Crates / Compare / rustix vs nix
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
rustix vs nix
Short answerBy steady daily use, rustix is bigger: 3,390,892 real downloads a day against 2,388,393 for nix (1.4x). 1,684 crates depend on rustix and 3,910 on nix. rustix last shipped 38 days ago, nix 5 months ago.
rustix
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
1,684 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Safe Rust bindings to POSIX/Unix/Linux/Winsock-like syscalls
nix
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
3,910 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
Rust friendly bindings to *nix APIs
rustixnix · 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 | rustix | nix |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 3,390,892 | 2,388,393 |
| Crates that depend on it | 1,684 | 3,910 |
| Last release | 1.1.5, 38 days ago | 0.31.3, 5 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | +1% | -3% |
| Release-window share | 2.4% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 314,948,187 | 216,473,446 |
| All-time downloads | 1,293,003,640 | 903,958,576 |
| Versions published | 170 | 79 |
| License | Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception OR Apache-2.0 OR MIT | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.65 | 1.69 |
| First published | Oct 29, 2021 | 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 (nix, 3,910 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: rustix 38 days ago, nix 5 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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