humind
The MSNI humanitarian needs framework as code, rewritten and re-broken every year
Comparison · Infra & APIs
afcharts vs statpsych
A side-by-side editorial comparison of afcharts and statpsych — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
afcharts vs statpsych: at a glance
What is afcharts?
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
afcharts supplies the UK Analysis Function's chart styling for ggplot2, as a theme, colour and fill scales, and a use_afcharts() call that applies the styling globally. Version 0.5.1 extends the sequential palette to five shades so it can carry quintile data such as deprivation bands, renames the na_colour argument to na.value, and adds a reset argument to switch the styling back off. The package began as a first release derived from sgplot and has had three releases in roughly two years.
What is statpsych?
A statistics catalogue for psychology that grows by the release and rarely changes shape.
statpsych supplies confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, power calculations and sample-size planning for the designs psychology researchers actually run, exposed as several hundred small named functions rather than a modelling framework. Version 2.0.0 adds eight functions across logistic model performance, Kendall tau-a intervals and sample sizes, intraclass correlation testing, Geary kurtosis and Mann-Whitney power, and retires three names in favour of generalised replacements. The major version number reflects those removals rather than a change in how the package is used.
afcharts vs statpsych: editorial side-by-side
afcharts
0.0INFRA · APIS
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
◆ Current state
afcharts supplies the UK Analysis Function's chart styling for ggplot2, as a theme, colour and fill scales, and a use_afcharts() call that applies the styling globally. Version 0.5.1 extends the sequential palette to five shades so it can carry quintile data such as deprivation bands, renames the na_colour argument to na.value, and adds a reset argument to switch the styling back off. The package began as a first release derived from sgplot and has had three releases in roughly two years.
◆ Where it's heading
The work splits between palette design and keeping the styling composable. On the design side the sequential palette growing to five shades is driven by a specific reporting need rather than aesthetics, since quintiles are a standard unit in UK official statistics. On the mechanical side, the na.value rename was forced by ggplot2 v4.0.1, theme_af() now respects options set by an earlier use_afcharts() call, and a reset argument acknowledges that global styling needs an off switch. These are the problems a styling package hits once people use it inside larger documents.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued adjustment to ggplot2 v4, since the na.value rename is unlikely to be the only argument affected, and further palette work driven by the reporting formats government analysts actually publish. As a sibling to aftables in the same Analysis Function family, it is likely to keep tracking that guidance rather than setting its own direction.
statpsych
0.0INFRA · APIS
A statistics catalogue for psychology that grows by the release and rarely changes shape.
◆ Current state
statpsych supplies confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, power calculations and sample-size planning for the designs psychology researchers actually run, exposed as several hundred small named functions rather than a modelling framework. Version 2.0.0 adds eight functions across logistic model performance, Kendall tau-a intervals and sample sizes, intraclass correlation testing, Geary kurtosis and Mann-Whitney power, and retires three names in favour of generalised replacements. The major version number reflects those removals rather than a change in how the package is used.
◆ Where it's heading
Every release in this window is the same shape: a list of new functions, occasionally a rename. The package grows by filling cells in a grid of estimand, design and inferential goal, and 2.0.0 is notable only for finally deleting the three names its generalised replacements had superseded. That makes it a reference library whose value is coverage and stability, not direction, and the entries give no sign of that changing.
◆ Prediction
Expect the accretion to continue along the same axes, with sample-size and power counterparts filled in for estimands that currently have interval functions but no planning ones. The 2.0.0 deletions suggest occasional consolidation passes when a generalised function makes older specific ones redundant.
Alternatives to afcharts and statpsych
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either afcharts or statpsych.
inlabru
A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time
coga
A gamma-convolution density package that reached completion in 2018 and has coasted since.
smam
Animal-movement models in R, where new stochastic processes arrive years apart.
baseq
A basic DNA and RNA sequence toolkit that went quiet for three years, then jumped to 2.0.
pakret
Package citation for R documents, quietly growing to meet Quarto.
See all afcharts alternatives → · See all statpsych alternatives →
Recent activity from afcharts and statpsych
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agostatpsychKendall tau, logistic fit measures added; three names retired
- 5mo agoafchartsSequential palette reaches five shades for quintile data
- 7mo agostatpsychIntraclass correlation and diversity indices gain full coverage
- 1y agostatpsychstatpsych 1.8
- 1y agoafchartsNamespace and argument-passing fixes
- 1y agoafchartsFirst release, derived from sgplot
- 2y agostatpsychCorrelation tests and finite-population corrections added
- 2y agostatpsychCoefficient of variation and 2x2 within-subjects effects
- 3y agostatpsychPower calculations added for means, proportions and correlations
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between afcharts and statpsych?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. afcharts and statpsych are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is afcharts better than statpsych?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. afcharts and statpsych are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to afcharts?
Top afcharts alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "afcharts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/afcharts for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to statpsych?
Top statpsych alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "statpsych alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/statpsych for the full list with editorial commentary on each.