Crates / Compare / axum vs rocket
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
axum vs rocket
Short answeraxum for composable services; rocket for an all-in-one developer experience. Check rocket's release cadence below. By steady daily use, axum is bigger: 1,587,646 real downloads a day against 22,064 for rocket (72.0x). 9,968 crates depend on axum and 628 on rocket. axum last shipped 6 months ago, rocket 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
rocket
EstablishedEstablished and losing ground.
628 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Web framework with a focus on usability, security, extensibility, and speed.
axumrocket · 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 | rocket |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 1,587,646 | 22,064 |
| Crates that depend on it | 9,968 | 628 |
| Last release | 0.8.9, 6 months ago | 0.5.2, 1 day ago |
| Trend vs the field | -2% | -30% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 0.9% |
| Downloads in the window | 141,334,621 | 2,276,741 |
| All-time downloads | 540,976,000 | 14,502,825 |
| Versions published | 94 | 59 |
| License | MIT | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.80 | 1.89 |
| First published | Jul 22, 2021 | Dec 23, 2016 |
Which to pick
- Pick axum if you want small, composable pieces on tokio and tower.
- Pick rocket if you want batteries included: macros for routes, forms, templating and request guards.
- Bottom line: axum for composable services; rocket for an all-in-one developer experience. Check rocket's release cadence below. (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, rocket 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 rocket".