Crates / serde-value / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to serde-value
Short answerThe closest alternatives to serde-value on crates.io data are zerovec (2.5M real downloads a day), schemars (2.4M real downloads a day), quick-xml (1.5M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is zerovec, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. serde-value itself gets 469,673 a day with 189 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs serde-value | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zerovec Pulled in | 2,516,803 | 5.36x | 60 | 2d | keyword "serde" | compare |
| schemars Widely used | 2,383,996 | 5.08x | 6,659 | 12d | keyword "serde" | compare |
| quick-xml Widely used | 1,525,182 | 3.25x | 2,687 | 2mo | keyword "serde" | compare |
| schemars_derive Pulled in | 952,344 | 2.03x | 6 | 12d | keyword "serde" | compare |
| ciborium Established | 775,492 | 1.65x | 902 | 2.7y | keyword "serde" | compare |
| erased-serde Established | 763,150 | 1.62x | 362 | 8mo | keyword "serde" | compare |
| csv Widely used | 677,936 | 1.44x | 3,501 | 12mo | keyword "serde" | compare |
| zbus Established | 354,153 | 0.75x | 647 | 1d | 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 serde-value; 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 serde-value: 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 serde-value, 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: Few direct dependents and steady. 2,516,803 real downloads a day.zerovecRust crate. Zero-copy vector backed by a byte array. Real use: 2.5M downloads a day on quiet days; 60 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time