Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to nats
Short answerThe closest alternatives to nats on crates.io data are async-nats (67.7K real downloads a day), lapin (26.6K real downloads a day), cloudflare (861 real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is kube, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. nats itself gets 625 a day with 28 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs nats | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| async-nats Established | 67,650 | 108.24x | 356 | 1d | category API bindings, category Network programming, keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
| lapin Established | 26,572 | 42.52x | 205 | 9d | category Network programming, keyword "client", keyword "messaging" | compare |
| cloudflare Pulled in | 861 | 1.38x | 13 | 20mo | category API bindings, keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
| shopify_api Pulled in | 14 | 0.02x | 0 | 0d | category API bindings, keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
| kube Established | 262,829 | 420.53x | 898 | 3mo | category API bindings, category Network programming, keyword "client" | compare |
| vaultrs Pulled in | 32,253 | 51.60x | 42 | 7mo | keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
| etcd-client Pulled in | 30,381 | 48.61x | 76 | 8d | keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
| pulsar Pulled in | 6,483 | 10.37x | 25 | 12d | keyword "api", keyword "client" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with nats; 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 nats: 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 nats, 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 steady. 67,650 real downloads a day.async-natsRust crate. A async Rust NATS client. Real use: 67.7K downloads a day on quiet days; 356 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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