diff --git a/src/web/WebAPIService.cpp b/src/web/WebAPIService.cpp
index e17419825..1c366e6bc 100644
--- a/src/web/WebAPIService.cpp
+++ b/src/web/WebAPIService.cpp
@@ -51,6 +51,14 @@ void WebAPIService::webAPIService(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, JsonVariant j
     parse(request, input);
 }
 
+// for POSTS accepting plain text data
+void WebAPIService::webAPIService(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, const char * data) {
+    JsonDocument input_doc;
+    JsonObject   input = input_doc.to<JsonObject>();
+    input["data"]      = data;
+    parse(request, input);
+}
+
 #ifdef EMSESP_TEST
 // for test.cpp and unit tests so we can invoke GETs to test the API
 void WebAPIService::webAPIService(AsyncWebServerRequest * request) {
@@ -113,6 +121,7 @@ void WebAPIService::parse(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, JsonObject input) {
 
     // call command
     uint8_t return_code = Command::process(request->url().c_str(), is_admin, input, output);
+
     if (return_code != CommandRet::OK) {
         api_fails_++;
     }
@@ -155,10 +164,19 @@ void WebAPIService::parse(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, JsonObject input) {
     storeResponse(output);
 #endif
 #if defined(EMSESP_STANDALONE) && !defined(EMSESP_UNITY)
-    Serial.printf("%sweb output: %s[%s]", COLOR_WHITE, COLOR_BRIGHT_CYAN, request->url().c_str());
-    Serial.printf(" %s(%d)%s ", ret_codes[return_code] == 200 ? COLOR_BRIGHT_GREEN : COLOR_BRIGHT_RED, ret_codes[return_code], COLOR_YELLOW);
-    serializeJson(output, Serial);
-    Serial.println(COLOR_RESET);
+    std::string output_str;
+    serializeJson(output, output_str);
+    Serial.printf("%sweb output: %s[%s] %s(%d)%s %s%s",
+                  COLOR_WHITE,
+                  COLOR_BRIGHT_CYAN,
+                  request->url().c_str(),
+                  ret_codes[return_code] == 200 ? COLOR_BRIGHT_GREEN : COLOR_BRIGHT_RED,
+                  ret_codes[return_code],
+                  COLOR_YELLOW,
+                  output_str.c_str(),
+                  COLOR_RESET);
+    Serial.println();
+    EMSESP::logger().debug("web output: %s %s", request->url().c_str(), output_str.c_str());
 #endif
 }
 
diff --git a/src/web/WebAPIService.h b/src/web/WebAPIService.h
index ace0955bd..bb8ae1f28 100644
--- a/src/web/WebAPIService.h
+++ b/src/web/WebAPIService.h
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ class WebAPIService {
     WebAPIService(AsyncWebServer * server, SecurityManager * securityManager);
 
     void webAPIService(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, JsonVariant input);
+    void webAPIService(AsyncWebServerRequest * request, const char * data); // for plain text data
 
 #if defined(EMSESP_TEST)
     // for test.cpp and running unit tests