Crates / bytestring / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to bytestring
Short answerThe closest alternatives to bytestring on crates.io data are bstr (1.3M real downloads a day), axum-core (1.6M real downloads a day), encoding_rs (1.4M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is base64, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. bytestring itself gets 166,386 a day with 101 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs bytestring | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bstr Established | 1,252,630 | 7.53x | 676 | 2mo | keyword "bytes", keyword "string" | compare |
| axum-core Established | 1,571,431 | 9.44x | 191 | 10mo | category Web programming, keyword "web" | compare |
| encoding_rs Widely used | 1,414,714 | 8.50x | 1,424 | 30d | category Web programming, keyword "web" | compare |
| handlebars Established | 181,762 | 1.09x | 829 | 2mo | category Web programming, keyword "web" | compare |
| base64 Foundational | 4,638,981 | 27.88x | 19,537 | 3mo | keyword "utf8" | compare |
| heck Widely used | 3,901,922 | 23.45x | 1,865 | 2.6y | category No standard library, keyword "string" | compare |
| aho-corasick Established | 3,331,047 | 20.02x | 655 | 3mo | keyword "string" | compare |
| strsim Established | 2,956,166 | 17.77x | 733 | 2.6y | keyword "string" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with bytestring; 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 bytestring: 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 bytestring, 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