Crates / Compare / time vs humantime
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
time vs humantime
Short answerBy steady daily use, time is bigger: 2,434,189 real downloads a day against 838,529 for humantime (2.9x). 6,747 crates depend on time and 1,364 on humantime. time last shipped 3 months ago, humantime 4 months ago.
time
Widely usedWidely used and steady.
6,747 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.
Date and time library. Fully interoperable with the standard library. Mostly compatible with #![no_std].
humantime
Widely usedWidely used and losing ground.
1,364 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
A parser and formatter for std::time::{Duration, SystemTime}
timehumantime · 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 | time | humantime |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 2,434,189 | 838,529 |
| Crates that depend on it | 6,747 | 1,364 |
| Last release | 0.3.55, 3 months ago | 2.4.0, 4 months ago |
| Trend vs the field | -4% | -13% |
| Release-window share | 1.3% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 215,804,157 | 71,915,816 |
| All-time downloads | 1,003,554,500 | 471,950,561 |
| Versions published | 135 | 18 |
| License | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| MSRV | 1.88.0 | 1.60 |
| First published | Nov 13, 2014 | May 20, 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 (time, 6,747 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
- Check the release dates against your own pace: time 3 months ago, humantime 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.
Up next
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