Crates / chacha20poly1305 / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to chacha20poly1305
Short answerThe closest alternatives to chacha20poly1305 on crates.io data are aes-gcm (654K real downloads a day), digest (3.9M real downloads a day), block-buffer (3.8M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. chacha20poly1305 itself gets 325,391 a day with 1,434 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs chacha20poly1305 | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aes-gcm Widely used | 653,891 | 2.01x | 1,968 | 2mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "aead" | side by side |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 11.87x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| block-buffer Pulled in | 3,815,018 | 11.72x | 23 | 4mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| crypto-common Pulled in | 3,766,260 | 11.57x | 85 | 5mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| sha2 Foundational | 3,510,276 | 10.79x | 22,608 | 12d | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| rustls Widely used | 2,763,314 | 8.49x | 5,286 | 10d | category Cryptography | compare |
| rustls-webpki Established | 2,654,129 | 8.16x | 240 | 4d | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| ppv-lite86 Pulled in | 2,441,634 | 7.50x | 6 | 20mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with chacha20poly1305; 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 chacha20poly1305: 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 chacha20poly1305, 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 gaining. 653,891 real downloads a day.aes-gcmRust crate. Pure Rust implementation of the AES-GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) Cipher with optional architecture-specific...Read it next →Also worth your time