Crates / async-std / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to async-std
Short answerThe closest alternatives to async-std on crates.io data are futures (2.4M real downloads a day), tokio (3.1M real downloads a day), tower (2.3M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is tokio, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. async-std itself gets 138,341 a day with 1,903 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs async-std | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| futures Foundational | 2,405,900 | 17.39x | 26,505 | 2mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "future" | side by side |
| tokio Foundational | 3,098,313 | 22.40x | 78,796 | 3d | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | side by side |
| tower Widely used | 2,342,590 | 16.93x | 5,816 | 9mo | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | compare |
| h2 Established | 2,290,495 | 16.56x | 296 | 18d | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | compare |
| tower-http Widely used | 2,044,149 | 14.78x | 3,782 | 54d | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | compare |
| atomic-waker Established | 1,911,010 | 13.81x | 116 | 3.1y | category Asynchronous, category Concurrency, keyword "async" | compare |
| tonic Widely used | 1,214,889 | 8.78x | 3,752 | 6mo | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | compare |
| tonic-build Widely used | 683,184 | 4.94x | 1,000 | 6mo | category Asynchronous, category Network programming, keyword "async" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with async-std; 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 async-std: 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 async-std, 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. 2,405,900 real downloads a day.futuresRust crate. An implementation of futures and streams featuring zero allocations, composability, and iterator-like interfaces. Real use: 2.4M downloads a day on quiet...Read it next →Also worth your time