Crates / Compare / futures vs async-std
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
futures vs async-std
Short answerBy steady daily use, futures is bigger: 2,405,900 real downloads a day against 138,341 for async-std (17.4x). 26,505 crates depend on futures and 1,903 on async-std. futures last shipped 2 months ago, async-std 14 months ago.
futures
FoundationalFoundational and steady.
26,505 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
An implementation of futures and streams featuring zero allocations, composability, and iterator-like interfaces.
async-std
Widely usedWidely used and losing ground.
1,903 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Deprecated in favor of `smol` - Async version of the Rust standard library
futuresasync-std · 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 | futures | async-std |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 2,405,900 | 138,341 |
| Crates that depend on it | 26,505 | 1,903 |
| Last release | 0.3.34, 2 months ago | 1.13.2, 14 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -9% | -23% |
| Release-window share | 2.4% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 200,567,603 | 11,792,005 |
| All-time downloads | 879,796,181 | 98,131,835 |
| Versions published | 75 | 38 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 OR MIT |
| MSRV | 1.71 | 1.63 |
| First published | Jul 31, 2016 | May 30, 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 (futures, 26,505 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: futures 2 months ago, async-std 14 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.
Up next
Another comparison: Same method, same window. Widely used and losing ground vs foundational and steady.async-std vs tokioRead it next →Also worth your time