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deeptime vs ggstatsplot

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

deeptime vs ggstatsplot: at a glance

Featuredeeptimeggstatsplot
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesggplot2-extension, geology, phylogenetics, deprecationstatistical-plots, ggplot2, contingency-tables, hypothesis-testing
Last editorial update2h 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 ggstatsplot?

ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.

ggstatsplot produces ggplot2 graphics with statistical test results embedded in the subtitle and caption — comparisons, correlations, contingency tables, histograms. Since the 2019 refactoring that moved all statistical computation into the separate statsExpressions package, its own release notes have been dominated by upstream tracking: adapting to ggplot2, dplyr, purrr and easystats changes. The 1.0.0 release in April 2026 breaks that run with real additions to the contingency-table functions.

Read the full ggstatsplot trajectory →

deeptime vs ggstatsplot: 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.

G
ggstatsplot
ANALYTICS
0.0

ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.

◆ Current state

ggstatsplot produces ggplot2 graphics with statistical test results embedded in the subtitle and caption — comparisons, correlations, contingency tables, histograms. Since the 2019 refactoring that moved all statistical computation into the separate statsExpressions package, its own release notes have been dominated by upstream tracking: adapting to ggplot2, dplyr, purrr and easystats changes. The 1.0.0 release in April 2026 breaks that run with real additions to the contingency-table functions.

◆ Where it's heading

The architecture explains the cadence. With statistics living in statsExpressions, ggstatsplot's own releases are mostly the tax of sitting on top of a fast-moving plotting and tidyverse stack — five of the six most recent entries change nothing a user would notice. When substantive work does arrive it clusters in the plotting layer's coverage of test families, as in 1.0.0's one-sample goodness-of-fit support and pairwise contingency analyses. The maintainer is also visibly deliberate about scope, having removed the normality-curve overlay in 0.12.4 for being unrelated to the analysis in question.

◆ Prediction

Expect continued parity work across the plot family — features that exist in one function being extended to its siblings, as goodness-of-fit support moved from ggpiestats to ggbarstats — punctuated by maintenance releases tracking ggplot2 and easystats.

Alternatives to deeptime and ggstatsplot

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 ggstatsplot.

See all deeptime alternatives → · See all ggstatsplot alternatives →

Recent activity from deeptime and ggstatsplot

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

  1. 1mo agodeeptimegeom_text_clade() labels clades on radial phylogenies
  2. 3mo agoggstatsplotPairwise contingency tests and one-sample goodness-of-fit
  3. 4mo agoggstatsplotInternal maintenance only
  4. 6mo agoggstatsplotAdapted to dplyr 1.2.0 and purrr 1.2.1
  5. 8mo agoggstatsplotContributor list updated in DESCRIPTION
  6. 8mo agodeeptimeArgument renames for ggplot2 4.0 parity
  7. 8mo agodeeptimePattern code dictionary and time-scale theming
  8. 10mo agoggstatsplotSecondary axis label parsing fixed in gghistostats
  9. 11mo agoggstatsplotAdapted to the latest ggplot2 release
  10. 1y agodeeptimegeom_text_phylo() arrives with ggplot2 4 compatibility
  11. 1y agodeeptimeContrast-aware label colors across the built-in scales
  12. 1y agodeeptimeFGDC geologic patterns become ggplot2 fills

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between deeptime and ggstatsplot?

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

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

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