Decision Workspace
ncurses vs libnotcurses-sys vs cursive
Side-by-side comparison of Rust crates
55
ncurses
growingv6.0.1
A very thin wrapper around the ncurses TUI library
61
libnotcurses-sys
growingv3.11.0
Low-level Rust bindings for the notcurses C library.
58
cursive
growingv0.21.1
A TUI (Text User Interface) library focused on ease-of-use.
Core Metrics
| ncurses | libnotcurses-sys | cursive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health Score | 55 | 61 | 58 |
| Total Downloads | 870.0K | 167.2K | 1.2M |
| 30d Downloads | 19.8K | 344 | 53.9K |
| Dependents | 223 | 41 | 1.4K |
| Releases | 27 | 129 | 65 |
| Last Updated | 623d ago | 540d ago | 601d ago |
| Age | 11y 1m | 6y 2m | 9y 9m |
Health Breakdown
ncurses
Maintenance
4
Quality
23
Community
10
Popularity
7
Documentation
11
libnotcurses-sys
Maintenance
8
Quality
20
Community
12
Popularity
6
Documentation
15
cursive
Maintenance
7
Quality
16
Community
15
Popularity
7
Documentation
13
Technical Details
| ncurses | libnotcurses-sys | cursive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Version | 6.0.1 | 3.11.0 | 0.21.1 |
| Stable (≥1.0) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| License | MIT | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Dependencies | 3 | 6 | 20 |
| Crate Size | 26KB | 210KB | 43KB |
| Features | 7 | 9 | 11 |
| Yanked % | 0.0% | 3.9% | 0.0% |
| Edition | — | 2021 | 2021 |
| MSRV | — | 1.65.0 | — |
| Owners | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Links
Quick Verdict
- •libnotcurses-sys leads with a health score of 61/100, but none of the options score above 80.
- •cursive has the most downloads (1.2M), suggesting wider adoption.
- •cursive is depended on by 1.4K crates — strongest ecosystem trust.
- •⚠ ncurses, libnotcurses-sys, cursive have not been updated in over a year.
- •cursive is pre-1.0 — API may change.