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Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.
Comparison · Analytics
broom vs tidytext
A side-by-side editorial comparison of broom and tidytext — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:maintenance
broom vs tidytext: at a glance
What is broom?
broom's release calendar is now set by CRAN checks, not by new tidiers.
broom converts model objects from across R's statistical ecosystem into tidy data frames. Four of its last six releases exist purely to resolve R CMD check warnings and errors on r-devel or to absorb upstream package changes. Maintainership passed to Emil Hvitfeldt at 1.0.11.
What is tidytext?
Finished, widely taught, and shipping roxygen fixes.
tidytext is the package that made unnest_tokens() and the tidy-data approach to text analysis standard, and it has reached the point where its releases contain nothing to announce. The last three are roxygen package anchors, alt text on vignette figures, and a single bug fix in one stm tidier. The most recent substantive changes were in 0.4.0 and 0.3.3 — stm tidiers for high FREX and lift words, a labels function for scale_x_reordered(), and support for tidying STM models that use content covariates.
broom vs tidytext: editorial side-by-side
broom
0.0ANALYTICS
broom's release calendar is now set by CRAN checks, not by new tidiers.
◆ Current state
broom converts model objects from across R's statistical ecosystem into tidy data frames. Four of its last six releases exist purely to resolve R CMD check warnings and errors on r-devel or to absorb upstream package changes. Maintainership passed to Emil Hvitfeldt at 1.0.11.
◆ Where it's heading
Carrying hundreds of tidier methods for model classes it does not own, broom's workload is dominated by other projects' breaking changes and CRAN's evolving checks. New tidier coverage has largely migrated to the packages that define the models, leaving broom as a compatibility surface.
◆ Prediction
Expect the cadence to stay reactive, with releases triggered by r-devel check failures and upstream API shifts rather than expanded model coverage.
tidytext
0.0ANALYTICS
Finished, widely taught, and shipping roxygen fixes.
◆ Current state
tidytext is the package that made unnest_tokens() and the tidy-data approach to text analysis standard, and it has reached the point where its releases contain nothing to announce. The last three are roxygen package anchors, alt text on vignette figures, and a single bug fix in one stm tidier. The most recent substantive changes were in 0.4.0 and 0.3.3 — stm tidiers for high FREX and lift words, a labels function for scale_x_reordered(), and support for tidying STM models that use content covariates.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is stability, and the release triggers are external. quanteda releases force updates to the dfm tidiers, a Matrix release forces another, tokenizers deprecating its tweet tokenizer forces removal of the tweet-specific functions here, and CRAN's Rd anchor requirement produces a release of its own. Nothing in the recent stream suggests new capability is planned, and for a package this embedded in teaching material that is a defensible position rather than a problem.
◆ Prediction
The entries do not support predicting new features. The likely next release is another compatibility update prompted by quanteda, stm, or a CRAN documentation requirement.
Alternatives to broom and tidytext
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 or tidytext.
probably
The package that made calibration a step instead of an afterthought.
workflowsets
workflowsets keeps widening what counts as a model worth comparing.
workflows
The tidymodels pipeline grew a third stage, and it happens after the model runs.
vetiver
Posit's MLOps package went quiet for two years, then came back to keep up with recipes.
patchwork
patchwork stopped being a ggplot composer and became a page composer.
See all broom alternatives → · See all tidytext alternatives →
Recent activity from broom and tidytext
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agobroombroom 1.0.13 relocates a test fixture to clear an r-devel warning
- 3mo agobroombroom 1.0.12 tracks renamed summary() output fields
- 8mo agobroombroom 1.0.11 transfers maintainership to Emil Hvitfeldt
- 11mo agobroombroom 1.0.10 clears an r-devel namespacing warning
- 1y agobroombroom 1.0.9 requires R 4.1 and repairs epiR compatibility
- 1y agotidytextUpdate roxygen package anchors for CRAN
- 1y agobroombroom 1.0.8 fixes cluster-robust intervals, drops orcutt tidiers
- 2y agotidytextFigure alt text and a quanteda v4 vignette update
- 3y agotidytextFix the FREX stm tidier
- 3y agotidytextFREX and lift tidiers added; tweet tokenizers removed
- 3y agotidytextUpdate dfm tidier for the upcoming Matrix release
- 4y agotidytextReordered scales take a labels function; STM content models tidied
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between broom and tidytext?
Both compete on the same themes — maintenance — within Analytics. broom and tidytext 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 better than tidytext?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. broom and tidytext 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?
Top broom alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "broom alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/broom for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidytext?
Top tidytext alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidytext alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidytext for the full list with editorial commentary on each.