vellumplot
vellumplot tags its first release with a bet most R grammars don't make: the static figure and the widget are the same object.
Comparison · Analytics
deeptime vs gtsummary
A side-by-side editorial comparison of deeptime and gtsummary — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
deeptime vs gtsummary: at a glance
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.
What is gtsummary?
gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.
gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.
deeptime vs gtsummary: editorial side-by-side
deeptime
0.0ANALYTICS
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.
gtsummary
0.0ANALYTICS
gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.
◆ Current state
gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.
◆ Where it's heading
The ARD work is the through-line. Table IDs exist so gather_ard() can return a named list; hierarchical tables gained per-level sorting and targeted filtering; ARD inputs are pre-processed so sorting applies to non-standard shapes. The package is becoming a structured-results engine that happens to render tables, rather than a renderer alone. Alongside that, 2.2.0 restored data pre-processing that 2.0 had removed after the reduced functionality hurt users — a maintainer willing to reverse a major-version decision.
◆ Prediction
Expect the hierarchical and ARD functions, introduced as a preview without a full deprecation cycle, to keep stabilizing toward a settled API rather than new table types appearing.
Alternatives to deeptime and gtsummary
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 gtsummary.
vellum
vellum's bugs are now found by using it, not testing it — the downstream grammar is doing the QA.
n2kanalysis
n2kanalysis has spent eight years wiring INLA models to an S3 bucket.
n1qn1c
A Fortran-descended optimizer got thread-safe, then found two flags that never worked.
ggstatsplot
ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.
collapse
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
See all deeptime alternatives → · See all gtsummary alternatives →
Recent activity from deeptime and gtsummary
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agodeeptimegeom_text_clade() labels clades on radial phylogenies
- 2mo agogtsummaryTheme elements no longer evaluated by default
- 8mo agogtsummaryARD strata functions and finer theme control
- 8mo agodeeptimeArgument renames for ggplot2 4.0 parity
- 8mo agodeeptimePattern code dictionary and time-scale theming
- 11mo agogtsummaryPer-level hierarchical sorting and labeled stacking
- 1y agogtsummaryTable splitting, ID labeling, and add_difference_row
- 1y agodeeptimegeom_text_phylo() arrives with ggplot2 4 compatibility
- 1y agogtsummaryData pre-processing restored after the 2.0 removal
- 1y agogtsummarytbl_merge gains explicit merge columns
- 1y agodeeptimeContrast-aware label colors across the built-in scales
- 1y agodeeptimeFGDC geologic patterns become ggplot2 fills ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between deeptime and gtsummary?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. deeptime and gtsummary 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 gtsummary?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. deeptime and gtsummary 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 gtsummary?
Top gtsummary alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gtsummary alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gtsummary-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.