paleobuddy
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
Comparison · Analytics
epikit vs EvoPhylo
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epikit and EvoPhylo — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
epikit vs EvoPhylo: at a glance
What is epikit?
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
epikit is a set of small helpers for applied epidemiology in R — age categorisation, date reconstruction from partial records, and related field-data chores, developed in the R4Epis orbit. Version 0.2.0 moved the proportion functions out to epitabulate, improved how find_date_cause(), find_start_date() and find_end_date() handle dates falling outside the period, and added a floor argument to age_categories() so the lowest band reads as under one rather than zero to zero.
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.
epikit vs EvoPhylo: editorial side-by-side
epikit
0.0ANALYTICS
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
◆ Current state
epikit is a set of small helpers for applied epidemiology in R — age categorisation, date reconstruction from partial records, and related field-data chores, developed in the R4Epis orbit. Version 0.2.0 moved the proportion functions out to epitabulate, improved how find_date_cause(), find_start_date() and find_end_date() handle dates falling outside the period, and added a floor argument to age_categories() so the lowest band reads as under one rather than zero to zero.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being scoped down rather than built out. The 0.1.3 restructuring and the 0.2.0 handover of proportions to epitabulate are the same move made twice: push functionality into the package where it belongs and keep epikit to the toolkit that field epidemiologists reach for directly. The rest of the history is dependency compatibility work against dplyr and tibble.
◆ Prediction
With proportions gone and dependencies trimmed, the remaining functions cluster tightly around dates and age bands, so further refinement of the date-reconstruction helpers is more likely than new capability areas.
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 epikit 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 epikit 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 epikit alternatives → · See all EvoPhylo alternatives →
Recent activity from epikit and EvoPhylo
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9mo agoepikitProportion functions moved to epitabulate; date helpers warn correctly
- 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 agoepikitFunctions rearranged across sibling packages
- 5y agoepikitRaise dplyr and tibble minimums; move CI to GitHub Actions
- 5y agoepikitCompatibility release for dplyr 1.0.0
- 6y agoepikitFirst CRAN release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epikit and EvoPhylo?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. epikit 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 epikit better than EvoPhylo?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epikit 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 epikit?
Top epikit alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "epikit alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/epikit-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.