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CatastRo vs gtsummary

A side-by-side editorial comparison of CatastRo and gtsummary — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

CatastRo vs gtsummary: at a glance

FeatureCatastRogtsummary
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesspatial-data, open-government-data, spain, httr2clinical-tables, analysis-results-data, regression-summaries, reproducible-reporting
Last editorial update2h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is CatastRo?

Spain's cadastre client spent 1.0.0 breaking its own cache to become a tidy, httr2-native package.

CatastRo pulls parcels, buildings, addresses and WMS map layers from the Spanish Cadastre into R. The 1.0.0 line rebuilt the codebase on httr2, reorganized the cache into topic-based subfolders and moved persistent storage from rappdirs to tools::R_user_dir(), a change that invalidates every pre-1.0.0 cache. The two releases since are documentation and an AI-assisted internal refactor.

Read the full CatastRo trajectory →

What is gtsummary?

gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.

gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.

Read the full gtsummary trajectory →

CatastRo vs gtsummary: editorial side-by-side

C
CatastRo
ANALYTICS
0.0

Spain's cadastre client spent 1.0.0 breaking its own cache to become a tidy, httr2-native package.

◆ Current state

CatastRo pulls parcels, buildings, addresses and WMS map layers from the Spanish Cadastre into R. The 1.0.0 line rebuilt the codebase on httr2, reorganized the cache into topic-based subfolders and moved persistent storage from rappdirs to tools::R_user_dir(), a change that invalidates every pre-1.0.0 cache. The two releases since are documentation and an AI-assisted internal refactor.

◆ Where it's heading

The arc is consolidation, not expansion: the retrieval surface has been stable since 0.3.0 added street names to addresses, while the maintainer has spent the releases since standardizing transport, output types and messaging. All functions now return tibbles or sf objects with tibble data, and cli handles user-facing output. The same modernization is being applied across the maintainer's other Spanish-data packages.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next releases to stay in the 1.0.x patch range — documentation, cli wording and CRAN upkeep — unless the Cadastre publishes a new service worth wrapping.

G
gtsummary
ANALYTICS
0.0

gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.

◆ Current state

gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.

◆ Where it's heading

The ARD work is the through-line. Table IDs exist so gather_ard() can return a named list; hierarchical tables gained per-level sorting and targeted filtering; ARD inputs are pre-processed so sorting applies to non-standard shapes. The package is becoming a structured-results engine that happens to render tables, rather than a renderer alone. Alongside that, 2.2.0 restored data pre-processing that 2.0 had removed after the reduced functionality hurt users — a maintainer willing to reverse a major-version decision.

◆ Prediction

Expect the hierarchical and ARD functions, introduced as a preview without a full deprecation cycle, to keep stabilizing toward a settled API rather than new table types appearing.

Alternatives to CatastRo and gtsummary

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 CatastRo or gtsummary.

See all CatastRo alternatives → · See all gtsummary alternatives →

Recent activity from CatastRo and gtsummary

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 2mo agoCatastRoAI-assisted internal refactor and cli message pass
  2. 2mo agogtsummaryTheme elements no longer evaluated by default
  3. 3mo agoCatastRoDocumentation-only patch release
  4. 5mo agoCatastRo1.0.0 rebuilds on httr2 and invalidates every existing cache
  5. 8mo agogtsummaryARD strata functions and finer theme control
  6. 11mo agogtsummaryPer-level hierarchical sorting and labeled stacking
  7. 1y agogtsummaryTable splitting, ID labeling, and add_difference_row
  8. 1y agogtsummaryData pre-processing restored after the 2.0 removal
  9. 1y agoCatastRoDocumentation and URL refresh
  10. 1y agogtsummarytbl_merge gains explicit merge columns
  11. 2y agoCatastRoCadastre service entry points updated
  12. 2y agoCatastRohttr to httr2 migration, declared invisible to users

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between CatastRo and gtsummary?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. CatastRo and gtsummary 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 CatastRo better than gtsummary?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. CatastRo and gtsummary 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 CatastRo?

Top CatastRo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "CatastRo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/catastro for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to gtsummary?

Top gtsummary alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gtsummary alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gtsummary-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.