chrono is the legacy date-time library, while time is the modern, faster, and safer alternative for new Rust projects.
The chrono crate is a full-featured date and time library for Rust, while the time crate is a modern, zero-cost alternative focused on correctness and performance. Use chrono for legacy compatibility and time for new projects requiring strict RFC 3339 compliance and better type safety.
use chrono::Utc;
use time::OffsetDateTime;
// chrono example
let now_chrono = Utc::now();
// time crate example
let now_time = OffsetDateTime::now_utc();
Both crates handle dates and times in Rust, but chrono is the older, feature-rich standard while time is the newer, faster, and safer replacement. Think of chrono as a reliable workhorse you might already know, and time as a modern sports car built for speed and precision. Choose time for new code to avoid known bugs and get better performance.