Crates / erased-serde / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to erased-serde
Short answerThe closest alternatives to erased-serde on crates.io data are serde_json (4.3M real downloads a day), zerovec (2.5M real downloads a day), schemars (2.4M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is serde_json, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. erased-serde itself gets 763,150 a day with 362 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs erased-serde | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| serde_json Foundational | 4,294,696 | 5.63x | 113,141 | 13d | category Encoding, category No standard library, keyword "serde" | side by side |
| zerovec Pulled in | 2,516,803 | 3.30x | 60 | 2d | category No standard library, category Rust patterns, keyword "serde" | compare |
| schemars Widely used | 2,383,996 | 3.12x | 6,659 | 12d | category Encoding, category No standard library, keyword "serde" | compare |
| serde_spanned Pulled in | 2,255,941 | 2.96x | 16 | 16d | category Encoding, keyword "serde" | compare |
| serde_urlencoded Widely used | 1,715,895 | 2.25x | 1,342 | 4.8y | category Encoding, keyword "serde" | compare |
| quick-xml Widely used | 1,525,182 | 2.00x | 2,687 | 2mo | category Encoding, keyword "serde" | compare |
| serde_yaml Widely used | 1,238,004 | 1.62x | 7,766 | 2.6y | category Encoding, keyword "serde" | compare |
| serde_with Widely used | 1,160,488 | 1.52x | 3,105 | 28d | category Encoding, category No standard library, keyword "serde" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with erased-serde; read its description before you swap.
- More dependents means more answered questions and a smaller chance it disappears.
- Check the last release against how fast you need fixes. For erased-serde: is it still maintained?
Rules
Alternatives = tracked crates (top 1000 by downloads) that share a specific crates.io category (2 points each) or keyword (3 points each) with erased-serde, most similar first; its own parts (same name prefix) and crates it depends on or that depend on it are left out, because those are companions, not substitutes. Real downloads = quiet-day median, crates.io data Oct 24, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Foundational and steady. 4,294,696 real downloads a day.serde_jsonRust crate. A JSON serialization file format. Real use: 4.3M downloads a day on quiet days; 113,141 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time