Crates / Category
Rust crates · category · data Oct 24, 2026
Network programming crates by real downloads
crates.io describes this category as: “Crates dealing with higher-level network protocols such as FTP, HTTP, or SSH, or lower-level network protocols such as TCP or UDP.” Below are the 21 crates in it among the 300 most-downloaded crates, ranked by real downloads (quiet-day baseline) instead of raw count.
Short answerBy steady daily use, socket2 leads Network programming with 4,034,112 real downloads a day (widely used and steady). 12 of the 21 have 1,000+ dependents; 3 have shipped nothing in 2+ years. Release spikes barely matter here: the median crate got 0.0% of its downloads within 2 days of a release.
21 crates
| Compare | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| socket2Widely used | 4,034,112 | 1,539 | 3mo | -9% | 1.4B | |
| bytesFoundational | 3,424,140 | 17,656 | 4mo | -5% | 1.2B | |
| rustixWidely used | 3,390,892 | 1,684 | 38d | +3% | 1.3B | |
| tokioFoundational | 3,098,313 | 78,796 | 3d | -6% | 1.1B | |
| hyperWidely used | 2,783,528 | 5,861 | 18d | -4% | 1B | |
| rustlsWidely used | 2,763,314 | 5,286 | 10d | -3% | 1B | |
| towerWidely used | 2,342,590 | 5,816 | 9mo | -2% | 766M | |
| tokio-rustlsWidely used | 2,299,591 | 2,458 | 26d | +5% | 871M | |
| h2Established | 2,290,495 | 296 | 18d | -1% | 911M | |
| httparseEstablished | 2,183,298 | 609 | 20mo | +3% | 82M | |
| rustls-pki-typesEstablished | 2,178,757 | 910 | 3mo | +0% | 609M | |
| tower-httpWidely used | 2,044,149 | 3,782 | 54d | +6% | 551M | |
| ipnetEstablished | 2,000,731 | 780 | 48d | +3% | 672M | |
| tower-serviceEstablished | 1,972,046 | 833 | 2.2y | +3% | 728M | |
| hyper-utilWidely used | 1,948,171 | 3,155 | 30d | +8% | 568M | |
| tower-layerEstablished | 1,850,070 | 342 | 2.2y | +4% | 599M | |
| rustls-native-certsEstablished | 1,774,553 | 761 | 11d | -1% | 628M | |
| matchitEstablished | 1,597,322 | 207 | 7mo | -1% | 513M | |
| axumWidely used | 1,587,646 | 9,968 | 6mo | -2% | 541M | |
| axum-coreEstablished | 1,571,431 | 191 | 10mo | -2% | 536M | |
| rustls-pemfileWidely used | 945,078 | 1,378 | 2.1y | -10% | 569M |
Click a column to sort; press + to add a crate to a comparison. Real / day = median downloads on days with no release that day or the day before. Each crate's page shows its verdict and the 4 rules behind it. Why this method · this category on crates.io