mlr3mbo
mlr3mbo picked its defaults from a benchmark study, not from taste
Comparison · Analytics
crosstalk vs scales
A side-by-side editorial comparison of crosstalk and scales — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r
crosstalk vs scales: at a glance
What is crosstalk?
crosstalk is frozen infrastructure: four releases in five years, mostly CRAN upkeep.
crosstalk provides the shared-selection and filtering layer that lets independent htmlwidgets communicate on a page without Shiny. Its visible history is four releases across five years, one of which made a substantive change and three of which were fixes. The most recent exists only to clear an R CMD check NOTE.
What is scales?
scales keeps widening what ggplot2 can put on an axis.
scales supplies the breaks, labels and transformations behind ggplot2's axes and legends. Unlike much of the tidyverse infrastructure around it, it still ships genuine feature work each release: native timespan handling in 1.3.0, then custom range-training classes and label_glue() in 1.4.0.
crosstalk vs scales: editorial side-by-side
crosstalk
0.0ANALYTICS
crosstalk is frozen infrastructure: four releases in five years, mostly CRAN upkeep.
◆ Current state
crosstalk provides the shared-selection and filtering layer that lets independent htmlwidgets communicate on a page without Shiny. Its visible history is four releases across five years, one of which made a substantive change and three of which were fixes. The most recent exists only to clear an R CMD check NOTE.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is finished in the sense that matters: it does one thing, widget authors depend on it, and it changes when R or CRAN forces it to. The single directional move here is 1.2.0 dropping the bundled Bootstrap dependency so crosstalk stops imposing a CSS framework on the pages that embed it. Nothing since suggests further design work.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another CRAN-compliance fix; the entries show no feature work in progress.
scales
0.0ANALYTICS
scales keeps widening what ggplot2 can put on an axis.
◆ Current state
scales supplies the breaks, labels and transformations behind ggplot2's axes and legends. Unlike much of the tidyverse infrastructure around it, it still ships genuine feature work each release: native timespan handling in 1.3.0, then custom range-training classes and label_glue() in 1.4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs toward extensibility and type coverage. First came built-in support for awkward types like difftime and hms; 1.4.0 inverts that by letting any third-party class participate in range training simply by implementing range() or levels(). Labelling is getting more expressive rather than merely more numerous.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued type-support and labelling work, with extension points that let downstream packages plug in their own classes instead of scales enumerating every one.
Alternatives to crosstalk and scales
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 crosstalk or scales.
loo
loo keeps rewriting the diagnostics Bayesian modellers read off model comparison
mlr3fselect
mlr3fselect turned feature selection into an asynchronous, distributable job
lime
lime survives on compatibility patches years after its research moment
mlr3measures
mlr3measures is systematically retrofitting sample weights across every metric
mlr3cluster
mlr3cluster went from a handful of clusterers to covering the field
See all crosstalk alternatives → · See all scales alternatives →
Recent activity from crosstalk and scales
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agocrosstalkRd link anchors fixed for R CMD check
- 1y agoscalesscales 1.4.0 opens range training to custom classes
- 2y agoscalesscales 1.3.0 makes timespans first-class on axes
- 2y agocrosstalkFixes for SharedData in Shiny modules and filter escaping
- 3y agoscalesscales 1.2.1 re-documents to fix .Rd HTML issues
- 4y agoscalesscales 1.2.0 fixes currency sign order and adds scale_cut
- 4y agocrosstalkBootstrap dependency dropped from filter and layout helpers
- 6y agoscalesscales 1.1.1 fixes palette inversion and adds oob_keep()
- 6y agocrosstalkClearer error when Shiny is not installed
- 6y agoscalesscales 1.1.0 reorganises breaks and labels into a naming scheme
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between crosstalk and scales?
Both compete on the same themes — r — within Analytics. crosstalk and scales 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 crosstalk better than scales?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. crosstalk and scales 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 crosstalk?
Top crosstalk alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "crosstalk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/crosstalk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to scales?
Top scales alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "scales alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/scales-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.