Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to zip
Short answerThe closest alternatives to zip on crates.io data are leb128fmt (630K real downloads a day), zstd-safe (1.1M real downloads a day), zstd-sys (1.1M real downloads a day). Of the 8 we list, the most used is itertools, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. zip itself gets 977,272 a day with 4,151 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs zip | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| leb128fmt Pulled in | 629,549 | 0.64x | 4 | 3.1y | category Compression, category Parser implementations, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zstd-safe Pulled in | 1,111,608 | 1.14x | 55 | 8d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| zstd-sys Pulled in | 1,052,310 | 1.08x | 57 | 8d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| async-compression Established | 707,872 | 0.72x | 387 | 7d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| compression-core Pulled in | 561,038 | 0.57x | 4 | 7d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| compression-codecs Pulled in | 543,190 | 0.56x | 5 | 7d | category Compression, keyword "compression" | compare |
| itertools Widely used | 4,545,996 | 4.65x | 8,656 | 4mo | keyword "zip" | compare |
| rkyv Established | 513,452 | 0.53x | 797 | 3mo | keyword "archive" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with zip; 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 zip: 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 zip, 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: Few direct dependents and losing ground. 629,549 real downloads a day.leb128fmtRust crate. A library to encode and decode LEB128 compressed integers. Real use: 630K downloads a day on quiet days; 4 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time