Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to bzip2
Short answerThe closest alternatives to bzip2 on crates.io data are flate2 (2.1M real downloads a day), miniz_oxide (2.5M real downloads a day), leb128fmt (630K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is toml_datetime, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. bzip2 itself gets 435,362 a day with 580 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs bzip2 | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| flate2 Widely used | 2,127,583 | 4.89x | 7,758 | 57d | category API bindings, category Compression, keyword "encoding" | side by side |
| miniz_oxide Established | 2,510,979 | 5.77x | 443 | 7mo | category Compression, keyword "encoding" | compare |
| leb128fmt Pulled in | 629,549 | 1.45x | 4 | 3.1y | category Compression, keyword "encoding" | compare |
| zstd-safe Pulled in | 1,111,608 | 2.55x | 55 | 8d | category API bindings, category Compression | compare |
| zstd Widely used | 1,083,388 | 2.49x | 2,614 | 8d | category API bindings, category Compression | compare |
| zstd-sys Pulled in | 1,052,310 | 2.42x | 57 | 8d | category API bindings, category Compression | compare |
| toml_datetime Pulled in | 3,215,444 | 7.39x | 29 | 16d | keyword "encoding" | compare |
| toml Foundational | 2,960,881 | 6.80x | 20,777 | 15d | keyword "encoding" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with bzip2; 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 bzip2: 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 bzip2, 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. 2,127,583 real downloads a day.flate2Rust crate. DEFLATE compression and decompression exposed as Read/BufRead/Write streams. Supports miniz_oxide and multiple zlib implementations. Supports zlib, gzip, and...Read it next →Also worth your time