Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026

syn vs strum

Short answerBy steady daily use, syn is bigger: 8,378,886 real downloads a day against 1,901,257 for strum (4.4x). 18,848 crates depend on syn and 5,075 on strum. syn last shipped 12 days ago, strum 8 months ago.

syn

Foundational

Foundational and steady.

18,848 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.

Parser for Rust source code

strum

Widely used

Widely used and steady.

5,075 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.

Helpful macros for working with enums and strings

synstrum · 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	syn	strum
Real downloads a day	8,378,886	1,901,257
Crates that depend on it	18,848	5,075
Last release	3.0.9, 12 days ago	0.28.0, 8 months ago
Trend vs the field	+4%	-3%
Release-window share	11.9%	0.0%
Downloads in the window	765,996,823	169,215,396
All-time downloads	2,771,519,207	714,441,624
Versions published	362	40
License	MIT OR Apache-2.0	MIT
MSRV	1.71	1.71
First published	Sep 7, 2016	Feb 12, 2017

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 (syn, 18,848 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
Check the release dates against your own pace: syn 12 days ago, strum 8 months ago.

Also in this space

litrsPulled inParse and inspect Rust literals (i.e. tokens in the Rust programming language representing fixed values)....718,877 a day, 96 dependents pin-project-liteWidely usedA lightweight version of pin-project written with declarative macros3,270,978 a day, 1,708 dependents pin-projectWidely usedA crate for safe and ergonomic pin-projection1,484,314 a day, 1,406 dependents pasteWidely usedMacros for all your token pasting needs1,338,247 a day, 3,246 dependents

Compare 4 of them side by side →

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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