paleobuddy
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
Comparison · Analytics
epiflows vs EvoPhylo
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epiflows and EvoPhylo — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
epiflows vs EvoPhylo: at a glance
What is epiflows?
epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.
epiflows predicts the spread of infectious disease along population flows between locations, and it is effectively dormant. The whole visible history spans 2018 to 2026 in four entries: the first CRAN release, a Zenodo archival tag, a Roxygen patch whose notes state the functionality is unchanged, and a 2026 release replacing deprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls. No entry describes new epidemiological capability.
What is EvoPhylo?
EvoPhylo added BEAST2 alongside MrBayes, then went quiet for two years.
EvoPhylo handles post-processing for Bayesian evolutionary rate and fossilized birth-death analyses, originally against MrBayes output. The 0.3.2 release added BEAST2 support for both FBD functions and rates analysis, making it usable by labs on either platform. Since then there has been one clock-partition fix and, in August 2025, a release whose notes say only that there are updated functions and bug fixes.
epiflows vs EvoPhylo: editorial side-by-side
epiflows
0.0ANALYTICS
epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.
◆ Current state
epiflows predicts the spread of infectious disease along population flows between locations, and it is effectively dormant. The whole visible history spans 2018 to 2026 in four entries: the first CRAN release, a Zenodo archival tag, a Roxygen patch whose notes state the functionality is unchanged, and a 2026 release replacing deprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls. No entry describes new epidemiological capability.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being kept installable rather than developed. The one recent release is dependency maintenance contributed from outside, which is the pattern for RECON-era epidemiology packages that have outlived their original project funding. Two separate entries are both labelled version 0.2.1, so even the version history is not a reliable guide to what changed.
◆ Prediction
Any further releases will most likely be more deprecation cleanup to keep the package on CRAN; there is nothing in the record suggesting active development has resumed.
EvoPhylo
0.0ANALYTICS
EvoPhylo added BEAST2 alongside MrBayes, then went quiet for two years.
◆ Current state
EvoPhylo handles post-processing for Bayesian evolutionary rate and fossilized birth-death analyses, originally against MrBayes output. The 0.3.2 release added BEAST2 support for both FBD functions and rates analysis, making it usable by labs on either platform. Since then there has been one clock-partition fix and, in August 2025, a release whose notes say only that there are updated functions and bug fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's substantive arc ended with the 0.3.2 publication release, which arrived with peer-review revisions and three first-time contributors — the shape of software built to accompany a paper. What follows is thin: a MrBayes plotting correction in 0.3.3, then a two-year gap and a release with no described contents. The August 2025 entry may contain real work, but the notes give a reader nothing to judge.
◆ Prediction
Without release notes on the latest version there is no observable basis for predicting the next move; the two-year gap before it suggests activity tied to specific research needs rather than a maintenance cadence.
Alternatives to epiflows and EvoPhylo
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 epiflows or EvoPhylo.
geodist
geodist stays dependency-free and fast, and warns you when 'cheap' distances stop being honest.
errors
errors keeps making uncertainty print the way each scientific field expects.
CMAQ
CMAQ went global in v5.5, and has been patching that surface ever since.
enpls
enpls has not changed its statistics since 2016 — only its website, twice.
grex
grex is a lookup table with a version number — it ships when the annotation moves.
See all epiflows alternatives → · See all EvoPhylo alternatives →
Recent activity from epiflows and EvoPhylo
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agoepiflowsDeprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls replaced
- 11mo agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo v. 0.3.5
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.3 fixes back-rate plots for MrBayes
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.2 adds BEAST2 support for FBD and rates
- 3y agoepiflowsRoxygen patch for CRAN checks
- 7y agoepiflowsFirst Zenodo archival tag
- 8y agoepiflowsFirst CRAN release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epiflows and EvoPhylo?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. epiflows and EvoPhylo 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 epiflows better than EvoPhylo?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epiflows and EvoPhylo 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 epiflows?
Top epiflows alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "epiflows alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/epiflows-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to EvoPhylo?
Top EvoPhylo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "EvoPhylo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/evophylo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.