Crates / Compare / crossbeam vs flume
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
crossbeam vs flume
Short answerSync channels: crossbeam (std mpsc is based on it since Rust 1.67). Mixed sync/async: flume. By steady daily use, flume is bigger: 768,860 real downloads a day against 374,913 for crossbeam (2.1x). 1,418 crates depend on crossbeam and 970 on flume. crossbeam last shipped 49 days ago, flume 11 months ago.
crossbeam
Widely usedWidely used and losing ground.
1,418 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Tools for concurrent programming
flume
EstablishedEstablished and steady.
970 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
A blazingly fast multi-producer channel
crossbeamflume · 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 | crossbeam | flume |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 374,913 | 768,860 |
| Crates that depend on it | 1,418 | 970 |
| Last release | 0.8.5, 49 days ago | 0.12.0, 11 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -21% | +3% |
| Release-window share | 1.4% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 29,840,725 | 69,906,804 |
| All-time downloads | 152,093,086 | 267,058,879 |
| Versions published | 37 | 39 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0/MIT |
| MSRV | 1.61 | not set |
| First published | Aug 27, 2015 | Jul 31, 2019 |
Which to pick
- Pick crossbeam if you want fast MPMC channels plus the rest of the toolkit: scoped threads, epoch GC, deques, select!.
- Pick flume if you want MPMC channels that also work in async code, written without unsafe.
- Bottom line: Sync channels: crossbeam (std mpsc is based on it since Rust 1.67). Mixed sync/async: flume. (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 (crossbeam, 1,418 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: crossbeam 49 days ago, flume 11 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. People search for this pair: Google suggests "crossbeam vs flume".
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