vs Validator Crate

Feature comparison

Feature	zod-rs	validator
Schema definition	Derive macro with attributes	Struct attributes only
Runtime flexibility	Dynamic schema creation	Compile-time only
Error messages	Detailed with full path context	Basic field-level errors
JSON integration	Built-in JSON validation/parsing	Manual serde integration
Nested validation	Automatic nested struct support	Manual implementation
Schema reuse	Composable and reusable schemas	Struct-bound validation
Type safety	Full type inference	Limited type information
Extensibility	Custom validators and schemas	Custom validation functions
Framework integration	Built-in Axum support	Manual integration
i18n	Built-in localized error messages	No i18n support

Migration guide

Before: validator crate

use validator::{Validate, ValidationError};

#[derive(Validate)]
struct User {
    #[validate(length(min = 3, max = 20))]
    username: String,

    #[validate(email)]
    email: String,

    #[validate(range(min = 13, max = 120))]
    age: u32,
}

After: zod-rs

use zod_rs::prelude::*;

#[derive(ZodSchema)]
struct User {
    #[zod(min_length(3), max_length(20))]
    username: String,

    #[zod(email)]
    email: String,

    #[zod(min(13.0), max(120.0), int)]
    age: u32,
}

What you gain

Validate and parse in one step

// validator: validate then manually deserialize
let user = User { ... };
user.validate()?;

// zod-rs: validate and deserialize from JSON in one call
let user = User::validate_and_parse(&json_data)?;

Parse from JSON strings directly

let user = User::from_json(r#"{"username":"alice","email":"alice@example.com","age":25}"#)?;

Reusable schemas

// Create a schema once, use it many times
let schema = User::schema();
let is_valid = schema.validate(&data).is_ok();

Dynamic schema creation

// Build schemas at runtime — not possible with validator
let schema = object()
    .field("name", string().min(2))
    .field("email", string().email());

Full path error messages

// validator: "email: Invalid email"
// zod-rs:    "user.profile.email: Invalid email address"