ANALYTICS
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Alternatives · analytics tools
gghighlight alternatives
The best gghighlight alternatives in analytics tools, ranked by Sparkpulse's velocity_score.
Updated Aug 17, 2026
Looking for the best alternatives to gghighlight? Sparkpulse tracks and ranks 12 alternatives in analytics tools by shipping velocity — how frequently each ships meaningful updates, verified from official changelogs. For reference, gghighlight shipped 0 meaningful updates in the last 30 days and carries a velocity score of 0.0 out of 10 in 2026. The alternatives below are ranked the same way, so you're comparing real release momentum, not marketing claims.
About gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
gghighlight adds one verb to ggplot2: highlight the series matching a predicate and grey out the rest, with unhighlighted_params controlling how the shadowed layer renders and calculate_per_facet deciding whether the predicate evaluates within facets. The API settled at 0.2.0; the 0.5.0 release supports ggplot2 v4.0 including its ink and paper theme elements, and finally deletes gghighlight_point() and gghighlight_line().
Velocity 0.0 · Last update 1h ago
Top 12 alternatives to gghighlight
Ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial breakdown, or pivot to a head-to-head.
ANALYTICS
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
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A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
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A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
ANALYTICS
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
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A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
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From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
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Split out of quanteda, then quiet - one new classifier since 2020.
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The 1.x line, tagged retroactively after a decade of SoilProfileCollection redesign.
ANALYTICS
Spline bases built to interoperate: periodic B-splines and an nsk-compatible natural basis.
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A young ALE and PDP plotting package that rebuilt its numeric core after a data-corrupting bug.
ANALYTICS
Vine copula CDFs arrive; everything else is compile hygiene and boundary fixes.
gghighlight vs alternatives — shipping velocity at a glance
Velocity score (0–10) and meaningful releases shipped in the last 30 days, from official changelogs. Higher = shipping faster.
| Product | Velocity | Sparks · 30d | Focus areas | Latest release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gghighlight (baseline) | 0.0 | 0 | ggplot2data-visualisationggplot-extension | — |
| simlandr | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagedynamical-systemsvisualization | — |
| lavaanExtra | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagestructural-equation-modelinglavaan | — |
| ibis.iSDM | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagespecies-distribution-modelsterra | raster replaced by terra across the package |
| anyflights | 0.0 | 0 | r-packageaviation-datateaching-datasets | — |
| vinereg | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagecopulasregression | — |
| stringx | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagestringsunicode | — |
| healthyR.data | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagehealthcare-datacms | Metadata lookup and generic CMS fetchers replace bundled data |
| quanteda.textmodels | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagetext-classificationnlp | Logistic regression classifier added; svmlin rewritten in C++ |
| aqp | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagesoil-sciences4-classes | Core class methods renamed and pruned ahead of 2.0 |
| splines2 | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagesplinesrcpp | Periodic B-splines, nsk(), and a basis conversion matrix |
| effectplots | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagemodel-interpretabilityale | Numeric core rewritten after an in-place data corruption fix |
| vinecopula | 0.0 | 0 | r-packagecopulasstatistics | — |
The 12 best gghighlight alternatives, in depth
1. simlandr · velocity 0.0
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, simlandr focuses on r package, dynamical systems and visualization.
simlandr and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full simlandr trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs simlandr →
2. lavaanExtra · velocity 0.0
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, lavaanExtra focuses on r package, structural equation modeling and lavaan.
lavaanExtra and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full lavaanExtra trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs lavaanExtra →
3. ibis.iSDM · velocity 0.0
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “raster replaced by terra across the package”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, ibis.iSDM focuses on r package, species distribution models and terra.
ibis.iSDM and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full ibis.iSDM trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs ibis.iSDM →
4. anyflights · velocity 0.0
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, anyflights focuses on r package, aviation data and teaching datasets.
anyflights and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full anyflights trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs anyflights →
5. vinereg · velocity 0.0
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, vinereg focuses on r package, copulas and regression.
vinereg and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full vinereg trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs vinereg →
6. stringx · velocity 0.0
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, stringx focuses on r package, strings and unicode.
stringx and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full stringx trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs stringx →
7. healthyR.data · velocity 0.0
From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “Metadata lookup and generic CMS fetchers replace bundled data”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, healthyR.data focuses on r package, healthcare data and cms.
healthyR.data and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full healthyR.data trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs healthyR.data →
8. quanteda.textmodels · velocity 0.0
Split out of quanteda, then quiet - one new classifier since 2020.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “Logistic regression classifier added; svmlin rewritten in C++”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, quanteda.textmodels focuses on r package, text classification and nlp.
quanteda.textmodels and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full quanteda.textmodels trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs quanteda.textmodels →
9. aqp · velocity 0.0
The 1.x line, tagged retroactively after a decade of SoilProfileCollection redesign.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “Core class methods renamed and pruned ahead of 2.0”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, aqp focuses on r package, soil science and s4 classes.
aqp and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
10. splines2 · velocity 0.0
Spline bases built to interoperate: periodic B-splines and an nsk-compatible natural basis.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “Periodic B-splines, nsk(), and a basis conversion matrix”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, splines2 focuses on r package, splines and rcpp.
splines2 and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full splines2 trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs splines2 →
11. effectplots · velocity 0.0
A young ALE and PDP plotting package that rebuilt its numeric core after a data-corrupting bug.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence; its most recent meaningful update was “Numeric core rewritten after an in-place data corruption fix”.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, effectplots focuses on r package, model interpretability and ale.
effectplots and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full effectplots trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs effectplots →
12. vinecopula · velocity 0.0
Vine copula CDFs arrive; everything else is compile hygiene and boundary fixes.
Its velocity score of 0.0/10 reflects longer-term release cadence.
Where gghighlight leans on ggplot2, data visualisation and ggplot extension, vinecopula focuses on r package, copulas and statistics.
vinecopula and gghighlight have shipped at a similar pace over the last 30 days, so the decision comes down to fit and feature depth.
Full vinecopula trajectory → · Compare gghighlight vs vinecopula →
Frequently asked questions
What are the best alternatives to gghighlight?
The top gghighlight alternatives we currently track in analytics tools are simlandr, lavaanExtra, ibis.iSDM, anyflights, vinereg, ranked by recent ship velocity.
How is this list of gghighlight alternatives ranked?
Alternatives are ranked by Sparkpulse's velocity_score — release cadence + 30-day spark count + sector-relative ship rate.
Can I compare gghighlight directly with one of these alternatives?
Yes — every card has a "Compare with gghighlight" link to a side-by-side /compare page.