Crates / surrealdb / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 27, 2026
Alternatives to surrealdb
Short answerThe closest alternatives to surrealdb on crates.io data are fjall (7.6K real downloads a day), lancedb (11.7K real downloads a day), bitvec (807K real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is bitvec, and 5 shipped a release in the last year. surrealdb itself gets 6,154 a day with 186 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs surrealdb | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fjall Pulled in | 7,581 | 1.23x | 99 | 2d | category Data structures, category Database implementations, keyword "database", keyword "key-value" | compare |
| lancedb Established | 11,666 | 1.90x | 100 | 20d | category Database implementations, keyword "database" | compare |
| bitvec Established | 807,032 | 131.14x | 916 | 4mo | category Data structures, category Embedded development | compare |
| ciborium Established | 775,492 | 126.01x | 902 | 2.7y | category Data structures, category Embedded development | compare |
| ciborium-ll Pulled in | 775,035 | 125.94x | 10 | 2.7y | category Data structures, category Embedded development | compare |
| ciborium-io Pulled in | 774,868 | 125.91x | 27 | 2.7y | category Data structures, category Embedded development | compare |
| portable-atomic-util Pulled in | 537,004 | 87.26x | 73 | 50d | category Data structures, category Embedded development | compare |
| tantivy Established | 53,551 | 8.70x | 337 | 10d | category Data structures, category Database implementations | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with surrealdb; 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 surrealdb: 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 surrealdb, 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: Few direct dependents and steady. 7,581 real downloads a day.fjallRust crate. Log-structured, embeddable key-value storage engine. Real use: 7.6K downloads a day on quiet days; 99 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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