RapidFuzz

High-performance fuzzy string matching library with C++ speed and a clean Python API; modern replacement for fuzzywuzzy.

string-matching-frameworksnpm: fuzzball
68
Hero Score
Popularity
76
Performance
60
Ecosystem
50
Maturity
77
Dev Experience
75
⭐ 4,159 stars⬇ 29.0M downloads/wkFirst release: Mar 2020Last release: Aug 2026
Async Support: NoPlugin Extensions: MediumSpeed: Very fastDoc Quality: HighLearning Curve: Easy

Pros

  • • Extremely fast C++ core with 5-100x speedup over fuzzywuzzy
  • • MIT licensed (no GPL restrictions unlike fuzzywuzzy)
  • • Drop-in replacement for fuzzywuzzy with additional metrics

Cons

  • • Focused on edit-distance similarity (not semantic matching)
  • • Minor API differences require small migration from fuzzywuzzy
  • • Requires C++ compiler for source builds

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