Rust web framework comparison

A comparison of some web frameworks written in Rust.

Table of Contents

• Server frameworks
  • Outdated server frameworks
• Client frameworks
  • Outdated client frameworks
• Frontend frameworks (WASM)
• Supplemental libraries
  • Websocket
  • Templating
• Comparison
  • High-Level Frameworks
  • Low-Level Frameworks
  • Frontend Frameworks
  • Middleware & Plugins
  • Websocket Libraries
• Resources
  • Blog posts
  • Demos
  • Real-world web projects using Rust
  • JS & asm.js & WASM

Server frameworks

There are several interesting frameworks to build web applications with Rust:

• actix-web (homepage / repository / documentation / user guide)
• gotham (homepage / repository / documentation / examples)
• iron (homepage / repository / documentation)
• nickel (homepage / repository / documentation)
• rocket (homepage / repository / documentation)
• rouille ( - / repository / documentation)
• Thruster ( - / repository / documentation / examples)
• Tide ( - / repository / documentation / examples)
• tower-web ( - / repository / documentation / examples)
• warp ( - / repository / documentation / examples)

If you need a more low level control you can choose between these libraries:

• hyper (homepage / repository / documentation)
• tiny-http ( - / repository) / documentation)
• h2 ( - / repository / - )

Outdated server frameworks

• civet
• conduit
• cargonaouts
• hydrogen
• kinglet
• rustless
• rustful
• shio
• sappers
• solicit
• tk-http

Client frameworks

To build web clients with Rust, you can choose between these libraries:

• actix-web (homepage / repository / api docs)
• reqwest (- / repository / documentation)
• hyper (homepage / repository / documentation)
• jsonrpc (- / repository / documentation)

Outdated client frameworks

• ease

Frontend frameworks (WASM)

Since WASM support is available in most browsers we can use Rust to build web applications :)

• stdweb ( - / repository / documentation ) A standard library for the client-side Web
• yew ( - / repository / documentation ) - A frontend framework inspired by Elm and React (based on stdweb)
• percy ( homepage / repository / - ) - A modular toolkit for building isomorphic web apps
• seed ( homepage / repository / - ) - A Rust framework for creating web apps
• draco ( - / repository / documentation ) - A frontend framework inpired by Redux and Elm
• smithy (homepage - / repository / - documentation ) - A front-end framework
• squark ( - / repository / documentation ) - Rust frontend framework, for web browser and more.
• willow ( homepage - / repository / - ) - A frontend framework inspired by Elm
• dodrio ( - / repository / documentation ) - A fast, bump-allocated virtual DOM library.
• sauron ( - / repository / documentation - Sauron is an html web framework for building web-apps. It is heavily inspired by elm.
• dominator ( - / repository / documentation - Zero cost declarative DOM library using FRP signals for Rust!.
• mika ( homepage / repository / - ) - A signal-based framework for building front-end app, it tries to help, but may cause annoyances.

Outdated frontend frameworks

• ruukh

Supplemental libraries

Websocket

• websocket (homepage / repository / documentation)
• ws-rs (homepage / repository / documentation)
• tungstenite ( - / repository / documentation)
• actix-web (homepage / repository / documentation)

Templating

• tera (homepage / repository / documentation)
• mustache (- / repository / documentation)
• liquid (- / repository / - )
• handlebars (- / repository / documentation)
• horrorshow (- / repository / documentation)
• maud (homepage / repository / documentation)
• askama (- / repository / - )
• stpl (- / repository / - )
• ructe (- / repository / documentation )
• typed-html (- / repository / documentation )

Comparison

High-Level Frameworks

Name	rocket	iron	actix-web	nickel	gotham	rouille	Thruster	jsonrpc
License
Github Stars
Contributors
Server	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Client	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
Base framework	hyper	hyper	tokio	hyper	hyper	tiny-http	tokio	hyper
HTTPS support		yes	yes	no	yes	?		-
HTTP/2 support		?	yes	?	no	?		?
Async	no		yes		yes		yes

Low-Level Frameworks

Name	hyper	h2	tiny-http
License
Github Stars
Contributors
Server	yes	yes	yes
Client	yes	yes	?
HTTPS support	yes	no	yes
HTTP/2 support	solicit	yes	?
Async	yes	yes

Frontend Frameworks

Name	yew	stdweb	percy	dodrio	sauron	seed	draco	squark	willow	smithy
License
Github Stars
Contributors
Stable Rust	yes	yes	no	?	no	yes	yes	no	no	no
Base framework	stdweb	-	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen
Virtual DOM	yes	?	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	?	yes

Middleware & Plugins

Name	iron	gotham	nickel	rouille	actix-web
Static File Serving	yes	no^	yes	n/a	yes
Mounting	yes	yes	yes	n/a	yes
Logging	yes	yes	no	n/a	yes
JSON-Body-Parsing	yes	yes	yes	n/a	yes
Sessions	yes	yes	?	n/a	yes
Cookies	yes	yes	?	n/a	yes
PostgreSQL middleware	?	no^	yes	n/a	yes
SQLite middleware	?	no^	yes	n/a	yes
Redis middleware	?	no^	yes	n/a	yes
MySQL middleware	?	no^	yes	n/a	yes

(^ Planned in current roadmap)

Websocket Libraries

Name	websocket	ws-rs	twist	tungstenite	actix-web
License
Github Stars
Contributors
Server	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Client	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Base framework	- / tokio	mio	tokio	- / tokio	tokio
Async	no / yes	yes	yes	no / yes	yes

Examples

To compile or run the examples use Cargo. First clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/flosse/rust-web-framework-comparison
cd rust-web-framework-comparison/

and change to the desired frameworkd directory (e.g. cd iron/) and type

cargo run --example hello_world

Then visit http://localhost:3000 to see the result.

Resources

Blog posts

2018

• Lessons learned on writing web applications completely in Rust
• Introducing Ruukh Framework
• Baby’s First Rust+WebAssembly module: Say hi to JSConf EU!
• Mix Rust Code (WebAssembly) with Vue Component
• Wicked Fast Web Servers in Rust
• Migrating to Actix Web from Rocket for Stability
• Creating a Rusty Rocket fuelled with Diesel

Until 2017

• Dose Response ported to WebAssembly!
• Rust and the case for WebAssembly in 2018
• wasm32-unknown-unknown landed & enabled
• How to Deploy a Rocket Application to Heroku
• Rust to WebAssembly, Made Easy
• Rust for the web
• Rocket on Fedora
• Announcing Gotham - A flexible web framework for stable Rust that does not sacrifice safety, security or speed.
• Announcing cargonauts - A Rust async web framework
• Writing a GitHub webhook with Rust! Part 1: Rocket
• Hello, Botket! (Rocket)
• Launching a URL Shortener in Rust using Rocket
• Rocket + sodiumoxide = ♥
• The Path to Rust on the Web
• Rendering Vector Map Tiles (Rust + asm.js demo)
• Compiling to the web with Rust and emscripten
• Basic 2FA in Rocket
• Building high performance REST APIs with Rust and Rocket
• Rocket Rocks! Using FromFormValue Traits to protect your website
• Building an Asynchronous Hyper Server
• JWT & Access Roles in Rocket
• Writing a basic JSON response web server in Rust using Iron
• Diesel Powered Rocket
• Using Stainless with Rocket
• Integration testing a service written in Rust and Iron
• Actually using Iron: A grumpy introduction to web development in Rust
• Using Rust for Webdev as a Hobby Programmer
• My adventures in Rust webdev
• Rust’s Iron Framework: First impressions
• Rust for Node.js developers
  • Part 3 - Crates, Modules and the web
  • Part 2 - Can I borrow that?
  • Part 1 - Introduction to Rust
• A Rust-powered public web page in 5 minutes
• Rust and Rest
• Shipping forgettable microservices with Rust
• Writing a simple REST app in Rust
• Getting started with Rust
• Let's Build a Web Server in Rust
• Creating a basic webservice in Rust
• Iron on uWSGI
• Deploying a Rust App to Google App Engine
• async hyper
• Trying Rust for web services
• Are we web yet?
• Reimplementing ashurbanipal.web in Rust
• A web app with Nickel: From first line to Heroku deployment
• What features Iron does not have compared to a web server like nginx?
• Build an API in Rust with JWT Authentication using Nickel.rs
• Selective Middleware for Iron
• Rust for the Web - RESTful API in Rust, impressions
• Rust for Node developers

Demos

• exoskeleton - Iron
• Example webapp using React + Webpack - Iron
• rustwebapp - Iron and Postgres (r2d2)
• webrust - Iron and Postgres (r2d2)
• httptest - Iron
• nickel-todo-backend - Nickel and Postgres (r2d2)
• rust-playground - Iron
• rust-web-example - Iron + Diesel (r2d2) + Serde
• websocket chat - Actix: Browser Websocket + tcp chat
• diesel - Actix + Diesel
• json - Actix + serde_json or json_rust

Real-world web projects using Rust

• paste.rs - Rocket
• Portier - Iron and Redis
• yaus - Iron and SQLite
• racerd - Iron
• rust-passivetotal - Hyper
• mars - Hyper
• openfairdb - Rocket and Neo4j (r2d2)
• ruma - Iron and Posgres (diesel + r2d2)
• html2pdf - Iron

JS & asm.js & WASM

• hellorust.com - a website with news, resources and demos

Examples

• rust-webapp-template - Template project for Rust web app using stdweb
• rust-todomvc - an example application build with webplatform
• wasm-experiments - experiments with wasm32-unknown-unknown

Benchmark

• TechEmpower Web Framework Benchmarks
• benchmarks - Rust web frameworks benchmarks
• which_is_the_fastest - Measuring response times (routing times) for each framework (middleware). Each framework has to have two features; routing and parsing path parameters.