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Comparison · Analytics
dials vs mlr3measures
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dials and mlr3measures — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-stats
dials vs mlr3measures: at a glance
What is dials?
dials is quietly registering the tuning parameters for tidymodels' deep-learning push
dials defines the parameter objects and grid constructors that tidymodels tunes over, which makes its release notes a reliable early read on what the rest of the stack is about to support. The last two releases are dominated by attention-model parameters — SAINT and tabular deep learning via brulee, TabPFN via parsnip's tab_pfn() — alongside catboost parameters for bonsai and calibration parameters for tailor.
What is mlr3measures?
mlr3measures is systematically retrofitting sample weights across every metric
mlr3measures is the metric library behind mlr3. Recent releases follow two threads: adding measures — linex, pinball, Mu AUC, gmean, gpr, mcc — and retrofitting sample_weights support across the existing ones, reaching AUC and the confusion-matrix family in 1.3.0. Along the way 1.1.0 deprecated four regression measures and corrected the bias definitions.
dials vs mlr3measures: editorial side-by-side
dials
0.0ANALYTICS
dials is quietly registering the tuning parameters for tidymodels' deep-learning push
◆ Current state
dials defines the parameter objects and grid constructors that tidymodels tunes over, which makes its release notes a reliable early read on what the rest of the stack is about to support. The last two releases are dominated by attention-model parameters — SAINT and tabular deep learning via brulee, TabPFN via parsnip's tab_pfn() — alongside catboost parameters for bonsai and calibration parameters for tailor.
◆ Where it's heading
The grid machinery itself is settled: grid_space_filling() consolidated the older designs, and the grid_*() functions now error rather than warn on the wrong size argument. What keeps moving is the parameter catalog, and it is moving toward neural and foundation-model territory that tidymodels historically left alone. Error-message quality is a steady secondary theme.
◆ Prediction
Expect further parameter objects to land ahead of the parsnip and brulee releases that use them — the attention and tabular-foundation-model work in flight is the clearest thing the entries point to.
mlr3measures
0.0ANALYTICS
mlr3measures is systematically retrofitting sample weights across every metric
◆ Current state
mlr3measures is the metric library behind mlr3. Recent releases follow two threads: adding measures — linex, pinball, Mu AUC, gmean, gpr, mcc — and retrofitting sample_weights support across the existing ones, reaching AUC and the confusion-matrix family in 1.3.0. Along the way 1.1.0 deprecated four regression measures and corrected the bias definitions.
◆ Where it's heading
The library is maturing rather than growing: weighted evaluation and observation-wise loss functions are being brought to metrics that already existed, which is what downstream weighted-resampling and per-observation analysis need. The deprecations suggest the maintainers are willing to remove measures they consider ill-defined rather than keep them for compatibility.
◆ Prediction
Expect sample_weights and observation-wise variants to reach the remaining measures that lack them.
Alternatives to dials and mlr3measures
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 dials or mlr3measures.
textrecipes
Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.
probably
The package that made calibration a step instead of an afterthought.
workflowsets
workflowsets keeps widening what counts as a model worth comparing.
workflows
The tidymodels pipeline grew a third stage, and it happens after the model runs.
vetiver
Posit's MLOps package went quiet for two years, then came back to keep up with recipes.
See all dials alternatives → · See all mlr3measures alternatives →
Recent activity from dials and mlr3measures
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agodialsAttention and tabular deep-learning parameters for brulee models
- 3mo agomlr3measuresWeighted AUC and weighted confusion-matrix measures
- 4mo agodialsParameters for ordinal_reg() and the tab_pfn() foundation model
- 8mo agomlr3measuresObservation-wise loss for bbrier and logloss
- 11mo agomlr3measuresrse, rsq, rrse and rae deprecated; bias measures corrected
- 11mo agodialsprop_terms() for supervised feature selection recipes
- 1y agodialsCalibration method parameters for classification and regression
- 1y agodialsPostprocessing parameters added; grid size mismatches now error
- 1y agomlr3measureslinex, pinball and Mu AUC measures added
- 2y agodialsgrid_space_filling() consolidates the space-filling designs
- 2y agomlr3measuresgmean, gpr and multiclass MCC added
- 4y agomlr3measuresObservation-wise loss functions introduced
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dials and mlr3measures?
Both compete on the same themes — r-stats — within Analytics. dials and mlr3measures 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 dials better than mlr3measures?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dials and mlr3measures 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 dials?
Top dials alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dials alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dials for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to mlr3measures?
Top mlr3measures alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mlr3measures alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mlr3measures for the full list with editorial commentary on each.