tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
CRediTas vs crul
A side-by-side editorial comparison of CRediTas and crul — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ropensci
CRediTas vs crul: at a glance
What is CRediTas?
A CRediT author-statement generator that renamed itself, then went quiet for two years.
CRediTas turns a contributor-roles table into a CRediT Author Statement for a paper. The 0.2.0 release in April 2023 did the heavy lifting — package rename, a full object_verb() API rename, and output that drops straight into R Markdown or Quarto. The 0.3.0 release in August 2025 is the only activity since and carries no changelog text beyond a pointer to NEWS.md.
What is crul?
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
crul is the R6-based HTTP client underneath much of rOpenSci's package stack, covering synchronous requests, three flavours of async, pagination and retries. Its 1.6.0 release in July 2025 changed where test mocking lives: each client — HttpClient, Async, AsyncVaried — now takes a mocking parameter at initialisation or per method, and the standalone mock() function is deprecated. Mocking used to be something webmockr switched on from outside; it is now a setting on the client.
CRediTas vs crul: editorial side-by-side
CRediTas
0.0ANALYTICS
A CRediT author-statement generator that renamed itself, then went quiet for two years.
◆ Current state
CRediTas turns a contributor-roles table into a CRediT Author Statement for a paper. The 0.2.0 release in April 2023 did the heavy lifting — package rename, a full object_verb() API rename, and output that drops straight into R Markdown or Quarto. The 0.3.0 release in August 2025 is the only activity since and carries no changelog text beyond a pointer to NEWS.md.
◆ Where it's heading
Development front-loaded a breaking cleanup during rOpenSci review and has coasted since. The design bet made in 0.2.0 — return a string for inline use rather than write a file — pointed the package at literate authoring workflows rather than at standalone scripts, and nothing since has moved away from it. The empty 0.3.0 note makes the current direction impossible to read from the feed.
◆ Prediction
Too little is published to call the next move; the 0.3.0 entry would need to carry its actual changes for the trajectory to be readable from the changelog at all.
crul
0.0ANALYTICS
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
◆ Current state
crul is the R6-based HTTP client underneath much of rOpenSci's package stack, covering synchronous requests, three flavours of async, pagination and retries. Its 1.6.0 release in July 2025 changed where test mocking lives: each client — HttpClient, Async, AsyncVaried — now takes a mocking parameter at initialisation or per method, and the standalone mock() function is deprecated. Mocking used to be something webmockr switched on from outside; it is now a setting on the client.
◆ Where it's heading
The async surface has been the growth area for years — retries reached Async, AsyncVaried, AsyncQueue and HttpRequest in 1.4, AsyncQueue gained the response accessors in 1.2, and 1.5.0 wired async requests up to webmockr. The 1.6.0 change reverses that direction of dependency, and it landed within a minute of webmockr's own release severing its tie to vcr. Read together, the rOpenSci HTTP stack is being deliberately untangled so each package can be used without the others.
◆ Prediction
With mock() deprecated rather than removed, the next major release is the likely point of deletion. Expect the remaining work to follow the same decoupling theme rather than adding request features.
Alternatives to CRediTas and crul
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 CRediTas or crul.
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 CRediTas alternatives → · See all crul alternatives →
Recent activity from CRediTas and crul
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agoCRediTasVersion 0.3.0
- 1y agocrulMocking becomes a client parameter, independent of webmockr ⚡
- 2y agocrulAsync requests become mockable through webmockr
- 2y agocrulDocumentation fixes and test helper tweak
- 3y agocrulHTTP retries reach the async classes
- 3y agoCRediTasZenodo release (version 0.2.0)
- 3y agoCRediTasPackage and every function renamed; output goes inline ⚡
- 3y agocrulClearer error for mismatched urls and disk lengths
- 4y agocrulAsyncQueue gains response accessors; results print as a summary
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CRediTas and crul?
Both compete on the same themes — ropensci — within Analytics. CRediTas and crul 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 CRediTas better than crul?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. CRediTas and crul 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 CRediTas?
Top CRediTas alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "CRediTas alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/creditas for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to crul?
Top crul alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "crul alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/crul for the full list with editorial commentary on each.