Crates / combine / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to combine
Short answerThe closest alternatives to combine on crates.io data are winnow (3.6M real downloads a day), nom (2.2M real downloads a day), html5ever (506K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is winnow, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. combine itself gets 900,865 a day with 121 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs combine | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| winnow Established | 3,579,683 | 3.97x | 448 | 3mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parser", keyword "parsing" | compare |
| nom Widely used | 2,156,544 | 2.39x | 2,600 | 21mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parser", keyword "parsing" | compare |
| html5ever Established | 506,290 | 0.56x | 380 | 40d | keyword "parser", keyword "parsing" | compare |
| xml-rs Established | 302,873 | 0.34x | 370 | 3mo | keyword "parser", keyword "parsing" | compare |
| quick-xml Widely used | 1,525,182 | 1.69x | 2,687 | 2mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parser" | compare |
| minimal-lexical Pulled in | 1,454,881 | 1.61x | 2 | 5.1y | category No standard library, category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| pest Widely used | 916,791 | 1.02x | 1,270 | 8d | category Parsing tools, keyword "parser" | compare |
| pest_derive Widely used | 830,429 | 0.92x | 1,178 | 8d | category Parsing tools, keyword "parser" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with combine; 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 combine: 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 combine, 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: Established and steady. 3,579,683 real downloads a day.winnowRust crate. A byte-oriented, zero-copy, parser combinators library. Real use: 3.6M downloads a day on quiet days; 448 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time