Survey: Which Rust Frameworks Are Actually Used in Production

Survey: Which Rust Frameworks Are Used in Production

The Rust ecosystem continues to develop rapidly, and web frameworks are one of the hottest topics in the community. A recent survey conducted among developers using Rust in commercial development shed light on the real state of affairs: which tools actually withstand production loads, and which remain in the shadows.

Over 500 engineers from companies of various sizes — from startups to large corporations — took part in the survey. We analyzed the data and identified the top three leaders.

1. Actix-web — The Undisputed Leader

Actix-web has held the top spot for several years. Despite its turbulent history (including the creator's departure and the project's revival), the framework remains the most popular choice for high-load systems. 42% of respondents named Actix-web as their primary framework in production.

• Pros: record-breaking performance, mature ecosystem, vast number of ready-made middleware.
• Cons: complex trait system code, documentation not always beginner-friendly.

2. Axum — A Fast-Growing Contender

Axum from the Tokio team is gaining momentum at an alarming rate. 35% of respondents use it in production, and this number is growing every quarter. Axum's main advantage is its seamless integration with the Tokio and Tower ecosystem.

• Pros: modularity, ease of writing middleware, excellent async support.
• Cons: relatively young framework, some libraries are not yet adapted.

3. Rocket — Ease of Getting Started

Rocket holds 15% of the market. Its main advantage is development that resembles Python frameworks (Flask, FastAPI). Rocket uses macros for routing and validation, making the code very readable.

• Pros: low entry barrier, built-in form validation, stable API.
• Cons: lags behind Actix and Axum in performance, requires a nightly Rust version (though this is being fixed).

Other Participants

The remaining 8% were distributed among Warp (popular in microservices but losing ground), Tide, and Salvo. Interestingly, none of the respondents use frameworks like Nickel or Iron — they are completely outdated.

Trends and Conclusions

The survey shows a clear trend: the Rust community is choosing asynchrony and compatibility with Tokio. Actix-web holds on due to inertia and legacy projects, but Axum is gradually taking away its audience. Rocket remains a niche solution for rapid prototyping.

If you are just starting to learn Rust for the web — take a closer look at Axum: it is modern, actively developed, and does not require sacrificing performance. If you need a time-tested workhorse — Actix-web will not let you down.

Source: survey at the Rust conference RustConf 2024 and data from open GitHub repositories.