Crates / compression-core / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to compression-core
Short answerThe closest alternatives to compression-core on crates.io data are zstd-safe (1.1M real downloads a day), zstd (1.1M real downloads a day), zstd-sys (1.1M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is block-buffer, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. compression-core itself gets 561,038 a day with 4 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs compression-core | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zstd-safe Pulled in | 1,111,608 | 1.98x | 55 | 8d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zstd Widely used | 1,083,388 | 1.93x | 2,614 | 8d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zstd-sys Pulled in | 1,052,310 | 1.88x | 57 | 8d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zip Widely used | 977,272 | 1.74x | 4,151 | 7d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| leb128fmt Pulled in | 629,549 | 1.12x | 4 | 3.1y | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zopfli Pulled in | 554,646 | 0.99x | 25 | 13d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| block-buffer Pulled in | 3,815,018 | 6.80x | 23 | 4mo | keyword "buffer" | compare |
| lz4_flex Established | 475,029 | 0.85x | 717 | 3mo | keyword "compression" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with compression-core; read its description before you swap.
- More dependents means more answered questions and a smaller chance it disappears.
- Check the last release against how fast you need fixes. For compression-core: is it still maintained?
Rules
Alternatives = tracked crates (top 1000 by downloads) that share a specific crates.io category (2 points each) or keyword (3 points each) with compression-core, most similar first; its own parts (same name prefix) and crates it depends on or that depend on it are left out, because those are companions, not substitutes. Real downloads = quiet-day median, crates.io data Oct 24, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Few direct dependents and steady. 1,111,608 real downloads a day.zstd-safeRust crate. Safe low-level bindings for the zstd compression library. Real use: 1.1M downloads a day on quiet days; 55 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time