Crates / Compare / itertools vs walkdir
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
itertools vs walkdir
Short answerBy steady daily use, itertools is bigger: 4,545,996 real downloads a day against 1,935,670 for walkdir (2.3x). 8,656 crates depend on itertools and 7,101 on walkdir. itertools last shipped 4 months ago, walkdir 2.6 years ago.
itertools
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
8,656 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Extra iterator adaptors, iterator methods, free functions, and macros.
walkdir
Widely usedWidely used and quiet for years.
7,101 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Recursively walk a directory.
itertoolswalkdir · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
How they relate
- Often used together: 2 tracked crates depend on both (criterion, object_store). They are not always either/or.
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | itertools | walkdir |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 4,545,996 | 1,935,670 |
| Crates that depend on it | 8,656 | 7,101 |
| Last release | 0.15.0, 4 months ago | 2.5.0, 2.6 years ago |
| Trend vs the field | +0% | +1% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 404,689,749 | 178,617,049 |
| All-time downloads | 1,704,662,883 | 711,402,764 |
| Versions published | 131 | 40 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Unlicense/MIT |
| MSRV | 1.63.0 | not set |
| First published | Nov 21, 2014 | Sep 27, 2015 |
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 (itertools, 8,656 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: itertools 4 months ago, walkdir 2.6 years 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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