paleobuddy
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
Comparison · Analytics
epikit vs paletteer
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epikit and paletteer — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
epikit vs paletteer: 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 paletteer?
A palette aggregator that grows by absorbing other packages, not by changing shape
paletteer collects colour palettes from across the R ecosystem behind one consistent interface, so users can reference any of them by a single name rather than installing each source package. Its function surface has been essentially fixed for years; what changes each release is the catalogue. Version 1.7.0 pulls in palettes from ButterflyColors, feathers, ggsci, khroma, PrettyCols, tayloRswift, blueycolors, amerika, Rdune and poisonfrogs, and tightens argument checking.
epikit vs paletteer: 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.
paletteer
0.0ANALYTICS
A palette aggregator that grows by absorbing other packages, not by changing shape
◆ Current state
paletteer collects colour palettes from across the R ecosystem behind one consistent interface, so users can reference any of them by a single name rather than installing each source package. Its function surface has been essentially fixed for years; what changes each release is the catalogue. Version 1.7.0 pulls in palettes from ButterflyColors, feathers, ggsci, khroma, PrettyCols, tayloRswift, blueycolors, amerika, Rdune and poisonfrogs, and tightens argument checking.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a catalogue, and catalogues grow by ingestion. Every substantive release since 1.3.0 is a list of source packages absorbed, in batches of tens to low hundreds of palettes, with occasional maintenance on the metadata tables that describe them. Release cadence follows contributor pull requests rather than any internal roadmap — roughly one release every one to two years, each bundling whatever accumulated.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same: another release when enough new source packages have been proposed, likely paired with further work on palettes_c_names and palettes_d_names, the only part of the package that has been iterated on for its own sake.
Alternatives to epikit and paletteer
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 paletteer.
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 paletteer alternatives →
Recent activity from epikit and paletteer
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agopaletteerTen more source packages absorbed; argument checking tightened
- 9mo agoepikitProportion functions moved to epitabulate; date helpers warn correctly
- 2y agopaletteerRoughly 170 palettes added from seven art and design packages
- 3y agopaletteerMetBrewer, NatParksPalettes and six more sources added
- 3y agoepikitFunctions rearranged across sibling packages
- 4y agopaletteerHTML5-friendly documentation fix
- 5y agopaletteerggprism and nbapalettes added; palette metadata enriched
- 5y agopaletteersoilpalettes, rockthemes and Manu palettes added
- 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 paletteer?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. epikit and paletteer 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 paletteer?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epikit and paletteer 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 paletteer?
Top paletteer alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "paletteer alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/paletteer-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.