Crates / colored / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to colored
Short answerThe closest alternatives to colored on crates.io data are owo-colors (481K real downloads a day), heck (3.9M real downloads a day), aho-corasick (3.3M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is heck, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. colored itself gets 626,796 a day with 6,783 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs colored | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| owo-colors Widely used | 481,334 | 0.77x | 1,465 | 58d | keyword "ansi_term", keyword "color" | side by side |
| heck Widely used | 3,901,922 | 6.23x | 1,865 | 2.6y | keyword "string" | compare |
| aho-corasick Established | 3,331,047 | 5.31x | 655 | 3mo | keyword "string" | compare |
| strsim Established | 2,956,166 | 4.72x | 733 | 2.6y | keyword "string" | compare |
| anstyle Established | 2,632,269 | 4.20x | 607 | 7mo | keyword "color" | compare |
| writeable Pulled in | 2,575,145 | 4.11x | 61 | 2mo | keyword "string" | compare |
| tinystr Pulled in | 2,524,670 | 4.03x | 57 | 2d | keyword "string" | compare |
| anstream Established | 2,459,829 | 3.92x | 428 | 8mo | keyword "color" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with colored; read its description before you swap.
- More dependents means more answered questions and a smaller chance it disappears.
- Check the last release against how fast you need fixes. For colored: is it still maintained?
Rules
Alternatives = tracked crates (top 1000 by downloads) that share a specific crates.io category (2 points each) or keyword (3 points each) with colored, most similar first; its own parts (same name prefix) and crates it depends on or that depend on it are left out, because those are companions, not substitutes. Real downloads = quiet-day median, crates.io data Oct 24, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Widely used and steady. 481,334 real downloads a day.owo-colorsRust crate. Zero-allocation terminal colors that'll make people go owo. Real use: 481K downloads a day on quiet days; 1,465 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time