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Comparison · Analytics
epiflows vs timeplyr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epiflows and timeplyr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r
epiflows vs timeplyr: 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 timeplyr?
timeplyr cut everything that wasn't time, then rebuilt intervals as fixed-width vectors.
timeplyr is a time-aware companion to dplyr and data.table, built around a fixed-width time_interval vector class. The 1.0.0 rewrite removed most non-time functions and pushed the C++ layer out into the separate cheapr package, leaving a narrower surface than the 0.8.x line. Releases since have been small: one feature batch in 1.1.1 and a pair of bug fixes in 1.1.2.
epiflows vs timeplyr: 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.
timeplyr
0.0ANALYTICS
timeplyr cut everything that wasn't time, then rebuilt intervals as fixed-width vectors.
◆ Current state
timeplyr is a time-aware companion to dplyr and data.table, built around a fixed-width time_interval vector class. The 1.0.0 rewrite removed most non-time functions and pushed the C++ layer out into the separate cheapr package, leaving a narrower surface than the 0.8.x line. Releases since have been small: one feature batch in 1.1.1 and a pair of bug fixes in 1.1.2.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is consolidation, not expansion. Each release since 1.0.0 trims arguments, renames functions toward a single vocabulary (width, timespan, grid), or fixes an interaction with data.table's own rolling functions. The package increasingly acts as a thin time layer over cheapr and data.table rather than carrying its own implementation.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases tracking cheapr and data.table changes rather than new function families; the entries show no in-progress feature work beyond the ggplot2-friendly breakpoint helpers introduced in 1.1.1.
Alternatives to epiflows and timeplyr
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 timeplyr.
epikit
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
SimInf
SimInf 10.0 turns an epidemic simulator into a tool that fits models to real time series
mutagen
A young package porting Stata's egen row-wise helpers to the tidyverse, one function per release
broman
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
qtl
R/qtl is in pure custodial mode: every recent release answers a compiler, not a user
See all epiflows alternatives → · See all timeplyr alternatives →
Recent activity from epiflows and timeplyr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agotimeplyrLeap-day and time_complete(.by=) bug fixes
- 5mo agoepiflowsDeprecated ggplot2 and tibble calls replaced
- 10mo agotimeplyrtime_breakpoints added; rolling calcs realigned to data.table
- 1y agotimeplyrFixed-width time intervals; non-time functions removed ⚡
- 1y agotimeplyrtime_intervals on by default; year_month/year_quarter ggplot2 scales
- 2y agotimeplyrRegression fixes after the 0.8.0 refactor
- 2y agotimeplyrC++ layer moved to cheapr; time_interval class introduced
- 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 timeplyr?
Both compete on the same themes — r — within Analytics. epiflows and timeplyr 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 timeplyr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epiflows and timeplyr 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 timeplyr?
Top timeplyr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "timeplyr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/timeplyr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.