Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to sec1
Short answerThe closest alternatives to sec1 on crates.io data are pkcs8 (1.2M real downloads a day), pem-rfc7468 (1.1M real downloads a day), pkcs1 (704K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is digest, and 8 shipped a release in the last year. sec1 itself gets 854,812 a day with 85 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs sec1 | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pkcs8 Established | 1,245,962 | 1.46x | 361 | 6mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto", keyword "key" | compare |
| pem-rfc7468 Pulled in | 1,099,295 | 1.29x | 73 | 12mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto", keyword "key" | compare |
| pkcs1 Pulled in | 704,103 | 0.82x | 65 | 19d | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto", keyword "key" | compare |
| base64ct Established | 1,305,115 | 1.53x | 439 | 9mo | category Cryptography, category Encoding, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| spki Established | 1,302,398 | 1.52x | 198 | 19d | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| const-oid Established | 2,079,241 | 2.43x | 160 | 10mo | category Cryptography, category Data structures | compare |
| crypto-bigint Established | 937,488 | 1.10x | 167 | 1d | category Cryptography, category Data structures, keyword "crypto" | compare |
| digest Widely used | 3,862,411 | 4.52x | 1,197 | 6mo | 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 sec1; 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 sec1: 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 sec1, 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 steady. 1,245,962 real downloads a day.pkcs8Rust crate. Pure Rust implementation of Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #8: Private-Key Information Syntax Specification (RFC 5208), with additional support for...Read it next →Also worth your time