tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
crul vs USAboundaries
A side-by-side editorial comparison of crul and USAboundaries — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
crul vs USAboundaries: at a glance
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.
What is USAboundaries?
Seven years dormant, then two releases dragging every census boundary from 2020 to 2024
USAboundaries supplies contemporary and historical US boundary data — states, counties, congressional districts, cities, ZIP code tabulation areas — as sf objects, with the bulk data held in a companion USAboundariesData package. After a gap running from 2018 to late 2025, two releases a month apart refreshed the contemporary census vintage from 2020 to 2024: 0.5.0 covered everything except states, and 0.5.1 finished the job.
crul vs USAboundaries: editorial side-by-side
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.
USAboundaries
0.0ANALYTICS
Seven years dormant, then two releases dragging every census boundary from 2020 to 2024
◆ Current state
USAboundaries supplies contemporary and historical US boundary data — states, counties, congressional districts, cities, ZIP code tabulation areas — as sf objects, with the bulk data held in a companion USAboundariesData package. After a gap running from 2018 to late 2025, two releases a month apart refreshed the contemporary census vintage from 2020 to 2024: 0.5.0 covered everything except states, and 0.5.1 finished the job.
◆ Where it's heading
For a data package the release cycle is the data vintage, and the 0.3.0 split into a separate data package was designed precisely so those refreshes would not require a code release. That the 2024 update still arrived as two package versions seven years later says the mechanism is being used sparingly. Nothing in the feed shows work on the API itself since us_cities() gained an sf return type and a states argument in 2018.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another vintage refresh when the census data moves again, rather than new geographies or functions. The split of 0.5.0 and 0.5.1 suggests state boundaries are handled on a separate path from the rest and may lag again.
Alternatives to crul and USAboundaries
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 crul or USAboundaries.
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 crul alternatives → · See all USAboundaries alternatives →
Recent activity from crul and USAboundaries
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9mo agoUSAboundariesState boundaries updated to the 2024 census vintage
- 10mo agoUSAboundariesCensus data refreshed to 2024, states excepted
- 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 agocrulClearer error for mismatched urls and disk lengths
- 4y agocrulAsyncQueue gains response accessors; results print as a summary
- 8y agoUSAboundariesus_cities() returns sf and gains a states argument
- 9y agoUSAboundariesData split into a companion package; all boundaries become sf ⚡
- 9y agoUSAboundariesContemporary state, county and district boundaries added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between crul and USAboundaries?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. crul and USAboundaries 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 crul better than USAboundaries?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. crul and USAboundaries 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 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.
What are the best alternatives to USAboundaries?
Top USAboundaries alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "USAboundaries alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/usaboundaries for the full list with editorial commentary on each.