Crates / Compare / axum vs actix-web
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
axum vs actix-web
Short answerBoth are production-ready; axum has the momentum in new projects, actix-web the longer track record. By steady daily use, axum is bigger: 1,587,646 real downloads a day against 144,166 for actix-web (11.0x). 9,968 crates depend on axum and 1,747 on actix-web. axum last shipped 6 months ago, actix-web 1 day ago.
axum
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
9,968 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
HTTP routing and request handling library that focuses on ergonomics and modularity
actix-web
Widely usedWidely used and losing ground.
1,747 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Actix Web is a powerful, pragmatic, and extremely fast web framework for Rust
axumactix-web · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | axum | actix-web |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 1,587,646 | 144,166 |
| Crates that depend on it | 9,968 | 1,747 |
| Last release | 0.8.9, 6 months ago | 4.18.1, 1 day ago |
| Trend vs the field | -2% | -17% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 10.9% |
| Downloads in the window | 141,334,621 | 12,434,936 |
| All-time downloads | 540,976,000 | 87,133,449 |
| Versions published | 94 | 162 |
| License | MIT | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.80 | 1.89 |
| First published | Jul 22, 2021 | Oct 23, 2017 |
Which to pick
- Pick axum if you want the tokio/tower ecosystem: middleware from tower-http, extractors, and the same team as tokio and hyper.
- Pick actix-web if you want a mature, very fast framework with its own large ecosystem and years of production use.
- Bottom line: Both are production-ready; axum has the momentum in new projects, actix-web the longer track record. (checked against each project's docs, Oct 24, 2026)
- Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
- When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (axum, 9,968 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: axum 6 months ago, actix-web 1 day ago.
Also in this space
Method
Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study. People search for this pair: Google suggests "axum vs actix web".