Crates / Compare / bstr vs widestring
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
bstr vs widestring
Short answerBy steady daily use, bstr is bigger: 1,252,630 real downloads a day against 308,184 for widestring (4.1x). 676 crates depend on bstr and 319 on widestring. bstr last shipped 2 months ago, widestring 12 months ago.
bstr
EstablishedEstablished and steady.
676 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
A string type that is not required to be valid UTF-8.
widestring
EstablishedEstablished and steady.
319 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
A wide string Rust library for converting to and from wide strings, such as those often used in Windows API or other FFI libaries. Both `u16` and `u32` string types are provided, including support for UTF-16 and UTF-32, malformed encoding, C-style strings, etc.
bstrwidestring · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | bstr | widestring |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 1,252,630 | 308,184 |
| Crates that depend on it | 676 | 319 |
| Last release | 1.13.1, 2 months ago | 1.2.1, 12 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | +2% | -4% |
| Release-window share | 2.1% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 111,929,713 | 27,084,119 |
| All-time downloads | 471,857,567 | 120,758,141 |
| Versions published | 53 | 18 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.65 | 1.58 |
| First published | Oct 9, 2018 | Jan 25, 2016 |
Which to pick
- Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
- When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (bstr, 676 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: bstr 2 months ago, widestring 12 months ago.
Also in this space
Method
Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study.
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