Crates / Compare / brotli vs async-compression
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
brotli vs async-compression
Short answerBy steady daily use, brotli is bigger: 841,265 real downloads a day against 707,872 for async-compression (1.2x). 613 crates depend on brotli and 387 on async-compression. brotli last shipped 52 days ago, async-compression 7 days ago.
brotli
EstablishedEstablished and gaining.
613 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
A brotli compressor and decompressor that with an interface avoiding the rust stdlib. This makes it suitable for embedded devices and kernels. It is designed with a pluggable allocator so that the standard lib's allocator may be employed. The default build also includes a stdlib allocator and stream interface. Disable this with --features=no-stdlib. All included code is safe.
async-compression
EstablishedEstablished and gaining.
387 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Adaptors between compression crates and Rust's modern asynchronous IO types.
brotliasync-compression · 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 | brotli | async-compression |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 841,265 | 707,872 |
| Crates that depend on it | 613 | 387 |
| Last release | 9.0.0, 52 days ago | 0.4.51, 7 days ago |
| Trend vs the field | +12% | +11% |
| Release-window share | 2.4% | 20.4% |
| Downloads in the window | 77,974,214 | 65,612,014 |
| All-time downloads | 302,073,974 | 250,800,243 |
| Versions published | 55 | 78 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause AND MIT | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.59.0 | 1.83 |
| First published | Nov 30, 2015 | May 14, 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 (brotli, 613 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: brotli 52 days ago, async-compression 7 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.
Up next
Another comparison: Same method, same window. Foundational and steady vs widely used and steady.reqwest vs ureqRead it next →Also worth your time