rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
embed vs mlr3viz
A side-by-side editorial comparison of embed and mlr3viz — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
embed vs mlr3viz: at a glance
What is embed?
embed keeps adding encoding steps while shedding its deep-learning dependencies
embed supplies recipes steps that turn categorical predictors into numeric representations — likelihood encoding, UMAP projection, string-distance collapsing. The 1.1.x line made UMAP arguments tunable and moved keras and tensorflow out of hard dependencies; 1.2.0 added analytical likelihood encoding with partial pooling and retired step_feature_hash() in favor of textrecipes.
What is mlr3viz?
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
mlr3viz supplies autoplot methods across mlr3 objects — learners, resample and benchmark results, tuning instances, ensemble feature-selection results. Recent releases are mostly defensive: suppressing ggplot2::fortify() warnings on ROC and PRC curves, pinning legend order so plots are deterministic across ggplot2 environments, and tracking mlr3 1.7.2. A visible piece of scope also left, with the LearnerSurvCoxPH plot moving to mlr3proba.
embed vs mlr3viz: editorial side-by-side
embed
0.0ANALYTICS
embed keeps adding encoding steps while shedding its deep-learning dependencies
◆ Current state
embed supplies recipes steps that turn categorical predictors into numeric representations — likelihood encoding, UMAP projection, string-distance collapsing. The 1.1.x line made UMAP arguments tunable and moved keras and tensorflow out of hard dependencies; 1.2.0 added analytical likelihood encoding with partial pooling and retired step_feature_hash() in favor of textrecipes.
◆ Where it's heading
Two quiet directions run through these releases. One is making the steps tunable rather than fixed, so they participate properly in tidymodels grids. The other is boundary maintenance: heavy dependencies pushed to Suggests, overlapping steps handed to the package that owns them. Recent releases are thin and fix-driven.
◆ Prediction
Expect further consolidation with textrecipes over which package owns which encoding step, and continued upkeep against xgboost and uwot releases rather than new step families.
mlr3viz
2.5ANALYTICS
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
◆ Current state
mlr3viz supplies autoplot methods across mlr3 objects — learners, resample and benchmark results, tuning instances, ensemble feature-selection results. Recent releases are mostly defensive: suppressing ggplot2::fortify() warnings on ROC and PRC curves, pinning legend order so plots are deterministic across ggplot2 environments, and tracking mlr3 1.7.2. A visible piece of scope also left, with the LearnerSurvCoxPH plot moving to mlr3proba.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being narrowed toward generic plotting infrastructure while learner-specific plots migrate to the packages that own those learners. What it does add is access rather than new charts — passing parameters through to precrec::autoplot(), better hints when the wrong autoplot type is requested, and a confidence-interval plot for mlr3inferr. Determinism across ggplot2 versions has become a recurring concern, which is what happens when a visualization package is depended on by documentation and tests.
◆ Prediction
Following the Cox proportional-hazards precedent, further learner-specific plots are likely to move to their owning packages, leaving mlr3viz with the cross-cutting result objects.
Alternatives to embed and mlr3viz
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 embed or mlr3viz.
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.
rotl
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
See all embed alternatives → · See all mlr3viz alternatives →
Recent activity from embed and mlr3viz
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 18d agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.11.1 pins legend order for deterministic plots
- 5mo agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.11.0 quiets ggplot2 fortify warnings on ROC curves
- 6mo agoembedstep_umap() zero-component bug fixed
- 8mo agoembedCompatibility with all xgboost versions
- 11mo agoembedstep_lencode() adds analytical likelihood encoding with pooling
- 1y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.10.1 passes plotting parameters through to precrec
- 1y agoembedUMAP initial and target_weight become tunable
- 1y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.10.0 adds a LearnerSurvCoxPH plot
- 2y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.9.0 adds EnsembleFSResult plots
- 2y agoembedkeras and tensorflow moved to Suggests
- 2y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.8.0 tracks paradox 1.0.0
- 2y agoembedstep_collapse_stringdist() returns factors
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between embed and mlr3viz?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. mlr3viz is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is embed better than mlr3viz?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mlr3viz is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to embed?
Top embed alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "embed alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/embed for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to mlr3viz?
Top mlr3viz alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mlr3viz alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mlr3viz for the full list with editorial commentary on each.