qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
EvoPhylo vs gtfstools
A side-by-side editorial comparison of EvoPhylo and gtfstools — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
EvoPhylo vs gtfstools: at a glance
What is EvoPhylo?
EvoPhylo added BEAST2 alongside MrBayes, then went quiet for two years.
EvoPhylo handles post-processing for Bayesian evolutionary rate and fossilized birth-death analyses, originally against MrBayes output. The 0.3.2 release added BEAST2 support for both FBD functions and rates analysis, making it usable by labs on either platform. Since then there has been one clock-partition fix and, in August 2025, a release whose notes say only that there are updated functions and bug fixes.
What is gtfstools?
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
gtfstools reads, edits, filters and validates GTFS public transport feeds in R on a data.table backend. Since 1.3.0 it accepts GTFS objects produced by other packages such as gtfsio and tidytransit, converting them through an as_dt_gtfs() generic. Validation runs MobilityData's canonical validator, now supported through v6.0.0.
EvoPhylo vs gtfstools: editorial side-by-side
EvoPhylo
0.0ANALYTICS
EvoPhylo added BEAST2 alongside MrBayes, then went quiet for two years.
◆ Current state
EvoPhylo handles post-processing for Bayesian evolutionary rate and fossilized birth-death analyses, originally against MrBayes output. The 0.3.2 release added BEAST2 support for both FBD functions and rates analysis, making it usable by labs on either platform. Since then there has been one clock-partition fix and, in August 2025, a release whose notes say only that there are updated functions and bug fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's substantive arc ended with the 0.3.2 publication release, which arrived with peer-review revisions and three first-time contributors — the shape of software built to accompany a paper. What follows is thin: a MrBayes plotting correction in 0.3.3, then a two-year gap and a release with no described contents. The August 2025 entry may contain real work, but the notes give a reader nothing to judge.
◆ Prediction
Without release notes on the latest version there is no observable basis for predicting the next move; the two-year gap before it suggests activity tied to specific research needs rather than a maintenance cadence.
gtfstools
0.0ANALYTICS
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
◆ Current state
gtfstools reads, edits, filters and validates GTFS public transport feeds in R on a data.table backend. Since 1.3.0 it accepts GTFS objects produced by other packages such as gtfsio and tidytransit, converting them through an as_dt_gtfs() generic. Validation runs MobilityData's canonical validator, now supported through v6.0.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package built out a wide function surface first — filters, geometry conversion, speed and duration calculations — then turned outward. Delegating validation to MobilityData's validator and accepting other packages' objects both trade self-sufficiency for a position inside the wider GTFS ecosystem. Deprecations are handled slowly, with old behaviour left as the default for a release or more.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued validator version tracking and further completion of the deprecation cycle around filter_by_stop_id()'s full_trips behaviour.
Alternatives to EvoPhylo and gtfstools
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 EvoPhylo or gtfstools.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
austraits
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
See all EvoPhylo alternatives → · See all gtfstools alternatives →
Recent activity from EvoPhylo and gtfstools
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo v. 0.3.5
- 1y agogtfstoolsSupports canonical GTFS validator v5 and v6
- 1y agogtfstoolsAccepts GTFS objects from gtfsio and tidytransit ⚡
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.3 fixes back-rate plots for MrBayes
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.2 adds BEAST2 support for FBD and rates
- 3y agogtfstoolsValidation delegated to MobilityData's canonical validator
- 4y agogtfstoolsAdds time-of-day, weekday and frequency filtering functions
- 4y agogtfstoolsEstablishes the core GTFS filtering and sf conversion family
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between EvoPhylo and gtfstools?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. EvoPhylo and gtfstools 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 EvoPhylo better than gtfstools?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. EvoPhylo and gtfstools 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 EvoPhylo?
Top EvoPhylo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "EvoPhylo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/evophylo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to gtfstools?
Top gtfstools alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gtfstools alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gtfstools-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.