Basedash
Basedash keeps pushing its data out of the workspace — now to people without accounts
Comparison · Analytics
EvoPhylo vs Holistics
A side-by-side editorial comparison of EvoPhylo and Holistics — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
EvoPhylo vs Holistics: 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 Holistics?
Holistics keeps fencing in the AI layer it spent the summer building.
Holistics ships small, frequent notes - often one or two sentences - across three strands: AI features in Explore and Chat, as-code control of presentation through AML, and workspace hygiene like file history and dark mode. The August entries are entirely about the AI layer's edges rather than its capabilities: an AI user attribute for restricting what the assistant can reach, and now redaction of the data it is allowed to see. Bodies are frequently a single line, so scope has to be read from the headline and the release-note URL.
EvoPhylo vs Holistics: 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.
Holistics
5.0ANALYTICS
Holistics keeps fencing in the AI layer it spent the summer building.
◆ Current state
Holistics ships small, frequent notes - often one or two sentences - across three strands: AI features in Explore and Chat, as-code control of presentation through AML, and workspace hygiene like file history and dark mode. The August entries are entirely about the AI layer's edges rather than its capabilities: an AI user attribute for restricting what the assistant can reach, and now redaction of the data it is allowed to see. Bodies are frequently a single line, so scope has to be read from the headline and the release-note URL.
◆ Where it's heading
The AI work has moved through a recognizable sequence: capability first with chart suggestions, then observability with AI Chat Insights for admins, then access control with an AI-specific user attribute, and now field-level redaction. Access control decides which rows the assistant can reach; redaction decides what it may see inside them - the same governance thread at finer grain. Alongside it, Holistics keeps pulling presentation into AML - custom charts, theme palettes, currency formats - so what analysts used to click is versioned as code.
◆ Prediction
With reach and visibility both now constrained, the remaining gap is accountability - logging what the assistant answered against which data - though the one-line release notes rarely signal scope far enough ahead to read the next step confidently.
Alternatives to EvoPhylo and Holistics
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 Holistics.
RStudio
RStudio ships through release branches, and the notes are commit messages
dbt Core
dbt Fusion's second beta is adapter work: ClickHouse gets materializations, indexes, and catalogs
Fulcrum
Fulcrum is betting its whole map stack on Esri, with a hard Google Maps cutoff on September 1.
Dovetail
Dovetail spent July opening doors to other tools and August making its own rooms easier to enter.
tulpa
The 0.0.x train stops at CRAN: tulpa's engine ships to the ecosystem it already anchors.
See all EvoPhylo alternatives → · See all Holistics alternatives →
Recent activity from EvoPhylo and Holistics
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoHolisticsAI user attribute restricts AI access to sensitive data
- 3d agoHolisticsRedact data exposed to the AI assistant
- 17d agoHolisticsCustom currency and unit formats, per field
- 20d agoHolisticsFile history: per-file version timeline and restore
- 23d agoHolisticsCustom charts become AML code with GUI authoring
- 24d agoHolisticsColor palettes can be assigned at the theme level
- 11mo agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo v. 0.3.5
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.3 fixes back-rate plots for MrBayes
- 3y agoEvoPhyloEvoPhylo 0.3.2 adds BEAST2 support for FBD and rates
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between EvoPhylo and Holistics?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Holistics is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 EvoPhylo better than Holistics?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Holistics is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 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 Holistics?
Top Holistics alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Holistics alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/holistics for the full list with editorial commentary on each.