mlr3proba
mlr3proba is shedding weight as its survival work moves into sibling packages
Comparison · Analytics
comtradr vs tidyposterior
A side-by-side editorial comparison of comtradr and tidyposterior — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
comtradr vs tidyposterior: 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 tidyposterior?
A finished Bayesian model-comparison package in pure maintenance mode
tidyposterior compares model performance using Bayesian resampling analysis, and it reached its intended shape years ago. Every release since 1.0.0 has been maintenance: a broken test under R-devel, a maintainer email change, and most recently compatibility with an upcoming ggplot2 release plus the base-pipe transition. The substantive API decisions — autoplot() over ggplot() methods, tibble returns from contrast_models() — were settled in the 0.x series.
comtradr vs tidyposterior: 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.
tidyposterior
0.0ANALYTICS
A finished Bayesian model-comparison package in pure maintenance mode
◆ Current state
tidyposterior compares model performance using Bayesian resampling analysis, and it reached its intended shape years ago. Every release since 1.0.0 has been maintenance: a broken test under R-devel, a maintainer email change, and most recently compatibility with an upcoming ggplot2 release plus the base-pipe transition. The substantive API decisions — autoplot() over ggplot() methods, tibble returns from contrast_models() — were settled in the 0.x series.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks its dependencies rather than developing on its own line, and the dependencies do the moving: rstanarm API changes, dplyr 1.0.0, testthat 3e, ggplot2. Its integration surface widened once, when perf_mod() gained methods for tuning parameter objects from tune, finetune, and workflowsets, and has been stable since. This is what a completed package in an active ecosystem looks like.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by an upstream change rather than by anything tidyposterior wants to do differently.
Alternatives to comtradr and tidyposterior
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 tidyposterior.
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
parameters
easystats' parameters package absorbs one more model class every few weeks
See all comtradr alternatives → · See all tidyposterior alternatives →
Recent activity from comtradr and tidyposterior
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13d agocomtradrLong code lists split automatically to avoid HTTP 414 errors
- 8mo agocomtradravailable_variables reference table exposes API metadata
- 10mo agocomtradrISO alpha-2 codes added to reference tables
- 1y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.1.9000 prepares for an upcoming ggplot2 release
- 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
- 2y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.1 fixes a test broken under R-devel
- 4y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 1.0.0 modernizes internals to pivot_longer and testthat 3e
- 5y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.1.0 adds perf_mod() methods for tune and workflowsets
- 6y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.0.3 returns tibbles and adds a formula override
- 7y agotidyposteriortidyposterior 0.0.2 removes example RData files for CRAN
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between comtradr and tidyposterior?
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 tidyposterior?
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 tidyposterior?
Top tidyposterior alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidyposterior alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidyposterior for the full list with editorial commentary on each.