rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
esquisse vs writexl
A side-by-side editorial comparison of esquisse and writexl — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
esquisse vs writexl: at a glance
What is esquisse?
esquisse's 1.0 turned a point-and-click addin into embeddable Shiny modules.
The visible history covers the 1.0 line only. 1.0.0 is the substantial one: modules for importing data (via datamods) and exporting plots, a `ggplot_output()` / `render_ggplot()` pair, manual colour palettes, aesthetic parameter selection, more export formats including pptx, and typography controls. 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 are corrective — sf object handling, package-sourced data, disabled-panel label controls, and an `output_format` argument on the save modal.
What is writexl?
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
For most of its history writexl was a deliberately minimal wrapper: bump the vendored libxlsxwriter, handle NA and Date coercion correctly, support a list of data frames for multiple sheets, and nothing else. 2.0.0, released August 2026, changes that — near-full libxlsxwriter coverage, cell/worksheet/workbook formatting, cell comments, an `xl_cell_general` class carrying value, formula and hyperlink, a cell-by-cell refactor, libxlsxwriter 1.2.4, and memory-safety work. It landed the same day as 1.5.4, a typo fix on the old line.
esquisse vs writexl: editorial side-by-side
esquisse
0.0ANALYTICS
esquisse's 1.0 turned a point-and-click addin into embeddable Shiny modules.
◆ Current state
The visible history covers the 1.0 line only. 1.0.0 is the substantial one: modules for importing data (via datamods) and exporting plots, a `ggplot_output()` / `render_ggplot()` pair, manual colour palettes, aesthetic parameter selection, more export formats including pptx, and typography controls. 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 are corrective — sf object handling, package-sourced data, disabled-panel label controls, and an `output_format` argument on the save modal.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from a self-contained RStudio addin toward a component library other people build with: once plot rendering and export exist as Shiny modules, esquisse's ggplot builder can be dropped inside someone else's app rather than only launched beside RStudio. The two follow-up releases are consolidation on that surface rather than expansion of it.
◆ Prediction
Further work most likely lands on the module API and export coverage, since that is where 1.0.0 put the new surface and where 1.0.2 already returned. The entries do not indicate anything about cadence beyond this line.
writexl
6.3ANALYTICS
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
◆ Current state
For most of its history writexl was a deliberately minimal wrapper: bump the vendored libxlsxwriter, handle NA and Date coercion correctly, support a list of data frames for multiple sheets, and nothing else. 2.0.0, released August 2026, changes that — near-full libxlsxwriter coverage, cell/worksheet/workbook formatting, cell comments, an `xl_cell_general` class carrying value, formula and hyperlink, a cell-by-cell refactor, libxlsxwriter 1.2.4, and memory-safety work. It landed the same day as 1.5.4, a typo fix on the old line.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has changed category. Its selling point was being the dependency-free, opinion-free way to get a data frame into xlsx; 2.0.0 makes it a formatting-capable writer that now compares itself against openxlsx2 in its own test suite. The cell-by-cell refactor is what made that possible and is also the largest structural change in the package's history. Note that a single contributor drove essentially all of it.
◆ Prediction
Expect follow-up releases fixing edge cases in the new formatting and comment APIs — the cell-by-cell rewrite is too large to land clean, and the 2.0.0 notes already mention an off-by-one in date columns.
Alternatives to esquisse and writexl
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 esquisse or writexl.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
rstanarm
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
taxa
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
rotl
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
taxize
taxize spends its releases absorbing other people's API changes, one dead source at a time.
See all esquisse alternatives → · See all writexl alternatives →
Recent activity from esquisse and writexl
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8d agowritexlwritexl 2.0.0 adds formatting, comments and full libxlsxwriter coverage ⚡
- 8d agowritexlwritexl 1.5.4 fixes a documentation typo
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse v1.0.2
- 5y agowritexlwritexl 1.4.0 updates libxlsxwriter to 1.0.3
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse 1.0.1 fixes sf, package data and label controls
- 5y agoesquisseesquisse 1.0.0 ships embeddable plot and export modules ⚡
- 6y agowritexlwritexl 1.2 fixes NA in formulas and hyperlinks
- 7y agowritexlwritexl 1.1 fixes NA strings and bit64 coercion
- 8y agowritexlwritexl 1.0 writes Date values as datetimes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between esquisse and writexl?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. writexl is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is esquisse better than writexl?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. writexl is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to esquisse?
Top esquisse alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "esquisse alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/esquisse for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to writexl?
Top writexl alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "writexl alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/writexl for the full list with editorial commentary on each.