Crates / aes-gcm / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to aes-gcm
Short answerThe closest alternatives to aes-gcm on crates.io data are rsa (718K real downloads a day), polyval (706K real downloads a day), chacha20poly1305 (325K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. aes-gcm itself gets 653,891 a day with 1,968 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs aes-gcm | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rsa Widely used | 717,631 | 1.10x | 1,182 | 18d | category Cryptography, keyword "encryption" | side by side |
| polyval Pulled in | 706,359 | 1.08x | 19 | 3mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "ghash" | compare |
| chacha20poly1305 Widely used | 325,391 | 0.50x | 1,434 | 4mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "aead" | side by side |
| ahash Widely used | 1,968,676 | 3.01x | 2,097 | 18mo | category No standard library, keyword "aes" | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 5.91x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| block-buffer Pulled in | 3,815,018 | 5.83x | 23 | 4mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| crypto-common Pulled in | 3,766,260 | 5.76x | 85 | 5mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| sha2 Foundational | 3,510,276 | 5.37x | 22,608 | 12d | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with aes-gcm; 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 aes-gcm: 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 aes-gcm, 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: Widely used and steady. 717,631 real downloads a day.rsaRust crate. Pure Rust RSA implementation. Real use: 718K downloads a day on quiet days; 1,182 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time