Crates / urlencoding / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to urlencoding
Short answerThe closest alternatives to urlencoding on crates.io data are url (2.5M real downloads a day), serde_urlencoded (1.7M real downloads a day), encoding_rs (1.4M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is base64, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. urlencoding itself gets 826,249 a day with 2,751 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs urlencoding | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| url Foundational | 2,520,673 | 3.05x | 16,906 | 10mo | category Encoding, category Web programming, keyword "url" | side by side |
| serde_urlencoded Widely used | 1,715,895 | 2.08x | 1,342 | 4.8y | category Encoding, category Web programming | compare |
| encoding_rs Widely used | 1,414,714 | 1.71x | 1,424 | 30d | category Encoding, category Web programming | compare |
| serde_qs Established | 174,070 | 0.21x | 317 | 3mo | category Encoding, category Web programming | compare |
| matchit Established | 1,597,322 | 1.93x | 207 | 7mo | keyword "url" | compare |
| base64 Foundational | 4,638,981 | 5.61x | 19,537 | 3mo | category Encoding | compare |
| serde Foundational | 4,327,945 | 5.24x | 133,588 | 3mo | category Encoding | compare |
| serde_json Foundational | 4,294,696 | 5.20x | 113,141 | 13d | category Encoding | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with urlencoding; 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 urlencoding: 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 urlencoding, 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. 2,520,673 real downloads a day.urlRust crate. URL library for Rust, based on the WHATWG URL Standard. Real use: 2.5M downloads a day on quiet days; 16,906 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time