Crates / ciborium / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to ciborium
Short answerThe closest alternatives to ciborium on crates.io data are zbus (354K real downloads a day), serde_cbor (145K real downloads a day), serde_spanned (2.3M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is zerocopy, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. ciborium itself gets 775,492 a day with 902 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs ciborium | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zbus Established | 354,153 | 0.46x | 647 | 1d | category Data structures, category Encoding, keyword "serde" | side by side |
| serde_cbor Established | 145,240 | 0.19x | 547 | 5.2y | category Encoding, keyword "cbor", keyword "serde" | compare |
| serde_spanned Pulled in | 2,255,941 | 2.91x | 16 | 16d | category Encoding, category Parsing tools, keyword "serde" | compare |
| quick-xml Widely used | 1,525,182 | 1.97x | 2,687 | 2mo | category Encoding, category Parsing tools, keyword "serde" | compare |
| zerocopy Established | 3,245,504 | 4.19x | 878 | 11d | category Embedded development, category Encoding | compare |
| zvariant_utils Pulled in | 374,610 | 0.48x | 5 | 2mo | category Data structures, category Encoding | compare |
| zvariant Pulled in | 363,875 | 0.47x | 86 | 8d | category Data structures, category Encoding | compare |
| zvariant_derive Pulled in | 363,785 | 0.47x | 9 | 8d | category Data structures, category 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 ciborium; 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 ciborium: 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 ciborium, 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 gaining. 354,153 real downloads a day.zbusRust crate. API for D-Bus communication and its wire format. Real use: 354K downloads a day on quiet days; 647 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time