easystats
The easystats meta-package is install tooling wrapped around a relicensed ecosystem.
Comparison · Analytics
billboarder vs leaflet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of billboarder and leaflet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
billboarder vs leaflet: at a glance
What is billboarder?
An htmlwidget whose release notes are mostly billboard.js version bumps, quiet since 2021.
billboarder wraps the billboard.js charting library as an R htmlwidget, with Shiny proxy support for live updates. Most releases restate an upstream library version; the package's own additions arrive one function at a time, such as bauge(), bb_export() and set_color_palette(). The visible history stops at v0.3.1 in May 2021.
What is leaflet?
leaflet relicensed to MIT and finished migrating off R's retired spatial stack
leaflet is the R binding for the Leaflet mapping library. Its recent releases are dominated by one long migration: away from sp, rgdal, rgeos and raster, and toward sf and terra. Version 2.2.3 completed the user-facing half of that - sp is no longer installed by default, and bundled datasets ship as sf objects - while also relicensing the package from GPL-2 to MIT.
billboarder vs leaflet: editorial side-by-side
billboarder
0.0ANALYTICS
An htmlwidget whose release notes are mostly billboard.js version bumps, quiet since 2021.
◆ Current state
billboarder wraps the billboard.js charting library as an R htmlwidget, with Shiny proxy support for live updates. Most releases restate an upstream library version; the package's own additions arrive one function at a time, such as bauge(), bb_export() and set_color_palette(). The visible history stops at v0.3.1 in May 2021.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks billboard.js rather than leading it, and the R-side features that do appear are thin conveniences over capabilities upstream already shipped. The one directional move visible here is 0.3.0's adoption of aes()-style mapping, which pulls the API toward tidyverse conventions. Nothing since 2021 suggests that convergence continued.
◆ Prediction
If the package resumes, the pattern points to another billboard.js bump with a small Shiny helper attached; the entries show no sign of a broader API rework.
leaflet
0.0ANALYTICS
leaflet relicensed to MIT and finished migrating off R's retired spatial stack
◆ Current state
leaflet is the R binding for the Leaflet mapping library. Its recent releases are dominated by one long migration: away from sp, rgdal, rgeos and raster, and toward sf and terra. Version 2.2.3 completed the user-facing half of that - sp is no longer installed by default, and bundled datasets ship as sf objects - while also relicensing the package from GPL-2 to MIT.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a package being brought into line with an ecosystem that changed underneath it. The retirement of rgdal and rgeos forced the terra and sf work; the license change and dependency reductions are the maintainers taking the opportunity to clean up while they are already in there. Feature work, such as the full viridisLite palette set, arrives as a side effect of the tidying.
◆ Prediction
With the sp path now opt-in and the retired geospatial dependencies gone, expect the remaining work to be small: palette and provider-tile handling, and keeping the bundled JavaScript current.
Alternatives to billboarder and leaflet
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 billboarder or leaflet.
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 billboarder alternatives → · See all leaflet alternatives →
Recent activity from billboarder and leaflet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agoleafletMIT relicensing and sp dropped from default installs ⚡
- 2y agoleafletterra CRS handling fixed; raster images accept layer options
- 2y agoleafletProvider tile dependency is cacheable by knitr again
- 2y agoleafletAdds terra support and removes rgdal and rgeos
- 3y agoleafletUpdates proj4.js and fixes examples to stay on CRAN
- 5y agobillboarderbillboard.js updated to 3.0.1
- 5y agobillboarderaes() mapping, set_color_palette() and a datalab theme
- 6y agobillboarderbb_export() adds PNG chart export for Shiny apps
- 6y agobillboarderbillboard.js upgraded to 1.10.0
- 7y agobillboarderbauge() adds a self-updating gauge for Shiny
- 7y agobillboarderbillboard.js upgraded to 1.7.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between billboarder and leaflet?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. billboarder and leaflet 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 billboarder better than leaflet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. billboarder and leaflet 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 billboarder?
Top billboarder alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "billboarder alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/billboarder for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to leaflet?
Top leaflet alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "leaflet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/leaflet-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.