Crates / byteorder / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to byteorder
Short answerThe closest alternatives to byteorder on crates.io data are bstr (1.3M real downloads a day), bincode (828K real downloads a day), rend (507K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is zerocopy, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. byteorder itself gets 2,056,746 a day with 4,780 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs byteorder | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bstr Established | 1,252,630 | 0.61x | 676 | 2mo | category Encoding, keyword "byte" | side by side |
| bincode Widely used | 828,247 | 0.40x | 5,913 | 10mo | category Encoding, keyword "binary" | compare |
| rend Pulled in | 507,412 | 0.25x | 11 | 4mo | category Encoding, category No standard library, keyword "endian" | compare |
| endian-type Pulled in | 255,797 | 0.12x | 2 | 3.6y | category Encoding, keyword "endian" | compare |
| zerocopy Established | 3,245,504 | 1.58x | 878 | 11d | category Encoding, category Parsing tools | compare |
| toml_datetime Pulled in | 3,215,444 | 1.56x | 29 | 16d | category Encoding, category Parsing tools | compare |
| toml Foundational | 2,960,881 | 1.44x | 20,777 | 15d | category Encoding, category Parsing tools | compare |
| toml_edit Widely used | 2,715,071 | 1.32x | 1,989 | 15d | category Encoding, category Parsing tools | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with byteorder; 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 byteorder: 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 byteorder, 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 steady. 1,252,630 real downloads a day.bstrRust crate. A string type that is not required to be valid UTF-8. Real use: 1.3M downloads a day on quiet days; 676 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time