Crates / Compare / ring vs ed25519-dalek
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
ring vs ed25519-dalek
Short answerBy steady daily use, ring is bigger: 2,112,308 real downloads a day against 780,826 for ed25519-dalek (2.7x). 1,837 crates depend on ring and 3,403 on ed25519-dalek. ring last shipped 19 months ago, ed25519-dalek 4 months ago.
ring
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,837 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
An experiment.
ed25519-dalek
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
3,403 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Fast and efficient ed25519 EdDSA key generations, signing, and verification in pure Rust.
ringed25519-dalek · 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 | ring | ed25519-dalek |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 2,112,308 | 780,826 |
| Crates that depend on it | 1,837 | 3,403 |
| Last release | 0.17.14, 19 months ago | 3.0.0, 4 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -2% | +8% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 194,741,593 | 73,107,428 |
| All-time downloads | 833,501,264 | 248,643,133 |
| Versions published | 133 | 46 |
| License | Apache-2.0 AND ISC | BSD-3-Clause |
| MSRV | 1.66.0 | 1.85 |
| First published | Aug 15, 2016 | Dec 9, 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 (ed25519-dalek, 3,403 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: ring 19 months ago, ed25519-dalek 4 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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