The best cryptography libraries, according to hackers
7 cryptography libraries recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
All cryptography libraries
- BLAKE3Free cryptographic hash function that is very fast and parallelizable, and that people often pick over SHA-256 for speed.16recommend
- libsodiumDevelopers recommend it for solid cryptography primitives with one blessed algorithm each; the common caveat is that its primitives don't always fit the need.10recommend
- AWS-LCRecommended as an OpenSSL-API alternative for low-level cryptography, often alongside BoringSSL. Critics note it is awkward to use outside C, C++ and Rust.10recommend
- xxhashFast, non-cryptographic hash function that people recommend as a faster, higher-quality replacement for CRC32 in hash tables and keys.9recommend
- pyca/cryptographyRecommended as a well-designed, fast Python cryptography library with a solid API and tests. Common caveat: it now needs the Rust toolchain to build.8recommend
- BoringSSLRecommended as a low-level TLS and crypto library, and was unaffected by several January 2026 OpenSSL advisories.7recommend
- argon2-cffiPeople recommend Argon2 for password hashing because it uses modern cryptography and is a good choice for converting passphrases to keys.5recommend