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Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
cfbfastr vs simmer.plot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfbfastr and simmer.plot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
cfbfastr vs simmer.plot: at a glance
What is cfbfastr?
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
What is simmer.plot?
The plotting companion to simmer, shipping only when the simulator or a graphics dependency moves.
simmer.plot renders discrete-event simulation output — S3 plot() methods over get_mon_arrivals(), get_mon_attributes() and get_mon_resources(), plus trajectory diagrams drawn through DiagrammeR. Since 0.1.12 the methods attach to the monitoring data itself rather than the simulation environment, and 0.1.18 finished that migration by deleting the deprecated environment-level methods.
cfbfastr vs simmer.plot: editorial side-by-side
cfbfastr
0.0ANALYTICS
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
◆ Current state
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's direction is now set by the data provider rather than by its own plans, and that provider has moved to metered access — the free tier is capped at 1,000 calls a month, with limits tied to membership level. cfbd_api_key_info() reporting a user's tier and usage is the clearest sign of that shift: quota is now something an analysis has to manage. The long gap before 2.0.0 and its arrival largely through a first-time contributor also indicate a package sustained by community effort rather than steady maintenance.
◆ Prediction
The live scoreboard and play endpoints are the natural place for the next work, since they are the ones that benefit from in-season iteration. Given the release notes warn users to check their pipelines, follow-up fixes for the changed loading functions are likely before anything new lands.
simmer.plot
0.0ANALYTICS
The plotting companion to simmer, shipping only when the simulator or a graphics dependency moves.
◆ Current state
simmer.plot renders discrete-event simulation output — S3 plot() methods over get_mon_arrivals(), get_mon_attributes() and get_mon_resources(), plus trajectory diagrams drawn through DiagrammeR. Since 0.1.12 the methods attach to the monitoring data itself rather than the simulation environment, and 0.1.18 finished that migration by deleting the deprecated environment-level methods.
◆ Where it's heading
This package moves when something it depends on moves. Its history is a sequence of parser fixes for new simmer trajectory formats, DiagrammeR and tidyr and dplyr version bumps, and ggplot2 workarounds. The one clear internal decision — plotting monitor output instead of the environment — was made in 2017 and completed six years later. The 2025 release fixes documentation cross-references and nothing else.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely follows a simmer trajectory-format change or a CRAN documentation policy, matching every recent entry. There is no visible feature work in the pipeline.
Alternatives to cfbfastr and simmer.plot
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 cfbfastr or simmer.plot.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all cfbfastr alternatives → · See all simmer.plot alternatives →
Recent activity from cfbfastr and simmer.plot
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agocfbfastrRebuilt on CFBD API v2 with metered access and live endpoints ⚡
- 1y agosimmer.plotDocumentation cross-reference fixes
- 3y agosimmer.plotActivity tags and named rollbacks; deprecated plot methods removed
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN endpoints and repo-backed loaders added
- 4y agocfbfastrAll outputs standardised as tibbles with a custom class
- 4y agosimmer.plotZero-capacity utilization fixed; usage limits exposed
- 4y agocfbfastrCRAN release with option-restoring cleanup
- 4y agocfbfastrMinor fixes to betting and FPI rating functions
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN scoreboard and play-by-play access, with argument cleanup
- 6y agosimmer.plotRollback pointer fix and upstream bug workarounds
- 8y agosimmer.plotResource plot factors keep the supplied order
- 8y agosimmer.plotUpdate for DiagrammeR 1.0.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfbfastr and simmer.plot?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. cfbfastr and simmer.plot 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 cfbfastr better than simmer.plot?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cfbfastr and simmer.plot 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 cfbfastr?
Top cfbfastr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cfbfastr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cfbfastr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to simmer.plot?
Top simmer.plot alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "simmer.plot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/simmer-plot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.