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Rust-lang Review

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Should I use Rust-lang?

Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software - rust-lang.org

· 4 days ago

Free and excellent for systems, embedded, and security-critical software — if your team can absorb a famously steep learning curve. Skip it for CRUD apps, prototypes, or anything needing fast onboarding and vendor support.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~40 public sources; most snippets were truncated, so quotes are limited to verbatim titles and lines.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Rust (open source)

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Systems and embedded programming
  • Security-critical infrastructure
  • Performance-sensitive services
  • CLI tools

Not for

  • CRUD apps and typical SaaS backends
  • First-time programmers
  • Teams shipping prototypes on tight deadlines
  • Anyone wanting vendor support or SLAs

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Memory safety isn't immunity — CVE-2022-21658 was a standard-library race condition

high

Expect longer hiring and onboarding ramps than mainstream languages

medium

No paid support tier; fixes depend on community and Foundation volunteers

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free and open source — no licensing cost at any scale
  • Memory safety eliminates whole classes of bugs
  • Zero-cost abstractions keep performance high
  • Proven in production at game studios and cloud vendors
  • Rust Foundation and funded maintainers sustain the project

Cons

  • Steep learning curve; a 30-year veteran called it 'a living hell'
  • Fighting the compiler and slow builds frustrate developers
  • Guess: smaller talent pool than mainstream languages
  • Real CVEs exist; memory safe does not mean invulnerable

Sources & method

- 12 sources - Memory safe by design, but CVEs still occur; the project publishes security advisories.

official x5review x4security x2news x1
  • CVE-2022-21658, Race condition vulnerability in the Rust standard library
  • First CVE in Linux kernel Rust code, Rust code inside the Linux kernel recorded its first CVE
  • CVE-2021-28032, Cited by Carnegie Mellon SEI as an example Rust vulnerability

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free, open source, zero license cost
  • Ease of use: 2/5. Borrow checker frustrates newcomers; slow onboarding
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Memory safety plus zero-cost abstractions; powerful type system
  • Support quality: 3/5. Active community forums; no vendor SLA
  • Security posture: 4/5. Memory safe by design, though CVEs still occur
  • $0 Price Open source, no license fees
  • Yes Free tier Entire toolchain is open source
  • 2015 First stable release Guess: Rust 1.0 shipped May 2015
  • Rust Foundation Backed by Industry-backed nonprofit steward

Pricing

Rust (open source)

$0

  • Full compiler, cargo, and toolchain
  • Support via community and Rust Foundation

Security

Memory safe by design, but CVEs still occur; the project publishes security advisories.

  • CVE-2022-21658Race condition vulnerability in the Rust standard library⁵
  • First CVE in Linux kernel Rust codeRust code inside the Linux kernel recorded its first CVE
  • CVE-2021-28032Cited by Carnegie Mellon SEI as an example Rust vulnerability⁶

What users say

Users consistently praise Rust's power and safety while warning that the learning curve is steep and frustrating.

“Rust is a really frustrating language for me”
Hacker News
“Rust: a living hell. The perspective from a programmer of 30 years”
Reddit, r/learnrust
“Rust users are like vegans of the developer community”
Facebook developer group

Alternatives

Compare Rust-lang with each alternative.

  • Go

    Simpler, faster onboarding for backend services

    Rust-lang vs Go

  • Python

    Best for scripts, prototypes, and fast iteration

  • C++

    Incumbent systems language with a huge talent pool

    Rust-lang vs C++

  • TypeScript

    Easier hiring for typical web and app work

Companies that use it

  • Tilde10
  • Activision (Treyarch)11
  • Qovery⁴
Full analysis

Based on ~40 public sources; most snippets were truncated, so quotes are limited to verbatim titles and lines.

Free, powerful, memory-safe language — worth it for systems work; overkill and slow to learn for typical apps.

Methodology

Based on ~40 public sources; most snippets were truncated, so quotes are limited to verbatim titles and lines.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. Rust: a living hell — Reddit r/learnrustreddit.com
    review
  2. Rust is a really frustrating language for me — Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.com
    review
  3. Why and Why not Rust? — users.rust-lang.orgusers.rust-lang.org
    review
  4. I used Rust in production for 6 months — Qoveryqovery.com
    review
  5. CVE-2022-21658 — SentinelOne vulnerability databasesentinelone.com
    security
  6. Rust Vulnerability Analysis — Carnegie Mellon SEIsei.cmu.edu
    security
  7. Product security page — rust-lang.orgrust-lang.org
    official
  8. Funding — rust-lang.orgrust-lang.org
    official
  9. The Rust Foundationrustfoundation.org
    official
  10. How Rust is Tilde's Competitive Advantagerust-lang.org
    official
  11. The Rust Programming Language for Game Tooling — Activisionactivision.com
    official
  12. Why so many are switching to Rust — Fluid Attacksfluidattacks.com
    news

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