n2kanalysis
n2kanalysis has spent eight years wiring INLA models to an S3 bucket.
Comparison · Analytics
cheapr vs omock
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cheapr and omock — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cheapr vs omock: at a glance
What is cheapr?
cheapr turned multi-threaded, and its next stop is a C++20 public API.
cheapr supplies lower-overhead replacements for base R's data manipulation primitives — subsetting, recycling, concatenation, attribute handling, data frame construction. Through 2025 it grew function by function: sset_df/sset_row/sset_col, list_as_df, cheapr_c, counts, str_coalesce, df_modify. The 1.5.0 release in April 2026 changed the nature of the package, adding parallelised math functions, user-settable thread counts, multi-threaded vector initialisers, and a SIMD-parallelised if_else_, with threading on by default at two threads.
What is omock?
A mock-data generator for OMOP studies that keeps widening what it can fake.
omock builds synthetic OMOP Common Data Model tables so packages in the darwin-eu and OHDSI ecosystem can be tested without touching patient data. The 0.7.0 release adds concept set subsetting with its own vignette, unit and value support in mockMeasurement, observation date validation and cohort attrition initialization, while deprecating mockConcepts. Releases arrive as PR digests rather than written notes.
cheapr vs omock: editorial side-by-side
cheapr
0.0ANALYTICS
cheapr turned multi-threaded, and its next stop is a C++20 public API.
◆ Current state
cheapr supplies lower-overhead replacements for base R's data manipulation primitives — subsetting, recycling, concatenation, attribute handling, data frame construction. Through 2025 it grew function by function: sset_df/sset_row/sset_col, list_as_df, cheapr_c, counts, str_coalesce, df_modify. The 1.5.0 release in April 2026 changed the nature of the package, adding parallelised math functions, user-settable thread counts, multi-threaded vector initialisers, and a SIMD-parallelised if_else_, with threading on by default at two threads.
◆ Where it's heading
Two arcs run at once. The visible one is parallelism: what began as single-threaded C shortcuts is becoming a threaded compute layer, and the notes state the C/C++ API is mid-rewrite with a stable form promised at 2.0.0 behind a C++20 requirement. The quieter one is R C API compliance — 1.5.1 removed R_MissingArg, R_UnboundValue, Rf_findVar and Rf_findVarinFrame, the non-API entry points being closed off upstream. The 1.5.x patches since are narrow crash fixes, which reads as consolidation before the 2.0.0 break.
◆ Prediction
Expect 2.0.0 to land the stable C/C++ API behind a C++20 toolchain floor, with more of the existing function surface threaded in the interim. The package has announced both moves in its own release notes.
omock
0.0ANALYTICS
A mock-data generator for OMOP studies that keeps widening what it can fake.
◆ Current state
omock builds synthetic OMOP Common Data Model tables so packages in the darwin-eu and OHDSI ecosystem can be tested without touching patient data. The 0.7.0 release adds concept set subsetting with its own vignette, unit and value support in mockMeasurement, observation date validation and cohort attrition initialization, while deprecating mockConcepts. Releases arrive as PR digests rather than written notes.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has been moving from generating tables to shipping and managing reference datasets — mockDatasets arrived in 0.4.0, mockCdmFromDataset gained a source argument in 0.5.0, and 0.6.1 added download retry handling plus an internal GiBleed dataset after the hosted files moved. The recent work is filling in CDM fidelity: type concepts, measurement units, attrition, and guards for degenerate cases like an empty person table.
◆ Prediction
Expect coverage to keep extending table by table toward the parts of the CDM that omock still cannot mock, with mockConcepts removed outright once the concept set subsetting path settles.
Alternatives to cheapr and omock
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 cheapr or omock.
n1qn1c
A Fortran-descended optimizer got thread-safe, then found two flags that never worked.
ggstatsplot
ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.
collapse
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
gtsummary
gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.
broadcast
broadcast is filling in NumPy-style array broadcasting for R, operator by operator.
See all cheapr alternatives → · See all omock alternatives →
Recent activity from cheapr and omock
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agocheaprrep_len_ crash on shrinking lengths fixed
- 1mo agoomockConcept set subsetting and richer measurement mocks
- 4mo agocheaprNon-API R internals removed
- 4mo agocheaprParallelised math, thread control, and a C API rewrite ⚡
- 4mo agoomockDelphi dataset added and CDM version bumped
- 6mo agoomockDataset downloads survive the storage move
- 11mo agoomockJOSS submission tag alongside the 0.5.0 release
- 11mo agoomockmockCdmFromDataset gains a source argument
- 1y agocheaprSubsetting speedups; sset_col negative-index crash fixed
- 1y agoomockmockDatasets introduces bundled reference data
- 1y agocheaprdf_modify added; attribute helpers renamed for intent
- 1y agocheaprcounts and str_coalesce added; reconstruct renamed to rebuild
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cheapr and omock?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cheapr and omock 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 cheapr better than omock?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cheapr and omock 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 cheapr?
Top cheapr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cheapr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cheapr-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to omock?
Top omock alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "omock alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/omock-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.