Crates / Compare / cc vs pkg-config
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
cc vs pkg-config
Short answerBy steady daily use, cc is bigger: 3,852,250 real downloads a day against 2,394,417 for pkg-config (1.6x). 4,294 crates depend on cc and 1,241 on pkg-config. cc last shipped 1 day ago, pkg-config 2 months ago.
cc
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
4,294 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
A build-time dependency for Cargo build scripts to assist in invoking the native C compiler to compile native C code into a static archive to be linked into Rust code.
pkg-config
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,241 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
A library to run the pkg-config system tool at build time in order to be used in Cargo build scripts.
ccpkg-config · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
How they relate
- Often used together: 7 tracked crates depend on both (aws-lc-sys, zstd-sys, openssl-sys, libsqlite3-sys, libz-sys, bzip2-sys). They are not always either/or.
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | cc | pkg-config |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 3,852,250 | 2,394,417 |
| Crates that depend on it | 4,294 | 1,241 |
| Last release | 1.10.0, 1 day ago | 0.3.34, 2 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -4% | +5% |
| Release-window share | 23.9% | 1.7% |
| Downloads in the window | 335,134,202 | 218,960,132 |
| All-time downloads | 1,400,087,136 | 863,828,960 |
| Versions published | 230 | 47 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.65.0 | 1.63 |
| First published | Dec 16, 2014 | Nov 11, 2014 |
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 (cc, 4,294 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: cc 1 day ago, pkg-config 2 months 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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