nflreadr
The nflverse data loader, whose releases are dictated by the NFL calendar and CRAN's archive policy
Comparison · Analytics
fastglm vs moderndive
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fastglm and moderndive — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
fastglm vs moderndive: at a glance
What is fastglm?
A fast GLM solver stops being one function and becomes a count-model family
fastglm ran C++ IRLS for standard generalized linear models for six years with almost no releases. In May 2026 it added three top-level model types — negative binomial with jointly estimated dispersion, hurdle, and zero-inflated — each with the entire fitting driver in C++ rather than an R loop around a C++ kernel. The following release generalised Firth bias reduction to every standard family across dense, sparse and streaming backends.
What is moderndive?
The ModernDive teaching package learns to render inside the browser that runs its own textbook
moderndive supplies the datasets, regression helpers and ggplot geoms used by the ModernDive introductory statistics textbook. Its release history is mostly dataset accumulation — much of it contributed by students in batches — punctuated by occasional function work. The latest release is different: it fixes View() so it renders inside webR, the in-browser R that powers the book's live exercises, and reworks the regression helpers to survive in-formula transformations.
fastglm vs moderndive: editorial side-by-side
fastglm
0.0ANALYTICS
A fast GLM solver stops being one function and becomes a count-model family
◆ Current state
fastglm ran C++ IRLS for standard generalized linear models for six years with almost no releases. In May 2026 it added three top-level model types — negative binomial with jointly estimated dispersion, hurdle, and zero-inflated — each with the entire fitting driver in C++ rather than an R loop around a C++ kernel. The following release generalised Firth bias reduction to every standard family across dense, sparse and streaming backends.
◆ Where it's heading
The package changed what it is. Through 0.0.3 it was a drop-in replacement for glm() competing on speed; from 0.1.0 it targets the models people leave base R for — MASS::glm.nb, pscl::hurdle, pscl::zeroinfl — and reimplements their full estimation loops natively. The 0.1.1 follow-up is consolidation on that new surface: Firth generalised past binomial logit, SQUAREM acceleration on the zero-inflation EM driver, and a run of clamping guards and initialization fixes on the families most prone to overflow.
◆ Prediction
The numerical-stability work in 0.1.1 clusters on Tweedie and the inverse and sqrt link families, which suggests those paths are the newest and least exercised — expect further correctness fixes there before new model types.
moderndive
2.5ANALYTICS
The ModernDive teaching package learns to render inside the browser that runs its own textbook
◆ Current state
moderndive supplies the datasets, regression helpers and ggplot geoms used by the ModernDive introductory statistics textbook. Its release history is mostly dataset accumulation — much of it contributed by students in batches — punctuated by occasional function work. The latest release is different: it fixes View() so it renders inside webR, the in-browser R that powers the book's live exercises, and reworks the regression helpers to survive in-formula transformations.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is following the textbook's second edition into the browser. webR has no pandoc, so the DT htmlwidget path the package relied on cannot produce the self-contained HTML the notebook cell needs, and the auto-print path was gated behind interactive() being false — meaning students working through the live exercises saw an explanatory message where a table should have been. Building a static HTML table and pushing it through webR's viewer hook is a small change with a direct effect on whether the book's interactive mode works at all.
◆ Prediction
With the book's v2 datasets landed and the browser rendering path fixed, the remaining friction is most likely in other functions that assume a desktop R session.
Alternatives to fastglm and moderndive
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 fastglm or moderndive.
susier
Fine-mapping workhorse susieR spends its releases hunting null-effect trimming bugs
UCell
A rank-based gene signature scorer that has grown by adapting to whatever object format single-cell R uses next
detectseparation
A diagnostic package that generalized past its own name, then learned to say which kind of separation it found
brglm2
A bias-reduction package reaches 1.0 by adding an estimator built for high-dimensional logistic regression
bayestools
The JAGS toolkit under RoBMA, shipping the standardization machinery its downstream rewrite needed
See all fastglm alternatives → · See all moderndive alternatives →
Recent activity from fastglm and moderndive
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 12d agomoderndiveView() renders in webR; regression helpers survive formula transforms
- 2mo agofastglmFirth generalised to all families, plus SQUAREM and stability fixes
- 3mo agofastglmCRAN release 0.1.0 ⚡
- 1y agomoderndiveDatasets and tidy_summary() for the second edition
- 2y agomoderndiveAlmond and flight datasets for the inference chapters
- 4y agofastglmC++ headers exposed for linking
- 4y agomoderndiveTen student-curated teaching datasets
- 4y agomoderndiveAlaska flights subset added
- 5y agomoderndiveCleaner regression tables and an explicit conf.level argument
- 7y agofastglmFirst CRAN release of the C++ IRLS solver
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between fastglm and moderndive?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. moderndive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 fastglm better than moderndive?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. moderndive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 fastglm?
Top fastglm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fastglm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fastglm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to moderndive?
Top moderndive alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "moderndive alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/moderndive for the full list with editorial commentary on each.