pins
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
Comparison · Analytics
bigrquery vs readxl
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bigrquery and readxl — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
bigrquery vs readxl: at a glance
What is bigrquery?
bigrquery went MIT, then handed its slowest path to the BigQuery Storage API
bigrquery is the R client for Google BigQuery. Version 1.5.0 was the structural release - MIT relicensing, removal of the long-deprecated non-bq_ API, and a move to the second edition of the dbplyr interface with a much fuller DBI implementation. Since then the work has been about the two things that hurt in practice: download throughput and cost visibility.
What is readxl?
readxl has shipped almost nothing but vendored-dependency upkeep since 2022.
readxl reads Excel files into R without requiring Excel, bundling the libxls and RapidXML C libraries. Four of its last six releases state outright that they contain no user-facing changes, existing instead to satisfy CRAN, silence a sanitizer warning, or re-embed a patched libxls.
bigrquery vs readxl: editorial side-by-side
bigrquery
0.0ANALYTICS
bigrquery went MIT, then handed its slowest path to the BigQuery Storage API
◆ Current state
bigrquery is the R client for Google BigQuery. Version 1.5.0 was the structural release - MIT relicensing, removal of the long-deprecated non-bq_ API, and a move to the second edition of the dbplyr interface with a much fuller DBI implementation. Since then the work has been about the two things that hurt in practice: download throughput and cost visibility.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is settling into being a well-behaved DBI and dbplyr backend rather than a bespoke API wrapper, and offloading its hard parts to specialist packages - clock for date parsing, bigrquerystorage for bulk downloads, gargle for auth. The recent additions read like responses to production use: job labels for cost allocation, microsecond timestamp precision, a configurable quiet option.
◆ Prediction
Expect bigrquerystorage to move from optional to expected for large reads, and further work on upload fidelity, where digits and timezone handling have needed repeated correction.
readxl
0.0ANALYTICS
readxl has shipped almost nothing but vendored-dependency upkeep since 2022.
◆ Current state
readxl reads Excel files into R without requiring Excel, bundling the libxls and RapidXML C libraries. Four of its last six releases state outright that they contain no user-facing changes, existing instead to satisfy CRAN, silence a sanitizer warning, or re-embed a patched libxls.
◆ Where it's heading
The real work has become stewardship of vendored C code: absorbing libxls security fixes and keeping the package compiling across Alpine, UBSAN and successive cpp11 versions. 1.5.0 breaks the streak only slightly, with a network-drive permission warning fix and a cpp11 floor raised to dodge a segfault.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same rhythm — releases triggered by toolchain breakage or an upstream libxls patch rather than new spreadsheet-reading capability.
Alternatives to bigrquery and readxl
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 bigrquery or readxl.
tsibble
tsibble shipped one release in five and a half years - the data structure is finished
yardstick
yardstick made fairness metrics a first-class part of tidymodels evaluation
tune
tune extends tuning past the model itself to postprocessors, and adds a second parallel backend
leaflet
leaflet relicensed to MIT and finished migrating off R's retired spatial stack
ggpubr
ggpubr reached 1.0.0 with p-value formatting presets for specific journals
See all bigrquery alternatives → · See all readxl alternatives →
Recent activity from bigrquery and readxl
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agoreadxlreadxl 1.5.0 stops false access-denied warnings on network drives
- 3mo agobigrqueryJob labels for cost allocation; microsecond upload precision
- 11mo agobigrqueryUses bigrquerystorage automatically for large downloads
- 11mo agobigrqueryDevelopment snapshot advancing 1.4.0 deprecations
- 1y agoreadxlreadxl 1.4.5 clears a gcc UBSAN warning
- 1y agoreadxlreadxl 1.4.4 embeds libxls 1.6.3 with vulnerability fixes
- 2y agobigrqueryForward compatibility with an upcoming dbplyr release
- 2y agobigrqueryMIT relicensing, dbplyr second edition, full DBI support ⚡
- 3y agoreadxlreadxl 1.4.3 ships with no user-facing changes
- 3y agobigrquerySyncs with gargle's OAuth client rename
- 3y agoreadxlreadxl 1.4.2 embeds a libxls build fixing CVE-2021-27836
- 3y agoreadxlreadxl 1.4.1 regenerates help files for valid HTML5
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bigrquery and readxl?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. bigrquery and readxl 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 bigrquery better than readxl?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bigrquery and readxl 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 bigrquery?
Top bigrquery alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bigrquery alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bigrquery for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to readxl?
Top readxl alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "readxl alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/readxl for the full list with editorial commentary on each.