Rust Web Frameworks Cheatsheet: A Quick Reference Guide

Rust is becoming an increasingly popular language for web development, offering safety, speed, and concurrency. This cheatsheet covers some of the most widely-used Rust web frameworks, providing an overview of their features, basic usage, and key differences.

1. Actix Web

Overview:

Actix Web is a powerful, pragmatic, and extremely fast web framework for Rust. It is built on top of the Actix actor framework and supports the development of web applications with features like routing, middleware, and request handling.

Key Features:

• Built on an actor model
• High-performance and scalable
• Asynchronous by default
• Extensive middleware support

Basic Example:

use actix_web::{web, App, HttpServer, Responder};

async fn index() -> impl Responder {
    "Hello, Actix!"
}

#[actix_web::main]
async fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
    HttpServer::new(|| {
        App::new()
            .route("/", web::get().to(index))
    })
    .bind("127.0.0.1:8080")?
    .run()
    .await
}

Pros:

• Very fast and performant
• Rich ecosystem with lots of middleware and plugins

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve due to the actor model
• Can be complex for simpler applications

2. Rocket

Overview:

Rocket is an easy-to-use web framework that prioritizes usability and productivity. It provides a simple and intuitive API for building web applications in Rust.

Key Features:

• Type-safe routing
• Request guards and data validation
• Rapid development with minimal boilerplate
• Async support with the latest versions

Basic Example:

#[macro_use] extern crate rocket;

#[get("/")]
fn index() -> &'static str {
    "Hello, Rocket!"
}

#[launch]
fn rocket() -> _ {
    rocket::build().mount("/", routes![index])
}

Pros:

• Easy to get started with
• Clean and readable code with minimal boilerplate
• Strong type safety

Cons:

• Requires nightly Rust for some features
• Performance is good but slightly behind Actix Web

3. Warp

Overview:

Warp is a web framework that focuses on composability and strong type safety. It’s built on top of the Tokio asynchronous runtime and uses filters for request processing.

Key Features:

• Composable filters for handling requests
• Built-in support for WebSockets and other protocols
• Type-safe and ergonomic API
• Async by default

Basic Example:

use warp::Filter;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let hello = warp::path::end().map(|| "Hello, Warp!");

    warp::serve(hello).run(([127, 0, 0, 1], 3030)).await;
}

Pros:

• Highly composable and flexible
• Strong type safety and minimal boilerplate
• Lightweight and efficient

Cons:

• May be too minimalistic for some use cases
• Learning curve for understanding filters

4. Tide

Overview:

Tide is a modular web framework built around async-std, designed to be simple and ergonomic. It provides a minimal API that grows with the complexity of your application.

Key Features:

• Modular and async-first
• Middleware support
• Focused on simplicity and ease of use
• Built with async-std, an async runtime for the web

Basic Example:

use tide::Request;

async fn hello(_: Request<()>) -> &'static str {
    "Hello, Tide!"
}

#[async_std::main]
async fn main() -> tide::Result<()> {
    let mut app = tide::new();
    app.at("/").get(hello);
    app.listen("127.0.0.1:8080").await?;
    Ok(())
}

Pros:

• Simple and easy to use
• Modular design that grows with your application
• Good choice for smaller projects or microservices

Cons:

• Less mature ecosystem compared to other frameworks
• May lack some advanced features needed for larger applications

5. Axum

Overview:

Axum is a web framework built on top of Tokio, Tower, and Hyper, designed for ergonomic and modular development. It integrates deeply with Tokio’s async runtime and Tower’s middleware system.

Key Features:

• Built with Tokio and Hyper for async I/O
• Tower middleware integration
• Type-safe and modular routing
• High performance with minimal boilerplate

Basic Example:

use axum::{handler::get, Router};

async fn hello() -> &'static str {
    "Hello, Axum!"
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let app = Router::new().route("/", get(hello));
    axum::Server::bind(&"127.0.0.1:3000".parse().unwrap())
        .serve(app.into_make_service())
        .await
        .unwrap();
}

Pros:

• Integrates well with the existing Rust ecosystem (Tokio, Tower)
• Type-safe and ergonomic
• High performance

Cons:

• Relatively new, so the ecosystem is still growing
• May require familiarity with Tower and Hyper for advanced use cases

6. Nickel

Overview:

Nickel is a simple and lightweight web framework for Rust that focuses on ease of use. It provides basic routing, middleware support, and flexibility for building web applications quickly.

Key Features:

• Lightweight and simple API
• Middleware support
• Easy to set up and use
• Built with extensibility in mind

Basic Example:

#[macro_use] extern crate nickel;

use nickel::{Nickel, HttpRouter};

fn main() {
    let mut server = Nickel::new();
    server.get("/", middleware!("Hello, Nickel!"));
    server.listen("127.0.0.1:6767").unwrap();
}

Pros:

• Very easy to get started with
• Lightweight and minimalistic
• Good for small to medium-sized projects

Cons:

• Limited feature set compared to more mature frameworks
• Not as actively maintained as other frameworks

7. Gotham

Overview:

Gotham is a flexible and extensible web framework that aims to provide a safe and ergonomic API for web development. It is built on top of Hyper and provides features like middleware, routing, and async support.

Key Features:

• Safe and ergonomic API
• Async by default with Hyper integration
• Middleware and router support
• Extensible design

Basic Example:

use gotham::state::State;
use gotham::router::builder::*;

fn hello_handler(state: State) -> (State, &'static str) {
    (state, "Hello, Gotham!")
}

fn main() {
    let router = build_simple_router(|route| {
        route.get("/").to(hello_handler);
    });

    gotham::start("127.0.0.1:7878", router);
}

Pros:

• Safe and ergonomic API
• Built on top of the powerful Hyper library
• Extensible and flexible

Cons:

• Less community support compared to more popular frameworks
• Can be complex for simple applications

Conclusion

Rust offers a variety of web frameworks, each with its own strengths and use cases. Whether you need the speed and power of Actix Web, the simplicity of Rocket, or the composability of Warp, there's a framework suited to your project's needs. This cheatsheet provides a quick reference to help you choose and work with the right Rust web framework for your application.