Crates / polars / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to polars
Short answerThe closest alternatives to polars on crates.io data are arrow-buffer (320K real downloads a day), arrow-schema (320K real downloads a day), arrow-array (320K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is arrow-buffer, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. polars itself gets 32,528 a day with 629 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs polars | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arrow-buffer Established | 320,450 | 9.85x | 202 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-schema Established | 320,142 | 9.84x | 825 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | side by side |
| arrow-array Established | 319,689 | 9.83x | 750 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-select Established | 317,113 | 9.75x | 115 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-data Pulled in | 314,185 | 9.66x | 69 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-cast Pulled in | 299,519 | 9.21x | 94 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-ipc Established | 280,240 | 8.62x | 191 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
| arrow-ord Pulled in | 268,001 | 8.24x | 45 | 9d | keyword "arrow" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with polars; 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 polars: 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 polars, 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. 320,450 real downloads a day.arrow-bufferRust crate. Buffer abstractions for Apache Arrow. Real use: 320K downloads a day on quiet days; 202 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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