discrim
discrim settled into a thin engine shim after handing its model definitions to parsnip.
Comparison · Analytics
easystats vs pins
A side-by-side editorial comparison of easystats and pins — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
easystats vs pins: at a glance
What is easystats?
The easystats meta-package is install tooling wrapped around a relicensed ecosystem.
easystats is the meta-package for the easystats ecosystem, which spans insight, parameters, performance and their siblings. It ships almost no statistics of its own; its releases add installation helpers, ecosystem introspection functions and vignettes. The consequential release in this window is 0.7.0, which moved the whole ecosystem to an MIT license.
What is pins?
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
easystats vs pins: editorial side-by-side
easystats
0.0ANALYTICS
The easystats meta-package is install tooling wrapped around a relicensed ecosystem.
◆ Current state
easystats is the meta-package for the easystats ecosystem, which spans insight, parameters, performance and their siblings. It ships almost no statistics of its own; its releases add installation helpers, ecosystem introspection functions and vignettes. The consequential release in this window is 0.7.0, which moved the whole ecosystem to an MIT license.
◆ Where it's heading
Work concentrates on making the ecosystem legible and installable as a unit: easystats_packages() to enumerate it, easystats_citations() to count its citations, pak and r-universe support to install it, and a complete-workflow vignette to show it in use. Underneath that, 0.7.0 settled the licensing and formalized the author list. The pattern is a project tending its own boundaries rather than adding capability.
◆ Prediction
The recent additions are all introspection and installation helpers, so the next release most likely adds another of those or refreshes component versions rather than changing what the ecosystem does.
pins
0.0ANALYTICS
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
◆ Current state
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long-running processes, neither dramatic. Backend coverage expands toward wherever teams already store artifacts, which increasingly means Databricks and cloud object storage rather than a shared drive. Meanwhile the legacy pin() API from before the board model has been in a staged deprecation across at least three releases, escalated each time rather than removed.
◆ Prediction
Expect another board or two as storage platforms are requested, and the legacy pin() functions to finally become errors; the format list will keep tracking whichever serializer the R community settles on.
Alternatives to easystats and pins
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 easystats or pins.
dbparser
dbparser shed its database and CSV writers to become just a DrugBank parser.
desirability2
desirability2 is making multi-metric model selection a first-class tidymodels step.
crosstalk
crosstalk is frozen infrastructure: four releases in five years, mostly CRAN upkeep.
cmdstanr
cmdstanr keeps adding fast approximations beside full HMC, and fighting Windows toolchains.
comtradr
comtradr's 1.0 line is a long tail of patches against a brittle UN trade API.
See all easystats alternatives → · See all pins alternatives →
Recent activity from easystats and pins
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agopinsqs2 replaces qs; pins can be written in multiple formats
- 1y agoeasystatseasystats_citations() added; install_latest() gains a github source
- 1y agopinsPin previews on Connect; Databricks host normalization
- 1y agoeasystatsComplete-workflow vignette added; install_suggested() fix
- 1y agopinsAdds board_databricks() and switches parquet to nanoparquet
- 2y agoeasystatseasystats_packages() added; pak used for installs when available
- 2y agoeasystatsR version policy vignette added
- 2y agoeasystatsFix for development package version detection
- 2y agopinspin_write() arguments must be named; Connect caches removed
- 2y agoeasystatsEcosystem relicensed to MIT; two new authors added ⚡
- 2y agopinsMessage clarity and Google Drive dribble handling
- 2y agopinsboard_gdrive() added; cache location configurable
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between easystats and pins?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. easystats and pins 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 easystats better than pins?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. easystats and pins 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 easystats?
Top easystats alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "easystats alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/easystats for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to pins?
Top pins alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pins alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pins-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.