Crates / Compare / mio vs tower
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
mio vs tower
Short answerBy steady daily use, mio is bigger: 3,332,252 real downloads a day against 2,342,590 for tower (1.4x). 624 crates depend on mio and 5,816 on tower. mio last shipped 21 days ago, tower 9 months ago.
mio
EstablishedEstablished and steady.
624 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Lightweight non-blocking I/O.
tower
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
5,816 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Tower is a library of modular and reusable components for building robust clients and servers.
miotower · 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 | mio | tower |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 3,332,252 | 2,342,590 |
| Crates that depend on it | 624 | 5,816 |
| Last release | 1.2.4, 21 days ago | 0.5.3, 9 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -6% | -4% |
| Release-window share | 4.3% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 288,704,081 | 209,947,395 |
| All-time downloads | 1,170,982,578 | 766,196,518 |
| Versions published | 81 | 26 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.71 | 1.64.0 |
| First published | Nov 11, 2014 | Dec 23, 2016 |
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 (tower, 5,816 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: mio 21 days ago, tower 9 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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