Crates / diesel / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to diesel
Short answerThe closest alternatives to diesel on crates.io data are tokio-postgres (244K real downloads a day), postgres (45.5K real downloads a day), rusqlite (505K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is rusqlite, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. diesel itself gets 107,307 a day with 667 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs diesel | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tokio-postgres Established | 243,640 | 2.27x | 847 | 5mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database", keyword "sql" | side by side |
| postgres Established | 45,519 | 0.42x | 460 | 5mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database", keyword "sql" | side by side |
| rusqlite Widely used | 505,001 | 4.71x | 5,597 | 3mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| rocksdb Established | 88,738 | 0.83x | 373 | 2mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| sea-orm Established | 60,184 | 0.56x | 535 | 30d | category Database interfaces, keyword "orm" | side by side |
| mongodb Established | 59,878 | 0.56x | 407 | 47d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| scylla Pulled in | 22,548 | 0.21x | 82 | 42d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| duckdb Established | 22,092 | 0.21x | 261 | 5d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with diesel; 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 diesel: 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 diesel, 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 27, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Established and gaining. 243,640 real downloads a day.tokio-postgresRust crate. A native, asynchronous PostgreSQL client. Real use: 244K downloads a day on quiet days; 847 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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