibs/json/src/json.c
deleted file mode 100644
index 9c7149b3cb..0000000000
--- a/phonelibs/json/src/json.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1
-oid sha256:1e39e76315aa470f9a3f8b3bd0dfa56dd07bb9aa2daf36a6b37e7d84b9165e21
-size 29298
diff --git a/phonelibs/json/src/json.h b/phonelibs/json/src/json.h
deleted file mode 100644
index c4d4d73835..0000000000
--- a/phonelibs/json/src/json.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1
-oid sha256:8e647e8960b76dd9b022132d9fb9aa115f07ba004ed41b7704add69fd8da5b66
-size 3492
diff --git a/release/files_common b/release/files_common
index 26628bd219..8be43f4b72 100644
--- a/release/files_common
+++ b/release/files_common
@@ -167,7 +167,8 @@ selfdrive/common/touch.[c,h]
 selfdrive/common/visionipc.[c,h]
 selfdrive/common/visionbuf_cl.c
 selfdrive/common/ipc.[c,h]
-selfdrive/common/swaglog.[c,h]
+selfdrive/common/swaglog.h
+selfdrive/common/swaglog.cc
 selfdrive/common/util.[c,h]
 selfdrive/common/efd.[c,h]
 selfdrive/common/cqueue.[c,h]
@@ -405,8 +406,6 @@ phonelibs/openmax/**
 
 phonelibs/zmq/aarch64/lib/*
 
-phonelibs/json/src/json.c
-phonelibs/json/src/json.h
 phonelibs/json11/json11.cpp
 phonelibs/json11/json11.hpp
 
diff --git a/selfdrive/common/SConscript b/selfdrive/common/SConscript
index 4d77e7e9e3..18f9fdf4a8 100644
--- a/selfdrive/common/SConscript
+++ b/selfdrive/common/SConscript
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ if SHARED:
 else:
   fxn = env.Library
 
-_common = fxn('common', ['params.cc', 'swaglog.c', 'util.c', 'cqueue.c'], LIBS="json")
+_common = fxn('common', ['params.cc', 'swaglog.cc', 'util.c', 'cqueue.c'], LIBS="json11")
 _visionipc = fxn('visionipc', ['visionipc.c', 'ipc.c'])
 
 files = [
diff --git a/selfdrive/common/swaglog.c b/selfdrive/common/swaglog.cc
similarity index 69%
rename from selfdrive/common/swaglog.c
rename to selfdrive/common/swaglog.cc
index 70cba78167..41b6358d98 100644
--- a/selfdrive/common/swaglog.c
+++ b/selfdrive/common/swaglog.cc
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
+#ifndef _GNU_SOURCE
 #define _GNU_SOURCE
+#endif
 
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <stdlib.h>
-#include <stdarg.h>
-#include <stdbool.h>
+#include <string>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <assert.h>
 
 #include <pthread.h>
 #include <zmq.h>
-#include <json.h>
+
+#include "json11.hpp"
 
 #include "common/timing.h"
 #include "common/version.h"
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 typedef struct LogState {
   pthread_mutex_t lock;
   bool inited;
-  JsonNode *ctx_j;
+  json11::Json::object ctx_j;
   void *zctx;
   void *sock;
   int print_level;
@@ -30,12 +30,12 @@ static LogState s = {
 };
 
 static void cloudlog_bind_locked(const char* k, const char* v) {
-  json_append_member(s.ctx_j, k, json_mkstring(v));
+  s.ctx_j[k] = v;
 }
 
 static void cloudlog_init() {
   if (s.inited) return;
-  s.ctx_j = json_mkobject();
+  s.ctx_j = json11::Json::object {};
   s.zctx = zmq_ctx_new();
   s.sock = zmq_socket(s.zctx, ZMQ_PUSH);
   zmq_connect(s.sock, "ipc:///tmp/logmessage");
@@ -58,8 +58,7 @@ static void cloudlog_init() {
     cloudlog_bind_locked("dongle_id", dongle_id);
   }
   cloudlog_bind_locked("version", COMMA_VERSION);
-  bool dirty = !getenv("CLEAN");
-  json_append_member(s.ctx_j, "dirty", json_mkbool(dirty));
+  s.ctx_j["dirty"] = !getenv("CLEAN");
 
   s.inited = true;
 }
@@ -84,23 +83,19 @@ void cloudlog_e(int levelnum, const char* filename, int lineno, const char* func
     printf("%s: %s\n", filename, msg_buf);
   }
 
-  JsonNode *log_j = json_mkobject();
-  assert(log_j);
-
-  json_append_member(log_j, "msg", json_mkstring(msg_buf));
-  json_append_member(log_j, "ctx", s.ctx_j);
-  json_append_member(log_j, "levelnum", json_mknumber(levelnum));
-  json_append_member(log_j, "filename", json_mkstring(filename));
-  json_append_member(log_j, "lineno", json_mknumber(lineno));
-  json_append_member(log_j, "funcname", json_mkstring(func));
-  json_append_member(log_j, "created", json_mknumber(seconds_since_epoch()));
-
-  char* log_s = json_encode(log_j);
+  json11::Json log_j = json11::Json::object {
+    {"msg", msg_buf},
+    {"ctx", s.ctx_j},
+    {"levelnum", levelnum},
+    {"filename", filename},
+    {"lineno", lineno},
+    {"funcname", func},
+    {"created", seconds_since_epoch()}
+  };
+
+  char* log_s = strdup(log_j.dump().c_str());
   assert(log_s);
 
-  json_remove_from_parent(s.ctx_j);  
-
-  json_delete(log_j);
   free(msg_buf);
 
   char levelnum_c = levelnum;