Crates / tree-sitter / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to tree-sitter
Short answerThe closest alternatives to tree-sitter on crates.io data are winnow (3.6M real downloads a day), nom (2.2M real downloads a day), minimal-lexical (1.5M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is winnow, and 3 shipped a release in the last year. tree-sitter itself gets 207,185 a day with 2,587 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs tree-sitter | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| winnow Established | 3,579,683 | 17.28x | 448 | 3mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | side by side |
| nom Widely used | 2,156,544 | 10.41x | 2,600 | 21mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| minimal-lexical Pulled in | 1,454,881 | 7.02x | 2 | 5.1y | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| combine Established | 900,865 | 4.35x | 121 | 9d | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| lexical-parse-float Pulled in | 374,617 | 1.81x | 16 | 13mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| lexical-parse-integer Pulled in | 374,460 | 1.81x | 6 | 13mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| lexical-core Pulled in | 351,327 | 1.70x | 72 | 13mo | category Parsing tools, keyword "parsing" | compare |
| objc2 Widely used | 607,001 | 2.93x | 1,193 | 19d | category API bindings, category External FFI bindings | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with tree-sitter; 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 tree-sitter: 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 tree-sitter, 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 27, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Established and steady. 3,579,683 real downloads a day.winnowRust crate. A byte-oriented, zero-copy, parser combinators library. Real use: 3.6M downloads a day on quiet days; 448 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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