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Comparison · Analytics
epiworldR vs TwoSampleMR
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epiworldR and TwoSampleMR — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
epiworldR vs TwoSampleMR: 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 TwoSampleMR?
The flagship Mendelian randomization package is auditing its own estimators, one bootstrap at a time.
TwoSampleMR is the MRC-IEU package for two-sample Mendelian randomization against OpenGWAS. Its 2026 releases are a sustained correctness review rather than feature work: 0.7.9 fixed bootstrap standard errors in mr_mode() and mr_rucker_bootstrap() that had been inflated since v0.6.30, and repaired two Rucker functions that were returning malformed objects. Point estimates were not affected by the bootstrap bug.
epiworldR vs TwoSampleMR: 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.
TwoSampleMR
0.0ANALYTICS
The flagship Mendelian randomization package is auditing its own estimators, one bootstrap at a time.
◆ Current state
TwoSampleMR is the MRC-IEU package for two-sample Mendelian randomization against OpenGWAS. Its 2026 releases are a sustained correctness review rather than feature work: 0.7.9 fixed bootstrap standard errors in mr_mode() and mr_rucker_bootstrap() that had been inflated since v0.6.30, and repaired two Rucker functions that were returning malformed objects. Point estimates were not affected by the bootstrap bug.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern across these releases is a package being read line by line — a copy-paste weight vector in ldsc_rg(), chunking that produced zero splits for short SNP lists, penalisation recycled across the wrong SNPs, dead code paths removed, and regression tests added behind each fix. Alongside it runs a mechanical modernization pass: seq_len() for loop indices, tidyr in place of reshape2, current ggplot2 idioms, and the OpenGWAS URL migration. Feature work is limited to forest plot presentation.
◆ Prediction
Expect the audit to continue through the remaining bootstrap and jackknife routines, with releases staying in the 0.7.x patch range and each fix arriving with its own regression test.
Alternatives to epiworldR and TwoSampleMR
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 TwoSampleMR.
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 TwoSampleMR alternatives →
Recent activity from epiworldR and TwoSampleMR
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoTwoSampleMRBootstrap standard errors corrected in mode and Rucker estimators
- 2mo agoTwoSampleMRWrong weight vector and chunking fixes across the estimator set
- 2mo agoTwoSampleMRDeprecated ggplot2 idioms and dead code removed
- 3mo agoTwoSampleMROpenGWAS URLs migrated and Wald ratio warnings quieted
- 4mo agoTwoSampleMRCategorized forest plots aligned with the published figures
- 4mo agoTwoSampleMRFurther internal code optimizations
- 4mo agoepiworldR0.14.0 addresses an AddressSanitizer finding
- 5mo agoepiworldRWrapper bumped to track a new epiworld version
- 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
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epiworldR and TwoSampleMR?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. epiworldR and TwoSampleMR 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 TwoSampleMR?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epiworldR and TwoSampleMR 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 TwoSampleMR?
Top TwoSampleMR alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "TwoSampleMR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/twosamplemr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.