So you’ve heard about Rust. Maybe it’s from the WebAssembly hype, or maybe that one senior dev on your team won’t stop raving about ownership and borrowing. Either way—you’re a JavaScript developer, and you’re wondering: What’s in it for me?
This post is your quick-start cheat sheet. No fluff, no theory dumps—just what you need to learn Rust from a JS mindset.
The Pitch
- Fast. Like C-level fast.
- Safe. It catches bugs before you run the code.
- Modern. Great tooling, thriving ecosystem, and amazing error messages.
- WASM-ready. Compile to WebAssembly and run Rust in the browser or alongside JS.
Think of Rust Like…
| Rust Concept | JS Analogy | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Manual memory mgmt without malloc() | Forces you to be explicit and safe |
| Borrowing | Function args by ref (but stricter) | No shared mutation unless you say so |
match expressions |
switch statements on steroids |
Exhaustive and pattern-matching bliss |
Result & Option |
try/catch + null checks |
But enforced by the type system |
| Traits | Interfaces + duck typing | Like TS interfaces, but more powerful |
Toolchain TL;DR
- cargo = npm + build tool + test runner
- crates.io = npm registry
- rustc = the compiler
- rustfmt, clippy = prettier + eslint
Why JS Devs Should Care
- Type safety without a billion types – Once you learn the ownership model, a lot of complexity fades.
- Performance for free – Build native modules or WebAssembly for your hot paths.
- Interop – Via tools like wasm-bindgen, napi-rs, or Neon, you can call Rust from JS (and vice versa).
Getting Started Fast
# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
# Create a project
cargo new hello-rust
cd hello-rust
cargo run
Want to run Rust in the browser?
cargo install wasm-pack
wasm-pack new rust-in-browser
Final Words
Rust isn’t here to replace JS—it’s here to augment it. You don’t need to rewrite everything. Just reach for Rust when you need speed, safety, or low-level control. Start small, think like a systems dev, and let the compiler be your guide.
Catch you in the next post—where we’ll wire up a Rust function into a React app using WebAssembly. It’s easier than you think 😉
— rustypes