Crates / Compare / regex vs strsim
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
regex vs strsim
Short answerBy steady daily use, regex is bigger: 3,355,026 real downloads a day against 2,956,166 for strsim (1.1x). 24,288 crates depend on regex and 733 on strsim. regex last shipped 3 months ago, strsim 2.6 years ago.
regex
FoundationalFoundational and steady.
24,288 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
An implementation of regular expressions for Rust. This implementation uses finite automata and guarantees linear time matching on all inputs.
strsim
EstablishedEstablished and quiet for years.
733 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Implementations of string similarity metrics. Includes Hamming, Levenshtein, OSA, Damerau-Levenshtein, Jaro, Jaro-Winkler, and Sørensen-Dice.
regexstrsim · 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 | regex | strsim |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 3,355,026 | 2,956,166 |
| Crates that depend on it | 24,288 | 733 |
| Last release | 1.13.1, 3 months ago | 0.11.1, 2.6 years ago |
| Trend vs the field | -8% | -8% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 294,294,170 | 255,961,347 |
| All-time downloads | 1,296,585,215 | 1,196,075,994 |
| Versions published | 169 | 25 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.65 | 1.56 |
| First published | Dec 13, 2014 | Feb 10, 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 (regex, 24,288 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: regex 3 months ago, strsim 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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