paleobuddy
paleobuddy can now simulate trait-dependent diversification, not just birth-death.
Comparison · Analytics
epikit vs survminer
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epikit and survminer — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
epikit vs survminer: 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 survminer?
survminer is back after a five-year gap, and spending it cutting dependencies loose.
survminer draws Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox diagnostics on top of ggplot2, and it sits under a large share of published survival figures. After a long dormancy it has shipped three releases since late 2024, and all of them are about staying compatible: with ggplot2 3.5, then 4.0, and now without survMisc, whose weighted log-rank tests are computed internally in base R as of 0.5.2. The plotting API itself has not changed.
epikit vs survminer: 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.
survminer
0.0ANALYTICS
survminer is back after a five-year gap, and spending it cutting dependencies loose.
◆ Current state
survminer draws Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox diagnostics on top of ggplot2, and it sits under a large share of published survival figures. After a long dormancy it has shipped three releases since late 2024, and all of them are about staying compatible: with ggplot2 3.5, then 4.0, and now without survMisc, whose weighted log-rank tests are computed internally in base R as of 0.5.2. The plotting API itself has not changed.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a revival by maintenance, not by feature work — the same pattern as its sibling packages from the same author. The dependency surface is being reduced rather than extended, and each release absorbs a breaking change from ggplot2 that would otherwise leave existing scripts producing errors or misaligned risk tables. Compatibility fixes now arrive within months of the upstream change rather than years.
◆ Prediction
Continued ggplot2 4.x tracking is the most likely next release content, since 0.5.2 already carries fixes for 4.0.x aesthetics and the GeomConfint stairstep problem.
Alternatives to epikit and survminer
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 survminer.
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 survminer alternatives →
Recent activity from epikit and survminer
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agosurvminersurvMisc dependency removed; weighted log-rank tests moved in-house
- 9mo agoepikitProportion functions moved to epitabulate; date helpers warn correctly
- 11mo agosurvminerRisk-table misalignment fixed via dynamic panel detection
- 1y agosurvminerggcoxzph() sd scaling corrected; tidyverse deprecations cleared
- 3y agoepikitFunctions rearranged across sibling packages
- 5y agosurvminerGehan-Breslow p-value corrected for log.rank.weights = n
- 5y agoepikitRaise dplyr and tibble minimums; move CI to GitHub Actions
- 5y agoepikitCompatibility release for dplyr 1.0.0
- 6y agosurvminerbroom 0.7.0 compatibility fix in ggforest()
- 6y agoepikitFirst CRAN release
- 6y agosurvminersurv_adjustedcurves() separates computation from plotting
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epikit and survminer?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. epikit and survminer 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 survminer?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epikit and survminer 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 survminer?
Top survminer alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "survminer alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/survminer for the full list with editorial commentary on each.