Crates / password-hash / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to password-hash
Short answerThe closest alternatives to password-hash on crates.io data are base64ct (1.3M real downloads a day), digest (3.9M real downloads a day), block-buffer (3.8M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. password-hash itself gets 459,834 a day with 104 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs password-hash | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| base64ct Established | 1,305,115 | 2.84x | 439 | 9mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "phc" | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 8.40x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| block-buffer Pulled in | 3,815,018 | 8.30x | 23 | 4mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| crypto-common Pulled in | 3,766,260 | 8.19x | 85 | 5mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| sha2 Foundational | 3,510,276 | 7.63x | 22,608 | 12d | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| rustls Widely used | 2,763,314 | 6.01x | 5,286 | 10d | category Cryptography | compare |
| rustls-webpki Established | 2,654,129 | 5.77x | 240 | 4d | category Cryptography, category No standard library | compare |
| ppv-lite86 Pulled in | 2,441,634 | 5.31x | 6 | 20mo | category Cryptography, 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 password-hash; 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 password-hash: 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 password-hash, 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: Established and steady. 1,305,115 real downloads a day.base64ctRust crate. Pure Rust implementation of Base64 (RFC 4648) which avoids any usages of data-dependent branches/LUTs and thereby provides portable "best effort"...Read it next →Also worth your time