There are a lot of companies that use Rust in their tech stacks. The Rust programming language is one of the most innovative and popular programming languages, globally. It provides C-like performance while maintaining the memory safety we know from languages like JavaScript and Python.
This article discusses what Rust is, lists the largest companies that use Rust, and explains why it is ideal for companies to use to develop efficient and reliable software.
What is Rust?
Rust is an open source programming language that developers use to create a wide range of new software applications, including game engines, operating systems, file systems, browser components, and virtual reality simulation engines.
Rust combines high efficiency with excellent compile-time correctness. It builds on the concepts of previous systems languages, such as C++, by ensuring no crashes, no data races, and total control over memory lifecycle.
What Are the Advantages of Rust?
- Reliability: Rust is reliable because its model allows you to eliminate a wide range of memory-related bugs at compile-time.
- Speed: Rust is fast and memory-efficient. It can power production services, run on embedded devices, and easily interact with other languages because it has no runtime or garbage collector.
- Security: Rust is one of the safest programming languages because it emphasizes memory safety by analyzing a program’s memory compilation at build time, preventing bugs and memory errors caused by poor memory management.
- Efficiency: Rust’s efficiency stems from its ability to assist developers in writing performance code quickly.
- Productivity: The Rust programming language boosts developer productivity by allowing them to create highly resilient applications.
Top Apps Built With Rust
Rust is used to build apps because it is a popular programming language. It helps prevent memory issues and application performance issues. Below are some of the apps that were built using rust.
Dropbox
Dropbox’s file-syncing engine is partially built with Rust code. Writing, testing, and debugging the engine is difficult due to its high concurrency. When dealing with concurrent code and complex programs, Rust’s static types and comprehensive compile-time checks outperform dynamically typed languages such as Python.
Figma
Figma is a web-based design tool for vector graphics and interface prototypes. Figma updated their multiplayer synchronization engine from Typescript to Rust to improve performance because their server could not keep up with user growth.
Cloudflare
Rust is a tool used by Cloudflare in its core edge logic. Rust functions as a substitute for C, which is memory-unsafe. Cloudflare agrees that Rust is a strong option for adequate performance.
The source control backend for Facebook, now known as Meta, was originally written in Python, but was rewritten in Rust. Meta needed a compiled language to rewrite their source control backend, and Rust appealed to them because of its security features. The source control team has adopted Rust since then.
Discord
The client and server sides of Discord’s codebase are both written in Rust. For instance, the team could scale to 11 million concurrent users by utilizing Elixir Native Implemented Functions (NIFs). Additionally, Discord has rewritten their Read States service, which was originally written in Go, in the Rust programming language.
Largest Companies That Use Rust: At a Glance
| Company | Revenue | Number of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $386 Billion (2020) | 789,000 (2019) |
| Microsoft Corporation | $168 Billion (2021) | 107,000 (2021) |
| $85.9 Billion (2020) | 58,604 (2020) | |
| Dropbox | $1.9 Billion (2020) | 2,760 (2020) |
| Mozilla | $826.6 Million (2019) | 750 (2020) |
| Cloudflare | $648 Million (2021) | 1,697 (2020) |
| Coursera | $293.5 Million (2020) | 779 (2020) |
| Discord | $130 Million (2020) | 1,345 (2022) |
| Figma | $75 Million (2020) | 663 (2022) |
| npm | $3 Million (2021) | 27 (2021) |
Biggest Companies Using Rust: A Closer Look
Amazon
Amazon is a massive Internet-based company that sells books, music, movies, homeware, electronics, toys, and other items directly or as a link between different stores and Amazon’s customers. Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon, use Rust.
Rust helps Amazon Web Services develop high-performance, secure infrastructure networking, and other systems software. Firecracker, Amazon’s first noteworthy Rust-based product, was released in 2018.
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation which was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul G. Allen, is a major developer of personal-computer software systems and applications. The latest version of Microsoft’s Rust for Windows project, version 0.9, has been released. Microsoft is also one of the founding members of the Rust Foundation.
Facebook, now known as Meta, is an online social networking website based in the United States. Facebook was founded in 2004 and has grown to become the world’s largest social network, with approximately three billion users as of 2021.
Facebook utilized Rust in various projects, including the disputed Libra cryptocurrency and blockchain project, overseen by the Diem Association. According to Facebook, Diem’s blockchain is mainly written in Rust.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an American cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software service that’s headquartered in San Francisco. As part of a larger project to improve data center efficiency, Rust was used to write several components of Dropbox’s core file-storage system. Some features of Dropbox’s file-syncing engine also use Rust.
Mozilla
The Mozilla Corporation is a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that oversees and combines the development of Internet-related programs such as the Firefox web browser by a global community of open source developers. Stylo, the CSS engine of Firefox, was built with Rust. Mozilla was the first investor in Rust.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a US-based web infrastructure and website security company that specializes in content delivery networks and DDoS mitigation. Its services act as a reverse proxy for websites between visitors and the hosting provider of Cloudflare customers. Cloudflare uses Rust because it is a brilliant language with first-class WebAssembly support and a thriving ecosystem.
Coursera
Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng created Coursera in 2012 to provide people all over the world with life-changing learning opportunities. Coursera is now a global online learning platform that allows people to access online courses from top institutions and businesses.
Discord
Discord is a video game company. The company creates voice, video, and text chat platforms tailored to the needs of gamers. Since Rust does not have garbage collection, Discord converted its service language from Go to Rust to avoid the latency spikes that Go caused.
Figma
Figma is a software company based in San Francisco. Figma rewrote its multiplayer server in Rust, which offers effective speed with low resource utilization while maintaining the security of standard server languages.
npm
After its inception in 2014, GitHub acquired npm in 2020. npm is a vital component of the JavaScript community, contributing to one of the world’s largest developer ecosystems. The npm engineering team chose Rust over Node.js to address CPU-bound operations which was a performance barrier due to the company’s rapid growth.
Rust Alternative Comparisons
Rust is a secure system programming language. Rust provides memory and concurrency safety at almost no cost in execution speed. Below are some alternatives to the Rust programming language.
Go
Go, also known as Golang, was created by Google programmers who wanted a language as efficient as C++ but easy to learn, write, understand, and deploy. Goroutines make it simple for programmers to create concurrency-aware systems, such as huge ecommerce websites, by distributing workloads across multiple CPU cores simultaneously.
C Language
C is a procedural computer programming language with a static system that supports structured programming, lexical variable scoping, and recursion. Programmers created C using constructs that translate well to standard hardware instructions.
Python
Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy focuses on code readability, as evidenced by its extensive use of indentation. Its language elements and object oriented approach aim to assist programmers in writing clear, logical code for both small and large-scale projects.
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What’s The Best Way To Learn Rust?
The best way to learn the Rust programming language is by taking online courses, reading books on Rust, or enrolling in a Rust coding bootcamp. A coding bootcamp is an intensive, short-term training program that teaches students practical computer programming skills. A bootcamp will provide you with all the necessary experience for learning about the Rust ecosystem.
Coding bootcamps are important because they help you learn computer languages and develop your programming skills without any prior tech knowledge. Additionally, companies that use Rust, such as Microsoft, Figma, and Cloudflare, have hired bootcamp graduates.
Top Rust Bootcamps
Should You Learn Rust?
You should learn Rust because it has introduced innovative techniques to browser engines. Rust can also run on both the backend and front end of online applications. Learning Rust is necessary to build fast, dependable Rust web applications that can be accessed from any location and device.
Companies That Use Rust FAQs
Rust is a good language for real-time computer graphics. Rust is an ideal choice for creating virtual reality systems. Rust is also used to create operating systems, file systems, browser components, and virtual reality simulation engines.
Graydon Hoare invented the Rust programming language. It first debuted on July 7, 2010.
Yes, you should learn Rust in 2022. Rust is gradually becoming the go-to programming language for most projects due to its amazing performance.
No, one of Rust’s major innovations is the ability to guarantee memory safety without the need for garbage collection.
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