Crates / postgres / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to postgres
Short answerThe closest alternatives to postgres on crates.io data are diesel (107K real downloads a day), rusqlite (505K real downloads a day), rocksdb (88.7K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is rusqlite, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. postgres itself gets 45,519 a day with 460 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs postgres | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| diesel Established | 107,307 | 2.36x | 667 | 20d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database", keyword "sql" | side by side |
| rusqlite Widely used | 505,001 | 11.09x | 5,597 | 3mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| rocksdb Established | 88,738 | 1.95x | 373 | 2mo | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| sea-orm Established | 60,184 | 1.32x | 535 | 30d | category Database interfaces, keyword "postgres" | compare |
| mongodb Established | 59,878 | 1.32x | 407 | 47d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| scylla Pulled in | 22,548 | 0.50x | 82 | 42d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| duckdb Established | 22,092 | 0.49x | 261 | 5d | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
| pinecone-sdk Pulled in | 241 | 0.01x | 6 | 2.1y | category Database interfaces, keyword "database" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with postgres; 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 postgres: 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 postgres, 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 gaining. 107,307 real downloads a day.dieselRust crate. A safe, extensible ORM and Query Builder for PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MySQL. Real use: 107K downloads a day on quiet days; 667 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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