← Back to home
Comparison · Analytics

deeptime vs epiflows

A side-by-side editorial comparison of deeptime and epiflows — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

deeptime vs epiflows: at a glance

Featuredeeptimeepiflows
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesggplot2-extension, geology, phylogenetics, deprecationr, epidemiology, dormant, maintenance
Last editorial update5h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is deeptime?

A geologic-time plotting layer that outgrew time axes and became a geology rendering toolkit.

deeptime extends ggplot2 with geological time scales, radial deep-time coordinates and phylogeny-aware geoms, and since 2.0.0 it also renders standardized FGDC/USGS geologic patterns as ggplot2 fills. The current 2.4.0 release adds geom_text_clade() for labeling clades on radial phylogenies and repairs long-standing coord_trans_xy() and scale-placement edge cases.

Read the full deeptime trajectory →

What is epiflows?

epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.

epiflows predicts the spread of infectious disease along population flows between locations, and it is effectively dormant. The whole visible history spans 2018 to 2026 in four entries: the first CRAN release, a Zenodo archival tag, a Roxygen patch whose notes state the functionality is unchanged, and a 2026 release replacing deprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls. No entry describes new epidemiological capability.

Read the full epiflows trajectory →

deeptime vs epiflows: editorial side-by-side

D
deeptime
ANALYTICS
0.0

A geologic-time plotting layer that outgrew time axes and became a geology rendering toolkit.

◆ Current state

deeptime extends ggplot2 with geological time scales, radial deep-time coordinates and phylogeny-aware geoms, and since 2.0.0 it also renders standardized FGDC/USGS geologic patterns as ggplot2 fills. The current 2.4.0 release adds geom_text_clade() for labeling clades on radial phylogenies and repairs long-standing coord_trans_xy() and scale-placement edge cases.

◆ Where it's heading

The package is converging on two jobs: being the canonical R renderer for stratigraphic drawing conventions, and keeping pace with ggplot2's own churn. A sustained deprecation program — gggeo_scale(), coord_geo_polar(), getScaleData(), now disparity_through_time() — is trimming the surface down to coord_geo(), coord_geo_radial() and the pattern functions. Roughly half of each recent release is ggplot2 4.0 compatibility work.

◆ Prediction

Expect disparity_through_time() and coord_geo_polar() to be removed outright in the next major version, and further geoms aimed at annotating radial phylogenies.

E
epiflows
ANALYTICS
0.0

epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.

◆ Current state

epiflows predicts the spread of infectious disease along population flows between locations, and it is effectively dormant. The whole visible history spans 2018 to 2026 in four entries: the first CRAN release, a Zenodo archival tag, a Roxygen patch whose notes state the functionality is unchanged, and a 2026 release replacing deprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls. No entry describes new epidemiological capability.

◆ Where it's heading

The package is being kept installable rather than developed. The one recent release is dependency maintenance contributed from outside, which is the pattern for RECON-era epidemiology packages that have outlived their original project funding. Two separate entries are both labelled version 0.2.1, so even the version history is not a reliable guide to what changed.

◆ Prediction

Any further releases will most likely be more deprecation cleanup to keep the package on CRAN; there is nothing in the record suggesting active development has resumed.

Alternatives to deeptime and epiflows

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 deeptime or epiflows.

See all deeptime alternatives → · See all epiflows alternatives →

Recent activity from deeptime and epiflows

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1mo agodeeptimegeom_text_clade() labels clades on radial phylogenies
  2. 5mo agoepiflowsDeprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls replaced
  3. 8mo agodeeptimeArgument renames for ggplot2 4.0 parity
  4. 8mo agodeeptimePattern code dictionary and time-scale theming
  5. 1y agodeeptimegeom_text_phylo() arrives with ggplot2 4 compatibility
  6. 1y agodeeptimeContrast-aware label colors across the built-in scales
  7. 1y agodeeptimeFGDC geologic patterns become ggplot2 fills
  8. 3y agoepiflowsRoxygen patch for CRAN checks
  9. 7y agoepiflowsFirst Zenodo archival tag
  10. 8y agoepiflowsFirst CRAN release

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between deeptime and epiflows?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. deeptime and epiflows 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 deeptime better than epiflows?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. deeptime and epiflows 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 deeptime?

Top deeptime alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "deeptime alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/deeptime-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to epiflows?

Top epiflows alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "epiflows alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/epiflows-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.