Rust 1.80: Still Not Worth It for Web Development
🎯 The Experiment
I tried Rust 1.80 for web development. Built a small API, deployed it, used it in production for a month.
It's fast. It's safe. But it's still not worth it for most web apps.
Contrarian opinion: Rust is amazing, but not for web development. Here's why.
✅ What Rust Does Well
- Performance: Incredibly fast, low memory usage
- Safety: Memory safety without garbage collection
- Concurrency: Excellent for concurrent programming
- Tooling: Great package manager (Cargo), good tooling
❌ Why It's Not Worth It for Web Dev
1. Development Speed
Everything takes longer in Rust:
- Compile times are slow (even with incremental compilation)
- Borrow checker fights you constantly
- Simple things require more code
2. Ecosystem
Web ecosystem is limited:
- Fewer libraries than Node.js/Python/PHP
- Less documentation
- Smaller community for web-specific issues
3. Complexity
Rust's complexity doesn't pay off for most web apps:
- Most web apps aren't CPU-bound
- Database and network I/O are the bottlenecks
- Rust's performance gains don't matter
4. Developer Experience
Learning curve is steep:
- Borrow checker is hard to master
- Error messages are verbose
- Debugging is harder
📊 Real Comparison
Building a simple API endpoint:
| Language | Time | Lines of Code | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laravel (PHP) | 10 min | 20 lines | Good |
| Express (Node.js) | 15 min | 30 lines | Good |
| Rust (Actix) | 2 hours | 100+ lines | Excellent |
Rust takes 10x longer to develop, but the performance gain doesn't matter for most web apps.
✅ When Rust Makes Sense
- High-performance services: When you need every bit of performance
- System programming: When you're building system tools
- Embedded systems: When resources are constrained
- Game engines: When performance is critical
- Blockchain: When correctness is paramount
❌ When Rust Doesn't Make Sense
- CRUD apps: Standard web applications
- Rapid prototyping: When speed matters more than performance
- Small teams: When you need to move fast
- Standard web APIs: When database is the bottleneck
💡 My Verdict
Rust is an amazing language. But for web development, the complexity isn't worth it for 99% of projects.
Use Rust when performance is critical. Use PHP/Node.js/Python for everything else.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- Rust is fast and safe, but complex
- Development speed matters more than runtime speed for most web apps
- Rust's ecosystem for web is still limited
- Use the right tool for the job
- Don't optimize prematurely
I'll use Rust for system programming, but for web development, I'll stick with Laravel and Node.js. The productivity gains are worth more than the performance gains.