Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to infer
Short answerThe closest alternatives to infer on crates.io data are hashbrown (8.9M real downloads a day), indexmap (4.9M real downloads a day), base64 (4.6M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is hashbrown, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. infer itself gets 355,199 a day with 362 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs infer | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hashbrown Widely used | 8,927,960 | 25.14x | 2,468 | 6mo | keyword "no_std" | side by side |
| indexmap Widely used | 4,883,122 | 13.75x | 6,422 | 49d | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| base64 Foundational | 4,638,981 | 13.06x | 19,537 | 3mo | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| serde Foundational | 4,327,945 | 12.18x | 133,588 | 3mo | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| serde_derive Widely used | 4,161,400 | 11.72x | 6,497 | 3mo | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| smallvec Widely used | 3,868,589 | 10.89x | 4,345 | 1d | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| serde_core Established | 3,794,333 | 10.68x | 229 | 3mo | keyword "no_std" | compare |
| toml_datetime Pulled in | 3,215,444 | 9.05x | 29 | 16d | keyword "no_std" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with infer; 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 infer: 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 infer, 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. 8,927,960 real downloads a day.hashbrownRust crate. A Rust port of Google's SwissTable hash map. Real use: 8.9M downloads a day on quiet days; 2,468 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time