easystats
The easystats meta-package is install tooling wrapped around a relicensed ecosystem.
Comparison · Analytics
bayesplot vs pins
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bayesplot and pins — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
bayesplot vs pins: at a glance
What is bayesplot?
bayesplot keeps widening its posterior-check catalogue while absorbing each ggplot2 break.
bayesplot supplies the plotting layer for Stan-adjacent Bayesian workflows: posterior predictive checks, MCMC diagnostics and LOO diagnostics. Releases through 2025 alternate between new plot families and keeping pace with ggplot2, which changed behavior twice in the visible window. Contributions increasingly arrive from outside the core Stan team.
What is pins?
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
bayesplot vs pins: editorial side-by-side
bayesplot
0.0ANALYTICS
bayesplot keeps widening its posterior-check catalogue while absorbing each ggplot2 break.
◆ Current state
bayesplot supplies the plotting layer for Stan-adjacent Bayesian workflows: posterior predictive checks, MCMC diagnostics and LOO diagnostics. Releases through 2025 alternate between new plot families and keeping pace with ggplot2, which changed behavior twice in the visible window. Contributions increasingly arrive from outside the core Stan team.
◆ Where it's heading
Two forces drive the release line: expanding what can be checked visually, and absorbing upstream ggplot2 churn. The 1.13-1.14 pair shows the first, adding LOO-PIT ECDF plots, quantile dot plots and discrete-data handling across the stat family, while 1.12 and 1.15 are largely spent on ggplot2 3.6 and 4.0 compatibility. The recurring new-contributor lists suggest maintenance load is being spread rather than concentrated.
◆ Prediction
Discrete-data support has rolled out plot family by plot family across three releases; the next release most likely continues that sweep and finishes the ggplot2 v4 adaptation.
pins
0.0ANALYTICS
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
◆ Current state
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long-running processes, neither dramatic. Backend coverage expands toward wherever teams already store artifacts, which increasingly means Databricks and cloud object storage rather than a shared drive. Meanwhile the legacy pin() API from before the board model has been in a staged deprecation across at least three releases, escalated each time rather than removed.
◆ Prediction
Expect another board or two as storage platforms are requested, and the legacy pin() functions to finally become errors; the format list will keep tracking whichever serializer the R community settles on.
Alternatives to bayesplot and pins
Other Analytics 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 bayesplot or pins.
discrim
discrim settled into a thin engine shim after handing its model definitions to parsnip.
dbparser
dbparser shed its database and CSV writers to become just a DrugBank parser.
desirability2
desirability2 is making multi-metric model selection a first-class tidymodels step.
crosstalk
crosstalk is frozen infrastructure: four releases in five years, mostly CRAN upkeep.
cmdstanr
cmdstanr keeps adding fast approximations beside full HMC, and fighting Windows toolchains.
See all bayesplot alternatives → · See all pins alternatives →
Recent activity from bayesplot and pins
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agopinsqs2 replaces qs; pins can be written in multiple formats
- 8mo agobayesplotmcmc_scatter gains shape; pre-ggplot2 v4 theme behavior restored
- 11mo agobayesplotQuantile dot plots and broader discrete-data support
- 1y agobayesplotppc_loo_pit_ecdf() added; KM overlays gain truncation control
- 1y agopinsPin previews on Connect; Databricks host normalization
- 1y agobayesplotggplot2 3.6 compatibility and a run of plot-data fixes
- 1y agopinsAdds board_databricks() and switches parquet to nanoparquet
- 2y agobayesplotPatch caps ppc_pit_ecdf evaluation points at 1000
- 2y agobayesplotbins/breaks across histograms; all LOO plots accept psis_object
- 2y agopinspin_write() arguments must be named; Connect caches removed
- 2y agopinsMessage clarity and Google Drive dribble handling
- 2y agopinsboard_gdrive() added; cache location configurable
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bayesplot and pins?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. bayesplot and pins 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 bayesplot better than pins?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bayesplot and pins 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to bayesplot?
Top bayesplot alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bayesplot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bayesplot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to pins?
Top pins alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pins alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pins-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.