Crates / Compare / tracing-subscriber vs opentelemetry
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
tracing-subscriber vs opentelemetry
Short answerBy steady daily use, tracing-subscriber is bigger: 1,919,774 real downloads a day against 843,720 for opentelemetry (2.3x). 20,192 crates depend on tracing-subscriber and 1,838 on opentelemetry. tracing-subscriber last shipped 7 months ago, opentelemetry 15 days ago.
tracing-subscriber
FoundationalFoundational and steady.
20,192 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Utilities for implementing and composing `tracing` subscribers.
opentelemetry
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,838 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
OpenTelemetry API for Rust
tracing-subscriberopentelemetry · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
How they relate
- Often used together: 1 tracked crate depend on both (tracing-opentelemetry). They are not always either/or.
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | tracing-subscriber | opentelemetry |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 1,919,774 | 843,720 |
| Crates that depend on it | 20,192 | 1,838 |
| Last release | 0.3.23, 7 months ago | 0.33.1, 15 days ago |
| Trend vs the field | -3% | +7% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 4.3% |
| Downloads in the window | 171,192,267 | 75,792,285 |
| All-time downloads | 690,220,354 | 303,089,891 |
| Versions published | 67 | 44 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.65.0 | 1.75.0 |
| First published | Jun 27, 2019 | Nov 8, 2019 |
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 (tracing-subscriber, 20,192 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: tracing-subscriber 7 months ago, opentelemetry 15 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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