Crates / Compare / winnow vs tree-sitter
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 27, 2026
winnow vs tree-sitter
Short answerBy steady daily use, winnow is bigger: 3,579,683 real downloads a day against 207,185 for tree-sitter (17.3x). 448 crates depend on winnow and 2,587 on tree-sitter. winnow last shipped 3 months ago, tree-sitter 19 days ago.
winnow
EstablishedEstablished and steady.
448 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
A byte-oriented, zero-copy, parser combinators library
tree-sitter
Widely usedWidely used and gaining.
2,587 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Rust bindings to the Tree-sitter parsing library
winnowtree-sitter · 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 | winnow | tree-sitter |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 3,579,683 | 207,185 |
| Crates that depend on it | 448 | 2,587 |
| Last release | 1.0.4, 3 months ago | 0.27.1, 19 days ago |
| Trend vs the field | +0% | +17% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 8.5% |
| Downloads in the window | 327,025,367 | 19,759,341 |
| All-time downloads | 1,062,238,983 | 50,153,923 |
| Versions published | 111 | 82 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.65.0 | 1.90 |
| First published | Feb 22, 2023 | May 18, 2018 |
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 (tree-sitter, 2,587 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: winnow 3 months ago, tree-sitter 19 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 26, 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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Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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