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Comparison · Analytics
broom.helpers vs rrum
A side-by-side editorial comparison of broom.helpers and rrum — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
broom.helpers vs rrum: at a glance
What is broom.helpers?
The tidying engine under gtsummary keeps widening its model coverage while retiring its own selector layer.
broom.helpers standardises the output of regression models so downstream packages can render them, and its release notes are essentially a running list of newly supported model classes. Recent versions added quantreg, svyVGAM, VGAM, glmtoolbox and mmrm support alongside a steady stream of fixes for fixest and survey models. In parallel it has spent three releases dismantling its own selector helpers in favour of the cards package.
What is rrum?
Six years past its API cleanup, rrum ships only what the compiler demands.
rrum estimates the reduced Reparameterized Unified Model via a Gibbs sampler in Rcpp/Armadillo, with simulation delegated to its sibling package simcdm. The user-facing API has been settled since 2019, when the entry point was renamed and simulation was moved out. Releases since then have been build and CRAN compliance work.
broom.helpers vs rrum: editorial side-by-side
broom.helpers
0.0ANALYTICS
The tidying engine under gtsummary keeps widening its model coverage while retiring its own selector layer.
◆ Current state
broom.helpers standardises the output of regression models so downstream packages can render them, and its release notes are essentially a running list of newly supported model classes. Recent versions added quantreg, svyVGAM, VGAM, glmtoolbox and mmrm support alongside a steady stream of fixes for fixest and survey models. In parallel it has spent three releases dismantling its own selector helpers in favour of the cards package.
◆ Where it's heading
Two arcs run in parallel. The first is accretive: each release absorbs another modelling package, which is the natural job of a translation layer and shows no sign of slowing. The second is subtractive and now complete — the dot-prefixed selector functions were deprecated in 1.17.0, hard deprecated in 1.20.0, and removed in 1.22.0, alongside the deprecation of tidy_marginal_means() and tidy_margins() as their upstream packages moved or left CRAN. The package is consolidating on parameters and marginaleffects as its computational backends while shedding machinery that now belongs to gtsummary's ecosystem.
◆ Prediction
The next release will most likely add support for another model class and continue trimming tidiers whose upstream packages have been superseded, following the pattern of the last six.
rrum
0.0ANALYTICS
Six years past its API cleanup, rrum ships only what the compiler demands.
◆ Current state
rrum estimates the reduced Reparameterized Unified Model via a Gibbs sampler in Rcpp/Armadillo, with simulation delegated to its sibling package simcdm. The user-facing API has been settled since 2019, when the entry point was renamed and simulation was moved out. Releases since then have been build and CRAN compliance work.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from an API-breaking consolidation in 2019, through a 2023 release fixing C++ deprecations and adding a pkgdown site, to a 2025 maintenance release that raises dependency floors and swaps a deprecated Armadillo conversion call. Each release is triggered by something outside the package — R-devel, CRAN check notes, an Armadillo deprecation — rather than by modeling work. The 2025 release arrived the same morning as a near-identical one for edina, marking it as a maintainer-wide sweep across the lab's packages.
◆ Prediction
The next release will most likely be another externally forced compatibility fix, since three consecutive releases have been reactions to toolchain deprecations rather than to user requests.
Alternatives to broom.helpers and rrum
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 broom.helpers or rrum.
secuTrialR
A Swiss clinical-trial data reader that surfaces once every couple of years to clear check notes.
flightsbr
Brazil's flight-data package keeps working around what ANAC publishes and when.
rolap
A star-schema modelling package grew a query language, a deployment path, and then a map layer.
kwb.db
A water-research lab's ODBC helper, still fighting Windows database drivers a decade in.
r2dii.match
PACTA's loan-book matcher opened up to sector taxonomies other than its own.
See all broom.helpers alternatives → · See all rrum alternatives →
Recent activity from broom.helpers and rrum
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10mo agorrumrrum 0.2.2 - Maintenance Release
- 11mo agobroom.helpersQuantile regression support lands as legacy selectors are removed
- 1y agobroom.helpersExperimental tidier for survey-weighted VGAM models
- 1y agobroom.helpersNew grouping controls for tidied model results
- 1y agobroom.helpersMarginal means tidier hard deprecated
- 1y agobroom.helpersInstrumental variable support for fixest models
- 1y agobroom.helpersbroom.helpers 1.17.0 ⚡
- 2y agorrumR-devel C++ fixes, pkgdown site, CI moved to GitHub Actions
- 7y agorrumCRAN release breaks the API and moves simulation to simcdm ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between broom.helpers and rrum?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. broom.helpers and rrum 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 broom.helpers better than rrum?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. broom.helpers and rrum 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 broom.helpers?
Top broom.helpers alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "broom.helpers alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/broom-helpers for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rrum?
Top rrum alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rrum alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rrum for the full list with editorial commentary on each.