Crates / futures / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to futures
Short answerThe closest alternatives to futures on crates.io data are tokio (3.1M real downloads a day), tower (2.3M real downloads a day), tower-http (2M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is tokio, and 5 shipped a release in the last year. futures itself gets 2,405,900 a day with 26,505 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs futures | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tokio Foundational | 3,098,313 | 1.29x | 78,796 | 3d | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | side by side |
| tower Widely used | 2,342,590 | 0.97x | 5,816 | 9mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | compare |
| tower-http Widely used | 2,044,149 | 0.85x | 3,782 | 54d | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | compare |
| atomic-waker Established | 1,911,010 | 0.79x | 116 | 3.1y | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | compare |
| tonic Widely used | 1,214,889 | 0.50x | 3,752 | 6mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | compare |
| async-global-executor Pulled in | 160,070 | 0.07x | 72 | 20mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "future" | compare |
| actix-rt Established | 151,547 | 0.06x | 467 | 41d | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "futures" | compare |
| async-std Widely used | 138,341 | 0.06x | 1,903 | 14mo | category Asynchronous, keyword "async", keyword "future" | side by side |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with futures; 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 futures: 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 futures, 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: Foundational and steady. 3,098,313 real downloads a day.tokioRust crate. An event-driven, non-blocking I/O platform for writing asynchronous I/O backed applications. Real use: 3.1M downloads a day on quiet days; 78,796 crates...Read it next →Also worth your time