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Comparison · Infra & APIs
estimatr vs HydroPortailStats
A side-by-side editorial comparison of estimatr and HydroPortailStats — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
estimatr vs HydroPortailStats: at a glance
What is estimatr?
Fast design-based estimators for experiments, coasting on CRAN patches.
estimatr provides the design-based regression estimators the DeclareDesign ecosystem is built on — robust and cluster-robust standard errors, blocked and clustered randomization inference — implemented for speed rather than generality. The last three releases carry no substantive notes: each is a merge commit for a CRAN patch, one of them accompanied by a typo fix.
What is HydroPortailStats?
France's national flood statistics, ported out of Fortran and into R.
HydroPortailStats exposes the statistical machinery behind the French HydroPortail — distribution fitting, quantile curves and their uncertainties for hydrological series. The 2025 release re-implements the HBay Fortran executable in R, adding Bayesian estimation from historical flood records with censored and interval-valued data and systematic measurement error, plus a triangular distribution and truncated random generation.
estimatr vs HydroPortailStats: editorial side-by-side
estimatr
0.0INFRA · APIS
Fast design-based estimators for experiments, coasting on CRAN patches.
◆ Current state
estimatr provides the design-based regression estimators the DeclareDesign ecosystem is built on — robust and cluster-robust standard errors, blocked and clustered randomization inference — implemented for speed rather than generality. The last three releases carry no substantive notes: each is a merge commit for a CRAN patch, one of them accompanied by a typo fix.
◆ Where it's heading
Direction cannot be read from this feed. The release notes are unedited merge-commit messages, so the only signal is cadence — roughly annual, each release framed as a CRAN patch rather than as feature work. That pattern is consistent with a package whose estimators are considered finished and which now moves only when CRAN policy requires it.
◆ Prediction
On the evidence here the next release is another CRAN compliance patch, but the notes are too thin to support a confident read of what the maintainers are actually working on.
HydroPortailStats
0.0INFRA · APIS
France's national flood statistics, ported out of Fortran and into R.
◆ Current state
HydroPortailStats exposes the statistical machinery behind the French HydroPortail — distribution fitting, quantile curves and their uncertainties for hydrological series. The 2025 release re-implements the HBay Fortran executable in R, adding Bayesian estimation from historical flood records with censored and interval-valued data and systematic measurement error, plus a triangular distribution and truncated random generation.
◆ Where it's heading
The package started as a straight extraction of the portal's existing functions and is now absorbing the surrounding legacy toolchain: HBay was a separate compiled program with its own config files, and this release brings both the method and its configuration format inside R. Releases are sparse — three in two years, with an eighteen-month gap before the latest — and the intervening one was CRAN paperwork.
◆ Prediction
The HBay import came with a configuration-file reader for continuity with the old executable, which suggests further legacy hydrological tooling could follow the same path; the entries name no specific next target.
Alternatives to estimatr and HydroPortailStats
Other Infra & APIs 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 estimatr or HydroPortailStats.
ggdist
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
ipaddress
IP address vectors for R that hit 1.0 and then went quiet.
ltertools
A column-key toolkit for stitching decades of ecological field data into one table.
finnts
Microsoft's automated forecasting framework, still mostly a one-maintainer effort.
BayLum
Bayesian luminescence dating that finally replaced its folder-structure input format.
See all estimatr alternatives → · See all HydroPortailStats alternatives →
Recent activity from estimatr and HydroPortailStats
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoestimatrCRAN version 1.0.4
- 1y agoHydroPortailStatsHistorical flood records enter the estimator via an HBay port ⚡
- 2y agoestimatrCRAN version 1.0.2
- 3y agoestimatrCRAN version 1.0.0
- 3y agoHydroPortailStatsCRAN submission renames the return-period arguments
- 3y agoHydroPortailStatsFirst release: the HydroPortail statistical functions in R
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between estimatr and HydroPortailStats?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. estimatr and HydroPortailStats 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 estimatr better than HydroPortailStats?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. estimatr and HydroPortailStats 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to estimatr?
Top estimatr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "estimatr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/estimatr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to HydroPortailStats?
Top HydroPortailStats alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HydroPortailStats alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hydroportailstats for the full list with editorial commentary on each.