Crates / Compare / bincode vs borsh
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
bincode vs borsh
Short answerBy steady daily use, bincode is bigger: 828,247 real downloads a day against 674,146 for borsh (1.2x). 5,913 crates depend on bincode and 1,483 on borsh. bincode last shipped 10 months ago, borsh 59 days ago.
bincode
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
5,913 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
A binary serialization / deserialization strategy for transforming structs into bytes and vice versa!
borsh
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,483 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Binary Object Representation Serializer for Hashing
bincodeborsh · 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 | bincode | borsh |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 828,247 | 674,146 |
| Crates that depend on it | 5,913 | 1,483 |
| Last release | 3.0.0, 10 months ago | 1.8.1, 59 days ago |
| Trend vs the field | -5% | -1% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 2.3% |
| Downloads in the window | 72,973,683 | 62,034,785 |
| All-time downloads | 353,809,575 | 219,886,815 |
| Versions published | 73 | 61 |
| License | MIT | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.85.0 | 1.77.0 |
| First published | Nov 20, 2014 | Aug 16, 2019 |
Which to pick
- 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 (bincode, 5,913 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: bincode 10 months ago, borsh 59 days 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.
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