Crates / nalgebra / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to nalgebra
Short answerThe closest alternatives to nalgebra on crates.io data are smawk (273K real downloads a day), pxfm (585K real downloads a day), ndarray (355K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is smallvec, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. nalgebra itself gets 206,314 a day with 2,134 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs nalgebra | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| smawk Pulled in | 273,437 | 1.33x | 3 | 4mo | category Mathematics, category Science, keyword "matrix" | compare |
| pxfm Pulled in | 584,908 | 2.84x | 11 | 4mo | category Mathematics, keyword "math" | compare |
| ndarray Widely used | 354,525 | 1.72x | 2,985 | 9mo | category Science, keyword "matrix" | compare |
| rust_decimal Widely used | 463,122 | 2.24x | 2,295 | 52d | category Mathematics, category Science | compare |
| bigdecimal Established | 365,613 | 1.77x | 588 | 26d | category Mathematics, category No standard library | compare |
| smallvec Widely used | 3,868,589 | 18.75x | 4,345 | 1d | keyword "vector" | compare |
| arrayvec Widely used | 1,733,744 | 8.40x | 1,215 | 4mo | category No standard library, keyword "vector" | compare |
| libm Widely used | 1,556,360 | 7.54x | 1,263 | 9mo | category No standard library, keyword "math" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with nalgebra; 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 nalgebra: 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 nalgebra, 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: Few direct dependents and steady. 273,437 real downloads a day.smawkRust crate. Functions for finding row-minima in a totally monotone matrix. Real use: 273K downloads a day on quiet days; 3 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time