tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
cloudml vs lime
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cloudml and lime — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:machine-learning
cloudml vs lime: at a glance
What is cloudml?
Six years since the last functional change, and Google renamed the service it wraps in the release before that
cloudml lets R users train keras, tfestimators and tensorflow models on Google's managed machine learning service, tune hyperparameters there, and deploy the results. Its last release with functional content was 0.6.1 in September 2019, which adapted to Google renaming the service from ml-engine to ai-platform. The only entry since is a 2025 documentation update made to satisfy CRAN.
What is lime?
The R port of LIME has shipped one commit in three years, and it was an xgboost compatibility patch
lime is the R implementation of local interpretable model-agnostic explanations, and it is effectively in preservation rather than development. Its last substantive feature release was 0.5.0 in 2019; 0.5.3 in 2022 recorded a maintainer handover and general upkeep; 0.5.4 in December 2025 exists solely to keep the package working across xgboost versions. Six releases span eight years, and only two of them contain features.
cloudml vs lime: editorial side-by-side
cloudml
0.0ANALYTICS
Six years since the last functional change, and Google renamed the service it wraps in the release before that
◆ Current state
cloudml lets R users train keras, tfestimators and tensorflow models on Google's managed machine learning service, tune hyperparameters there, and deploy the results. Its last release with functional content was 0.6.1 in September 2019, which adapted to Google renaming the service from ml-engine to ai-platform. The only entry since is a 2025 documentation update made to satisfy CRAN.
◆ Where it's heading
The visible arc is short and stops abruptly. Releases through 2018 tracked the TensorFlow runtime version and patched packaging problems; 0.6.1 added a customCommands hook so users could run OS-level setup before package installation, and adjusted to the service's new name. Then nothing for six years. A 2025 release containing only documentation changes is the standard signal of a package being kept on CRAN rather than being developed.
◆ Prediction
There is nothing in this feed to support a prediction of functional work. The most likely next event is another CRAN-driven documentation patch, or archival.
lime
0.0ANALYTICS
The R port of LIME has shipped one commit in three years, and it was an xgboost compatibility patch
◆ Current state
lime is the R implementation of local interpretable model-agnostic explanations, and it is effectively in preservation rather than development. Its last substantive feature release was 0.5.0 in 2019; 0.5.3 in 2022 recorded a maintainer handover and general upkeep; 0.5.4 in December 2025 exists solely to keep the package working across xgboost versions. Six releases span eight years, and only two of them contain features.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is upstream-driven survival: every release since 0.5.0 responds to a change in something lime depends on — glmnet's namespace, order() semantics on data frames, xgboost's interface. The one deliberate change in that stretch was moving htmlwidgets, shiny and shinythemes to Suggests, which lightens installation for the majority of users who never open the interactive explainer. Nothing in the feed indicates work on the explanation method itself.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release, whenever it comes, to be another compatibility patch triggered by a dependency change rather than anything touching how explanations are computed. The three-year gaps make timing unpredictable.
Alternatives to cloudml and lime
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 cloudml or lime.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
See all cloudml alternatives → · See all lime alternatives →
Recent activity from cloudml and lime
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8mo agolimexgboost compatibility restored across versions
- 0y agocloudmlDocumentation updated for CRAN
- 3y agolimeMaintainer handover and general upkeep
- 5y agolimeShiny dependencies moved to Suggests
- 6y agolimeNamespace fix for glmnet changes
- 6y agocloudmlai-platform command adopted; custom pre-install commands added
- 7y agolimegower_pow added and lambda aligned with the Python implementation
- 7y agocloudmlDefault runtime moves to TensorFlow 1.9
- 8y agocloudmlPatch for CRAN results and a packrat error
- 8y agocloudmlCloud training, GPU jobs, tuning and deployment from R
- 8y agolimeh2o support, NA handling, and date columns held during permutation
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cloudml and lime?
Both compete on the same themes — machine-learning — within Analytics. cloudml and lime 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 cloudml better than lime?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cloudml and lime 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 cloudml?
Top cloudml alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cloudml alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cloudml for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to lime?
Top lime alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "lime alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/lime for the full list with editorial commentary on each.