diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4ab92389..86ae0815 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -457,7 +457,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
  "pulldown-cmark",
  "retain_mut",
- "ropey",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "signal-hook",
@@ -835,9 +834,9 @@ checksum = "4389f1d5789befaf6029ebd9f7dac4af7f7e3d61b69d4f30e2ac02b57e7712b0"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "ropey"
-version = "1.4.1"
+version = "1.5.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "fa0dd9b26e2a102b33d400b7b7d196c81a4014eb96eda90b1c5b48d7215d9633"
+checksum = "bbd22239fafefc42138ca5da064f3c17726a80d2379d817a3521240e78dd0064"
 dependencies = [
  "smallvec",
  "str_indices",
@@ -1016,9 +1015,9 @@ checksum = "9e08d8363704e6c71fc928674353e6b7c23dcea9d82d7012c8faf2a3a025f8d0"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "str_indices"
-version = "0.3.2"
+version = "0.4.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "adfad63a1b47951101cd667a85b2959a62910cf03f814fff25df89c460b873f8"
+checksum = "9d9199fa80c817e074620be84374a520062ebac833f358d74b37060ce4a0f2c0"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "syn"
diff --git a/helix-core/Cargo.toml b/helix-core/Cargo.toml
index 8d6a343f..6574d144 100644
--- a/helix-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ unicode-lines = ["ropey/unicode_lines"]
 [dependencies]
 helix-loader = { version = "0.6", path = "../helix-loader" }
 
-ropey = { version = "1.4", default-features = false }
+ropey = { version = "1.5", default-features = false, features = ["simd"] }
 smallvec = "1.8"
 smartstring = "1.0.1"
 unicode-segmentation = "1.9"
diff --git a/helix-core/src/lib.rs b/helix-core/src/lib.rs
index a022a42a..7d857b0f 100644
--- a/helix-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/helix-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ pub fn find_root(root: Option<&str>, root_markers: &[String]) -> Option<std::pat
         .cloned()
 }
 
-pub use ropey::{Rope, RopeBuilder, RopeSlice};
+pub use ropey::{str_utils, Rope, RopeBuilder, RopeSlice};
 
 // pub use tendril::StrTendril as Tendril;
 pub use smartstring::SmartString;
diff --git a/helix-term/Cargo.toml b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
index 9be29b0f..0f80c416 100644
--- a/helix-term/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ anyhow = "1"
 once_cell = "1.12"
 
 which = "4.2"
-ropey = { version = "1.4", default-features = false }
 
 tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt", "rt-multi-thread", "io-util", "io-std", "time", "process", "macros", "fs", "parking_lot"] }
 tui = { path = "../helix-tui", package = "helix-tui", default-features = false, features = ["crossterm"] }
diff --git a/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs b/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
index 85028e2f..f074d9f1 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/ui/editor.rs
@@ -467,7 +467,7 @@ impl EditorView {
                                 // make sure we display tab as appropriate amount of spaces
                                 let visual_tab_width = tab_width - (visual_x as usize % tab_width);
                                 let grapheme_tab_width =
-                                    ropey::str_utils::char_to_byte_idx(&tab, visual_tab_width);
+                                    helix_core::str_utils::char_to_byte_idx(&tab, visual_tab_width);
 
                                 (&tab[..grapheme_tab_width], visual_tab_width)
                             } else if grapheme == " " {