Crates / crypto-mac / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to crypto-mac
Short answerThe closest alternatives to crypto-mac on crates.io data are hmac (2.1M real downloads a day), universal-hash (811K real downloads a day), poly1305 (388K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 6 shipped a release in the last year. crypto-mac itself gets 167,788 a day with 27 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs crypto-mac | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hmac Widely used | 2,124,794 | 12.66x | 4,359 | 7mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "mac" | compare |
| universal-hash Pulled in | 811,380 | 4.84x | 11 | 8mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "mac" | compare |
| poly1305 Pulled in | 387,508 | 2.31x | 51 | 4mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "mac" | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 23.02x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| ppv-lite86 Pulled in | 2,441,634 | 14.55x | 6 | 20mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| ring Widely used | 2,112,308 | 12.59x | 1,837 | 19mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| sha1 Widely used | 2,004,209 | 11.94x | 2,496 | 3mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| chacha20 Established | 1,737,072 | 10.35x | 260 | 58d | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | 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-mac; 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-mac: 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-mac, 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 steady. 2,124,794 real downloads a day.hmacRust crate. Generic implementation of Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). Real use: 2.1M downloads a day on quiet days; 4,359 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time