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Comparison · Analytics

cfr vs fabletools

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

cfr vs fabletools: at a glance

Featurecfrfabletools
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesepidemiology, severity-estimation, outbreak-analytics, epiverseforecasting, tidyverts, model-combination, reconciliation
Last editorial update3h ago55m ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is cfr?

cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.

The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.

Read the full cfr trajectory →

What is fabletools?

The tidyverts forecasting core rebuilt model combination on full residual covariance.

fabletools is the framework layer under fable and fpp3 — mables, fables, accuracy measures, reconciliation, and the model arithmetic that lets forecasters express ensembles as expressions. Version 0.8.0 reworked that arithmetic: combination now uses a joint N-way convolution accounting for the full residual covariance across components rather than composing pairwise, and every arithmetic operator collapses to a single model_combination with correctly implied weights, so nested expressions like ((m1 + m2)/2 + m3)/2 flatten automatically. In parallel, the package has been shedding graphics to {ggtime} on a deliberately slow deprecation clock.

Read the full fabletools trajectory →

cfr vs fabletools: editorial side-by-side

C
cfr
ANALYTICS
0.0

cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.

◆ Current state

The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.

◆ Where it's heading

The methodological work is done and consolidated: likelihood approximation is now selected automatically from outbreak size and an initial severity estimate, and the internals were renamed with a dot prefix to close the public surface down to cfr_static(), cfr_rolling() and the data-preparation generic. Releases since have been documentation and compatibility only.

◆ Prediction

The 0.1.0 notes flagged time-varying ascertainment as future work and it has not appeared in the two releases since; nothing in these entries indicates when or whether it lands.

F
fabletools
ANALYTICS
0.0

The tidyverts forecasting core rebuilt model combination on full residual covariance.

◆ Current state

fabletools is the framework layer under fable and fpp3 — mables, fables, accuracy measures, reconciliation, and the model arithmetic that lets forecasters express ensembles as expressions. Version 0.8.0 reworked that arithmetic: combination now uses a joint N-way convolution accounting for the full residual covariance across components rather than composing pairwise, and every arithmetic operator collapses to a single model_combination with correctly implied weights, so nested expressions like ((m1 + m2)/2 + m3)/2 flatten automatically. In parallel, the package has been shedding graphics to {ggtime} on a deliberately slow deprecation clock.

◆ Where it's heading

The framework is being narrowed and deepened at the same time. Narrowed, because plotting is moving out to a dedicated package over an announced two-year deprecation, leaving fabletools to modeling infrastructure. Deepened, because the recent statistical work targets correctness in places users could not easily inspect — combination weights, inverse-variance weighting computed on response rather than innovation residuals, reconciliation coherency matrices exposed via coherent_smat() and coherent_cmat(). Class hygiene follows the same instinct, with mdl_lst replacing lst_mdl and gaining augment(), glance(), and tidy() so global and reconciliation models report statistics like any other.

◆ Prediction

With combination and reconciliation infrastructure freshly reworked, the remaining announced work is the ggtime separation, so expect the graphics re-exports to keep degrading toward removal while modeling changes stay incremental.

Alternatives to cfr and fabletools

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 cfr or fabletools.

See all cfr alternatives → · See all fabletools alternatives →

Recent activity from cfr and fabletools

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

  1. 1mo agofabletoolsModel combination rebuilt on joint N-way convolution
  2. 3mo agofabletoolsCoherency matrices exposed, mdl_lst gains tidier methods
  3. 5mo agofabletoolsGraphics methods now require fabletools to be attached
  4. 6mo agofabletoolsTime series graphics migrating out to ggtime
  5. 8mo agofabletoolsggplot2 4.0.0 compatibility patch
  6. 8mo agofabletoolsIRF() generic and multivariate bootstrap sample paths
  7. 1y agocfrR-devel difftime patch and an individual-data vignette
  8. 2y agocfrSeverity estimator picks its own likelihood approximation
  9. 2y agocfrDelay-corrected severity and ascertainment estimation on CRAN

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between cfr and fabletools?

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

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

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

What are the best alternatives to fabletools?

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