Crates / scroll / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to scroll
Short answerThe closest alternatives to scroll on crates.io data are byteorder (2.1M real downloads a day), bytemuck (1.3M real downloads a day), bstr (1.3M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is byteorder, and 4 shipped a release in the last year. scroll itself gets 252,238 a day with 122 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs scroll | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| byteorder Widely used | 2,056,746 | 8.15x | 4,780 | 3.0y | keyword "endian" | compare |
| bytemuck Widely used | 1,311,229 | 5.20x | 4,338 | 3mo | keyword "bytes" | compare |
| bstr Established | 1,252,630 | 4.97x | 676 | 2mo | keyword "bytes" | compare |
| byteorder-lite Pulled in | 599,934 | 2.38x | 18 | 2.5y | keyword "endian" | compare |
| bytemuck_derive Established | 549,512 | 2.18x | 104 | 43d | keyword "bytes" | compare |
| serde_bytes Widely used | 545,340 | 2.16x | 1,610 | 13mo | keyword "bytes" | compare |
| bytes-utils Pulled in | 540,925 | 2.14x | 24 | 2.9y | keyword "bytes" | compare |
| rend Pulled in | 507,412 | 2.01x | 11 | 4mo | keyword "endian" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with scroll; 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 scroll: 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 scroll, 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 quiet for years. 2,056,746 real downloads a day.byteorderRust crate. Library for reading/writing numbers in big-endian and little-endian. Real use: 2.1M downloads a day on quiet days; 4,780 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time