Crates / esp-hal / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to esp-hal
Short answerThe closest alternatives to esp-hal on crates.io data are rp2040-hal (544 real downloads a day), stm32-hal2 (7 real downloads a day), probe-rs (2.4K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is cpufeatures, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. esp-hal itself gets 2,167 a day with 125 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs esp-hal | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rp2040-hal Pulled in | 544 | 0.25x | 84 | 9mo | category Embedded development, category Hardware support, keyword "embedded", keyword "embedded-hal" | compare |
| stm32-hal2 Pulled in | 7 | 0.00x | 2 | 8mo | category Embedded development, category Hardware support, keyword "embedded", keyword "embedded-hal" | compare |
| probe-rs Pulled in | 2,409 | 1.11x | 50 | 3mo | category Embedded development, category Hardware support, keyword "embedded" | compare |
| tock-registers Pulled in | 5,573 | 2.57x | 75 | 12mo | category Embedded development, category No standard library, keyword "embedded" | compare |
| espflash Pulled in | 3,168 | 1.46x | 9 | 47d | category Embedded development, keyword "embedded" | compare |
| r-efi Pulled in | 2,051,196 | 946.56x | 14 | 2mo | category Embedded development, category Hardware support | compare |
| rocksdb Established | 88,738 | 40.95x | 373 | 2mo | keyword "embedded" | compare |
| cpufeatures Pulled in | 4,097,423 | 1890.83x | 81 | 59d | category Hardware support, category No standard library | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with esp-hal; 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 esp-hal: 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 esp-hal, 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: Few direct dependents and losing ground. 544 real downloads a day.rp2040-halRust crate. A Rust Embedded-HAL impl for the rp2040 microcontroller. Real use: 544 downloads a day on quiet days; 84 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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