Crates / rustls / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to rustls
Short answerThe closest alternatives to rustls on crates.io data are native-tls (765K real downloads a day), sct (474K real downloads a day), socket2 (4M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is socket2, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. rustls itself gets 2,763,314 a day with 5,286 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs rustls | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| native-tls Established | 764,866 | 0.28x | 853 | 8mo | category Cryptography, category Network programming | side by side |
| sct Pulled in | 474,383 | 0.17x | 7 | 3.0y | category Cryptography, category Network programming | compare |
| socket2 Widely used | 4,034,112 | 1.46x | 1,539 | 3mo | category Network programming | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 1.40x | 1,197 | 6mo | category Cryptography | compare |
| block-buffer Pulled in | 3,815,018 | 1.38x | 23 | 4mo | category Cryptography | compare |
| crypto-common Pulled in | 3,766,260 | 1.36x | 85 | 5mo | category Cryptography | compare |
| sha2 Foundational | 3,510,276 | 1.27x | 22,608 | 12d | category Cryptography | compare |
| bytes Foundational | 3,424,140 | 1.24x | 17,656 | 4mo | category Network programming | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with rustls; 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 rustls: 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 rustls, 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 losing ground. 764,866 real downloads a day.native-tlsRust crate. A wrapper over a platform's native TLS implementation. Real use: 765K downloads a day on quiet days; 853 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time