osmapiR
osmapiR is the rare API client that tracks its server's wiki revision numbers in the changelog.
Comparison · Analytics
FedData vs nanoparquet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of FedData and nanoparquet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
FedData vs nanoparquet: at a glance
What is FedData?
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
What is nanoparquet?
nanoparquet is chasing byte-level agreement with the Java and Rust Parquet readers, not feature count.
nanoparquet reads and writes Parquet from R with no Arrow dependency, which is its entire reason to exist. The 0.4.0 line renamed the reader API and added schema authoring plus `append_parquet()`, and the 0.5.x releases have gone after interoperability: definition and repetition level encodings the Apache Parquet Java library expects, flatbuffer alignment the Rust arrow-rs reader expects, 128-bit decimals, and Polars-written files that omit the dictionary page offset. The newest release adds `bit64::integer64` columns and writing to stdout.
FedData vs nanoparquet: editorial side-by-side
FedData
0.0ANALYTICS
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
◆ Current state
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks two moving targets at once: the R spatial stack, which it has now fully migrated onto terra and sf, and the federal agencies whose URLs, file naming and hosting keep shifting. With the dependency migration finished, releases have shrunk to single-dataset updates such as annual NLCD and PAD-US 4.0, which suggests the structural work is done and the ongoing cost is data-source maintenance.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases pinned to new vintages of the underlying federal datasets, plus fixes when an agency moves or reformats a source; no further dependency-level upheaval is visible in these entries.
nanoparquet
0.0ANALYTICS
nanoparquet is chasing byte-level agreement with the Java and Rust Parquet readers, not feature count.
◆ Current state
nanoparquet reads and writes Parquet from R with no Arrow dependency, which is its entire reason to exist. The 0.4.0 line renamed the reader API and added schema authoring plus `append_parquet()`, and the 0.5.x releases have gone after interoperability: definition and repetition level encodings the Apache Parquet Java library expects, flatbuffer alignment the Rust arrow-rs reader expects, 128-bit decimals, and Polars-written files that omit the dictionary page offset. The newest release adds `bit64::integer64` columns and writing to stdout.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost every entry since 0.4.0 names another engine — Java, arrow-rs, Polars, Arrow schema metadata — which tells you the maintainers are treating cross-reader fidelity as the product rather than R-side ergonomics. The type system is filling in from the edges: DECIMAL beyond 8 bytes, UUID, FLOAT16 and INTERVAL as raw lists, and now 64-bit integers with an explicit read-type option instead of a silent cast to double. Writing to `:stdout:` points at a second audience, shell pipelines rather than interactive R.
◆ Prediction
The remaining unmapped Parquet types the changelog has been parking in raw-vector lists — FLOAT16 and INTERVAL — are the obvious next targets, following the same pattern by which DECIMAL and UUID graduated to real R types.
Alternatives to FedData and nanoparquet
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 FedData or nanoparquet.
ymlthis
ymlthis retired itself, naming Quarto as the reason it no longer needs to exist.
forestly
forestly built an interactive safety review tool, then taught it to produce submission-ready RTF.
pharmaverseadam
pharmaverseadam is the pharmaverse's test-data mirror, and it now covers neurology.
pkglite
pkglite's whole job is knowing which files in an R package are text — and it keeps getting better at guessing.
gMCPLite
gMCPLite exists to be gMCP without Java, and its releases guard that boundary rather than extend it.
See all FedData alternatives → · See all nanoparquet alternatives →
Recent activity from FedData and nanoparquet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agonanoparquet64-bit integer columns and writing Parquet to stdout
- 4mo agonanoparquetFiles now readable by the Java and Rust Parquet libraries
- 1y agoFedDataget_padus() updated to PAD-US 4.0
- 1y agonanoparquetReads Polars files that omit the dictionary page offset
- 1y agonanoparquetDate, FLOAT, and mixed-encoding read fixes
- 1y agonanoparquetSchema authoring and append_parquet arrive with a renamed API ⚡
- 1y agoFedDataAnnual NLCD access added; get_nass() retired
- 1y agonanoparquetFixes a write_parquet crash
- 2y agoFedDatasp and raster dropped; everything returns terra or sf ⚡
- 3y agoFedDataGHCN moves to https; NHD handles empty and odd geometries
- 3y agoFedDataAll raster writing moves to terra
- 3y agoFedDataVersion 3 rebuilds on sf and cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FedData and nanoparquet?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. FedData and nanoparquet 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 FedData better than nanoparquet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. FedData and nanoparquet 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 FedData?
Top FedData alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FedData alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/feddata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to nanoparquet?
Top nanoparquet alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nanoparquet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nanoparquet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.