mlr3proba
mlr3proba is shedding weight as its survival work moves into sibling packages
Comparison · Analytics
comtradr vs parameters
A side-by-side editorial comparison of comtradr and parameters — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
comtradr vs parameters: at a glance
What is comtradr?
comtradr's 1.0 line is a long tail of patches against a brittle UN trade API.
comtradr wraps the UN Comtrade API for international trade data in R, handling authentication, reference tables, caching and bulk downloads. The entire visible window is the 1.0 patch series: six releases, most of them repairs. The substantive additions are a variable-metadata reference table and automatic request splitting.
What is parameters?
easystats' parameters package absorbs one more model class every few weeks
parameters extracts and formats coefficients from an enormous range of R model objects, and its releases read as a running ledger of that range expanding — lavaan and lavaan.mi, survey, lcmm, glmmTMB, fixest, marginaleffects, ordinal. Recent versions ship roughly monthly with a mix of new support, new arguments, and fixes for label handling and standard errors. The most consequential recent change is behavioral: post-hoc standardization no longer standardizes the intercept, setting it and its inferential statistics to NA.
comtradr vs parameters: editorial side-by-side
comtradr
2.5ANALYTICS
comtradr's 1.0 line is a long tail of patches against a brittle UN trade API.
◆ Current state
comtradr wraps the UN Comtrade API for international trade data in R, handling authentication, reference tables, caching and bulk downloads. The entire visible window is the 1.0 patch series: six releases, most of them repairs. The substantive additions are a variable-metadata reference table and automatic request splitting.
◆ Where it's heading
The work is defensive, shaped by the API's constraints rather than by a roadmap. The 1.0.6 fix is representative: Comtrade rejects URLs longer than about 2000 characters, so the package now detects that before the request and transparently splits and recombines it. Running alongside is steady dependency hygiene, most recently swapping poorman for dplyr ahead of a CRAN archival.
◆ Prediction
The release pattern points to more of the same, with error-message and edge-case repairs as users hit new API limits, rather than new endpoints.
parameters
0.0ANALYTICS
easystats' parameters package absorbs one more model class every few weeks
◆ Current state
parameters extracts and formats coefficients from an enormous range of R model objects, and its releases read as a running ledger of that range expanding — lavaan and lavaan.mi, survey, lcmm, glmmTMB, fixest, marginaleffects, ordinal. Recent versions ship roughly monthly with a mix of new support, new arguments, and fixes for label handling and standard errors. The most consequential recent change is behavioral: post-hoc standardization no longer standardizes the intercept, setting it and its inferential statistics to NA.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's job is to be the universal adapter for model output, so its roadmap is effectively set by what the R modelling ecosystem produces. Two threads are visible beyond coverage: getting standard errors right for awkward cases such as frailty terms and robust vcov matrices, and getting labels right when factors are converted on the fly or character variables appear in a formula. Interoperability inside easystats keeps tightening, with equivalence_test() gaining methods for modelbased objects.
◆ Prediction
Given the cadence, the next release will most likely add another model class alongside label and standard-error fixes rather than change how the package works.
Alternatives to comtradr and parameters
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 comtradr or parameters.
mlr3viz
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
mlr3tuning
mlr3tuning is rebuilding its async machinery under a stable public surface
timetk
timetk swallowed anomalize whole, then went quiet for two years
modelbased
modelbased is turning marginal effects into a full contrast grammar
tidyposterior
A finished Bayesian model-comparison package in pure maintenance mode
See all comtradr alternatives → · See all parameters alternatives →
Recent activity from comtradr and parameters
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13d agocomtradrLong code lists split automatically to avoid HTTP 414 errors
- 1mo agoparametersparameters 0.29.2 extends lavaan support and fixes label dropping
- 2mo agoparametersparameters 0.29.1 adds a cluster argument and fixes vcov handling
- 3mo agoparametersparameters 0.29.0 stops standardizing the intercept in post-hoc methods
- 8mo agocomtradravailable_variables reference table exposes API metadata
- 8mo agoparametersparameters 0.28.3 adds Kenward-Roger and Satterthwaite for glmmTMB
- 10mo agocomtradrISO alpha-2 codes added to reference tables
- 11mo agoparametersparameters 0.28.2 updates tests for the latest fixest release
- 11mo agoparametersparameters 0.28.1 adds robust standard errors for glmmTMB
- 1y agocomtradrPatch restores tidy_cols after a regression
- 1y agocomtradrFixes for tidy_cols argument and bulk small-file downloads
- 2y agocomtradrCache relocated to comply with CRAN policy
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between comtradr and parameters?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. comtradr is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is comtradr better than parameters?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. comtradr is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to comtradr?
Top comtradr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "comtradr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/comtradr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to parameters?
Top parameters alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "parameters alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/parameters-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.