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Comparison · Analytics
epiworldR vs survminer
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epiworldR and survminer — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
epiworldR vs survminer: at a glance
What is epiworldR?
epiworldR is a thin R shell whose releases track the C++ simulator underneath it
Almost every release here is a version bump of the underlying epiworld C++ library, wrapped and pushed to CRAN. The substantive R-side work is narrow and consistent: exposing simulation outputs that were already computed but not reachable from R — outbreak size, active cases, hospitalizations and their savers. The newest release addresses an AddressSanitizer finding, which is the kind of thing CRAN checks surface on a compiled package.
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.
epiworldR vs survminer: editorial side-by-side
epiworldR
0.0ANALYTICS
epiworldR is a thin R shell whose releases track the C++ simulator underneath it
◆ Current state
Almost every release here is a version bump of the underlying epiworld C++ library, wrapped and pushed to CRAN. The substantive R-side work is narrow and consistent: exposing simulation outputs that were already computed but not reachable from R — outbreak size, active cases, hospitalizations and their savers. The newest release addresses an AddressSanitizer finding, which is the kind of thing CRAN checks surface on a compiled package.
◆ Where it's heading
The R package's job is staying current with the simulator and satisfying CRAN, not evolving its own interface. What direction it has shows in which model outputs get exposed next, and in a steady tidy-up of the build — the custom configure script was dropped in favour of R's built-in C++17 and OpenMP settings, and test coverage has been filled in across several releases with automated assistance.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to track another epiworld version bump, with any R-side addition most likely being one more exposed metric or saver, following the pattern of get_hospitalizations and get_outbreak_size.
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 epiworldR 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 epiworldR or survminer.
tidytransit
tidytransit tracks the GTFS spec as it grows, one reader and one router feature at a time.
oblicubes
A tiny grid renderer for oblique-projection cubes, complete since its first release.
biocro
BioCro swapped an unstable iteration for real root finders, changing what its crop models compute.
redist
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
epiflows
epiflows has shipped four releases in eight years, none of which changed the code.
See all epiworldR alternatives → · See all survminer alternatives →
Recent activity from epiworldR and survminer
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agoepiworldR0.14.0 addresses an AddressSanitizer finding
- 5mo agoepiworldRWrapper bumped to track a new epiworld version
- 5mo agosurvminersurvMisc dependency removed; weighted log-rank tests moved in-house
- 5mo agoepiworldRBuild drops the custom configure script for R's C++17 and OpenMP settings
- 6mo agoepiworldRepiworld bumped to 0.11.2
- 7mo agoepiworldRTests updated at CRAN's request
- 7mo agoepiworldRHospitalizations, outbreak size and active cases exposed to R
- 11mo agosurvminerRisk-table misalignment fixed via dynamic panel detection
- 1y agosurvminerggcoxzph() sd scaling corrected; tidyverse deprecations cleared
- 5y agosurvminerGehan-Breslow p-value corrected for log.rank.weights = n
- 6y agosurvminerbroom 0.7.0 compatibility fix in ggforest()
- 6y agosurvminersurv_adjustedcurves() separates computation from plotting
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epiworldR and survminer?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. epiworldR 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 epiworldR better than survminer?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epiworldR 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 epiworldR?
Top epiworldR alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "epiworldR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/epiworldr 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.