wyfonly/rust-web-framework-comparison

A comparison of some web frameworks and libs written in Rust

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  • Outdated server frameworks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  • Outdated client frameworks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 Server 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Outdated server frameworks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Outdated client frameworks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 ( homepage / 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.
• 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
• sauron ( - / repository / documentation - Sauron is an html web framework for building web-apps. It is heavily inspired by elm.

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 / documentation )
• stpl (- / repository / - )
• ructe (- / repository / documentation )
• typed-html (- / repository / documentation )

Comparison

High-Level Server Frameworks

Name	rocket	warp	iron	actix-web	nickel	gotham	rouille	Thruster	tide
License
Version
Github Stars
Contributors
Activity
Base framework	hyper	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		yes	yes
Stable Rust	no	yes		yes

Low-Level Frameworks

Name	hyper	h2	tiny-http
License
Version
Github Stars
Contributors
Activity
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	seed	draco	squark	willow	smithy
License
Version								no
Github Stars
Contributors
Activity
Stable Rust	yes	yes	no	?	yes	yes	no	no	no
Base framework	stdweb	-	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen	wasm-bindgen
Virtual DOM	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
Version
Github Stars
Contributors
Activity
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

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
• realworld-rust-rocket - Rocket + Diesel, medium.com clone example
• 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
• Hagrid (keys.openpgp.org) - Rocket

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
• web-frameworks - Measuring response times (routing times) for each framework (middleware). Each framework has to have two features; routing and parsing path parameters.