Crates / cargo-deny / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to cargo-deny
Short answerThe closest alternatives to cargo-deny on crates.io data are semver (2.8M real downloads a day), cfg-expr (348K real downloads a day), statsig (413 real downloads a day). Of the 3 we list, the most used is semver, and 2 shipped a release in the last year. cargo-deny itself gets 23,576 a day with 5 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs cargo-deny | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| semver Widely used | 2,771,038 | 117.54x | 4,141 | 7mo | keyword "cargo" | compare |
| cfg-expr Pulled in | 348,087 | 14.76x | 22 | 23d | keyword "cargo" | compare |
| statsig Pulled in | 413 | 0.02x | 0 | 2.0y | keyword "ci" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with cargo-deny; 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 cargo-deny: 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 cargo-deny, 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 27, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Widely used and steady. 2,771,038 real downloads a day.semverRust crate. Parser and evaluator for Cargo's flavor of Semantic Versioning. Real use: 2.8M downloads a day on quiet days; 4,141 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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