Crates / blocking / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to blocking
Short answerThe closest alternatives to blocking on crates.io data are atomic-waker (1.9M real downloads a day), async-signal (370K real downloads a day), scc (241K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is mio, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. blocking itself gets 466,293 a day with 179 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs blocking | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| atomic-waker Established | 1,911,010 | 4.10x | 116 | 3.1y | category Asynchronous, category Concurrency, keyword "async" | compare |
| async-signal Pulled in | 369,929 | 0.79x | 21 | 7mo | category Asynchronous, category Concurrency, keyword "async" | compare |
| scc Established | 240,754 | 0.52x | 133 | 53d | category Asynchronous, category Concurrency, keyword "async" | compare |
| async-std Widely used | 138,341 | 0.30x | 1,903 | 14mo | category Asynchronous, category Concurrency, keyword "async" | compare |
| mio Established | 3,332,252 | 7.15x | 624 | 21d | category Asynchronous, keyword "async" | compare |
| tokio Foundational | 3,098,313 | 6.64x | 78,796 | 3d | category Asynchronous, keyword "async" | compare |
| futures Foundational | 2,405,900 | 5.16x | 26,505 | 2mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async" | compare |
| tower Widely used | 2,342,590 | 5.02x | 5,816 | 9mo | category Asynchronous, 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 blocking; 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 blocking: 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 blocking, 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: Established and quiet for years. 1,911,010 real downloads a day.atomic-wakerRust crate. A synchronization primitive for task wakeup. Real use: 1.9M downloads a day on quiet days; 116 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time