TidyDensity
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Comparison · Analytics
firatheme vs healthyR.ts
A side-by-side editorial comparison of firatheme and healthyR.ts — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r package
firatheme vs healthyR.ts: at a glance
What is firatheme?
firatheme woke up after four years and started fixing what ggplot2 changed underneath it.
A ggplot2 theme built around the Fira font family. It went quiet after the 2021 releases that made it pass R CMD check cleanly on all three platforms, then returned in December 2025 with a maintenance release solving a ggplot2 deprecation warning and cleaning up text alignment, followed six weeks later by a facet argument to theme_fira() that adds borders and a custom strip background so facet labels stay legible.
What is healthyR.ts?
healthyR.ts keeps adding time-series helpers, then quietly breaks the old ones to modernise them.
A time-series companion in the healthyverse family, shipping helper functions in batches: growth-rate vectors, an ADF test and auto_stationarize() in 0.2.11, then five log and differencing transforms in 0.3.0, and a random-walk plot in 0.3.2. Alongside the additions runs a steady stream of breaking cleanups — invisible returns dropped, R 4.1 required for the native pipe, and ts_ma_plot() refactored onto ggplot2 facets with its xts output removed and its return value cut from six items to two.
firatheme vs healthyR.ts: editorial side-by-side
firatheme
0.0ANALYTICS
firatheme woke up after four years and started fixing what ggplot2 changed underneath it.
◆ Current state
A ggplot2 theme built around the Fira font family. It went quiet after the 2021 releases that made it pass R CMD check cleanly on all three platforms, then returned in December 2025 with a maintenance release solving a ggplot2 deprecation warning and cleaning up text alignment, followed six weeks later by a facet argument to theme_fira() that adds borders and a custom strip background so facet labels stay legible.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern of the revival is compatibility first, then the gap users actually hit. Faceting is the obvious hole in any hand-built theme — strip labels are where a theme that looks right on a single panel falls apart — and it arrived immediately after the deprecation cleanup, from a new contributor who has now made every recent change. Note the 0.2.4 release notes restate 0.2.3's contents rather than describing new work.
◆ Prediction
With faceting handled, further releases most likely track ggplot2 deprecations; the entries don't support a stronger claim than that.
healthyR.ts
0.0ANALYTICS
healthyR.ts keeps adding time-series helpers, then quietly breaks the old ones to modernise them.
◆ Current state
A time-series companion in the healthyverse family, shipping helper functions in batches: growth-rate vectors, an ADF test and auto_stationarize() in 0.2.11, then five log and differencing transforms in 0.3.0, and a random-walk plot in 0.3.2. Alongside the additions runs a steady stream of breaking cleanups — invisible returns dropped, R 4.1 required for the native pipe, and ts_ma_plot() refactored onto ggplot2 facets with its xts output removed and its return value cut from six items to two.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads, both consistent. The functional one is coverage of the stationarity workflow — transform, test, auto-stationarize, plot — assembled function by function rather than as a single API. The structural one is convergence on ggplot2 and tidy conventions, retiring xts objects and multi-object return lists as it goes. The package is not afraid to break return shapes to get there, so upgrades are not drop-in.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining functions that still return xts objects or bundled lists to get the same ggplot2-only treatment, since ts_ma_plot() was refactored on exactly that rationale.
Alternatives to firatheme and healthyR.ts
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 firatheme or healthyR.ts.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
sdsfun
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
See all firatheme alternatives → · See all healthyR.ts alternatives →
Recent activity from firatheme and healthyR.ts
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agohealthyR.tsRandom walk plot added; ts_ma_plot drops xts for ggplot2 facets
- 7mo agofirathemeFaceting support with borders and custom strips
- 8mo agofirathemeText alignment cleanup and ggplot2 deprecation fix
- 1y agohealthyR.tsInvisible returns dropped; random walk and vva plot fixes
- 2y agohealthyR.tsFive log and differencing transform utilities added
- 2y agohealthyR.tsStationarity testing and auto_stationarize added
- 2y agohealthyR.tsSingle example fix
- 3y agohealthyR.tsBoilerplate fitting uses show_best directly
- 5y agofirathemeClean builds across all three platforms
- 5y agofirathemetheme_fira no longer returns a list
- 6y agofirathemeInitial citable release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between firatheme and healthyR.ts?
Both compete on the same themes — r package — within Analytics. firatheme and healthyR.ts 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 firatheme better than healthyR.ts?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. firatheme and healthyR.ts 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 firatheme?
Top firatheme alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "firatheme alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/firatheme for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to healthyR.ts?
Top healthyR.ts alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "healthyR.ts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/healthyr-ts for the full list with editorial commentary on each.