rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
easystats vs rotl
A side-by-side editorial comparison of easystats and rotl — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
easystats vs rotl: 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 rotl?
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
Nearly every entry concerns `tnrs_match_names()`, the function that maps user-supplied names onto Open Tree taxonomy ids. 3.1.0 changed which taxon wins a multi-way match — highest matching score rather than lowest OTT id, reversing the rule 3.0.4 introduced. 3.0.12 defaulted `context_name` to 'All life' so a context inferred from the first name could not silently skew later ones. 3.0.11 made a total failure to match return an empty tibble with a warning instead of an error. The rest are small fixes tracking Open Tree API changes.
easystats vs rotl: 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.
rotl
0.0ANALYTICS
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
◆ Current state
Nearly every entry concerns `tnrs_match_names()`, the function that maps user-supplied names onto Open Tree taxonomy ids. 3.1.0 changed which taxon wins a multi-way match — highest matching score rather than lowest OTT id, reversing the rule 3.0.4 introduced. 3.0.12 defaulted `context_name` to 'All life' so a context inferred from the first name could not silently skew later ones. 3.0.11 made a total failure to match return an empty tibble with a warning instead of an error. The rest are small fixes tracking Open Tree API changes.
◆ Where it's heading
The recurring problem is ambiguity: names match several taxa, and the package has changed its tie-breaking rule twice while making failures and edge cases return predictable objects rather than errors. Nothing here expands what rotl can retrieve; it makes what it retrieves reproducible. The feed also stops in mid-2023, so the package appears dormant.
◆ Prediction
Nothing in the window suggests new capability. If a release comes, the pattern says it will follow an Open Tree API change or another matching-behaviour correction.
Alternatives to easystats and rotl
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 rotl.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
rstanarm
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
taxa
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
taxize
taxize spends its releases absorbing other people's API changes, one dead source at a time.
See all easystats alternatives → · See all rotl alternatives →
Recent activity from easystats and rotl
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoeasystatseasystats_citations() added; install_latest() gains a github source
- 1y agoeasystatsComplete-workflow vignette added; install_suggested() fix
- 2y agoeasystatseasystats_packages() added; pak used for installs when available
- 2y agoeasystatsR version policy vignette added
- 2y agoeasystatsFix for development package version detection
- 2y agoeasystatsEcosystem relicensed to MIT; two new authors added ⚡
- 3y agorotlrotl 3.1.0 matches on score instead of lowest OTT id
- 4y agorotlrotl 3.0.12 defaults matching context to All life
- 5y agorotlrotl 3.0.11 returns empty tibble when no names match
- 6y agorotlrotl 3.0.10 tracks Open Tree API updates
- 7y agorotlrotl 3.0.9 tracks Open Tree API updates
- 7y agorotlrotl 3.0.7 updates vignette for TNRS endpoint change
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between easystats and rotl?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. easystats and rotl 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 rotl?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. easystats and rotl 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 rotl?
Top rotl alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rotl alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rotl for the full list with editorial commentary on each.