Crates / Compare / colored vs owo-colors
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
colored vs owo-colors
Short answerBy steady daily use, colored is bigger: 626,796 real downloads a day against 481,334 for owo-colors (1.3x). 6,783 crates depend on colored and 1,465 on owo-colors. colored last shipped 9 months ago, owo-colors 58 days ago.
colored
Widely usedWidely used and losing ground.
6,783 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
The most simple way to add colors in your terminal
owo-colors
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,465 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Zero-allocation terminal colors that'll make people go owo
coloredowo-colors · 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 | colored | owo-colors |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 626,796 | 481,334 |
| Crates that depend on it | 6,783 | 1,465 |
| Last release | 3.1.1, 9 months ago | 4.4.0, 58 days ago |
| Trend vs the field | -16% | -8% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 2.4% |
| Downloads in the window | 50,739,852 | 41,961,839 |
| All-time downloads | 253,034,943 | 185,174,760 |
| Versions published | 33 | 42 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.80 | 1.83 |
| First published | Mar 13, 2016 | Aug 25, 2020 |
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 (colored, 6,783 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: colored 9 months ago, owo-colors 58 days 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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