Crates / Compare / tower vs tokio-native-tls
Rust crates side by side · data Oct 24, 2026
tower vs tokio-native-tls
Short answerBy steady daily use, tower is bigger: 2,342,590 real downloads a day against 649,200 for tokio-native-tls (3.6x). 5,816 crates depend on tower and 308 on tokio-native-tls. tower last shipped 9 months ago, tokio-native-tls 3.7 years ago.
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.
tokio-native-tls
EstablishedEstablished and quiet for years.
308 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.
An implementation of TLS/SSL streams for Tokio using native-tls giving an implementation of TLS for nonblocking I/O streams.
towertokio-native-tls · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic
How they relate
- Often used together: 1 tracked crate depend on both (reqwest). They are not always either/or.
Every number, side by side
| Same window, same method | tower | tokio-native-tls |
|---|---|---|
| Real downloads a day | 2,342,590 | 649,200 |
| Crates that depend on it | 5,816 | 308 |
| Last release | 0.5.3, 9 months ago | 0.3.1, 3.7 years ago |
| Trend vs the field | -4% | -10% |
| Release-window share | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Downloads in the window | 209,947,395 | 54,957,345 |
| All-time downloads | 766,196,518 | 310,744,863 |
| Versions published | 26 | 4 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| MSRV | 1.64.0 | not set |
| First published | Dec 23, 2016 | Apr 3, 2020 |
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: tower 9 months ago, tokio-native-tls 3.7 years 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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