Crates / crypto-bigint / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to crypto-bigint
Short answerThe closest alternatives to crypto-bigint on crates.io data are num-bigint (1.9M real downloads a day), spki (1.3M real downloads a day), pkcs8 (1.2M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is num-bigint, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. crypto-bigint itself gets 937,488 a day with 167 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs crypto-bigint | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| num-bigint Widely used | 1,899,489 | 2.03x | 2,449 | 4mo | category Algorithms, category Data structures, keyword "bignum" | compare |
| spki Established | 1,302,398 | 1.39x | 198 | 19d | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| pkcs8 Established | 1,245,962 | 1.33x | 361 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| pem-rfc7468 Pulled in | 1,099,295 | 1.17x | 73 | 12mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| sec1 Pulled in | 854,812 | 0.91x | 85 | 7mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| num Widely used | 811,973 | 0.87x | 2,024 | 21mo | category Algorithms, category Data structures, keyword "bignum" | compare |
| pkcs1 Pulled in | 704,103 | 0.75x | 65 | 19d | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| num-bigint-dig Pulled in | 672,015 | 0.72x | 97 | 11mo | category Algorithms, category Data structures, keyword "bignum" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with crypto-bigint; 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 crypto-bigint: 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 crypto-bigint, 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: Widely used and gaining. 1,899,489 real downloads a day.num-bigintRust crate. Big integer implementation for Rust. Real use: 1.9M downloads a day on quiet days; 2,449 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time