Crates / poly1305 / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to poly1305
Short answerThe closest alternatives to poly1305 on crates.io data are hmac (2.1M real downloads a day), polyval (706K real downloads a day), ghash (656K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 5 shipped a release in the last year. poly1305 itself gets 387,508 a day with 51 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs poly1305 | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hmac Widely used | 2,124,794 | 5.48x | 4,359 | 7mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "mac" | compare |
| polyval Pulled in | 706,359 | 1.82x | 19 | 3mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "universal-hashing" | compare |
| ghash Pulled in | 656,460 | 1.69x | 42 | 8mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "universal-hashing" | compare |
| crypto-mac Pulled in | 167,788 | 0.43x | 27 | 5.3y | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto", keyword "mac" | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 9.97x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| crypto-common Pulled in | 3,766,260 | 9.72x | 85 | 5mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| ppv-lite86 Pulled in | 2,441,634 | 6.30x | 6 | 20mo | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| subtle Widely used | 2,159,165 | 5.57x | 2,362 | 2.3y | category Cryptography, category No standard library, keyword "crypto" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with poly1305; 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 poly1305: 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 poly1305, 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. 2,124,794 real downloads a day.hmacRust crate. Generic implementation of Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). Real use: 2.1M downloads a day on quiet days; 4,359 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time