pins
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
Comparison · Analytics
flexdashboard vs ggpubr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of flexdashboard and ggpubr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
flexdashboard vs ggpubr: at a glance
What is flexdashboard?
flexdashboard has slowed to a fix-only trickle since the bslib theming rework
flexdashboard turns R Markdown into dashboard layouts, and its last structural release was 0.6.0's integration with bslib, which handed theming to shared tidyverse infrastructure and opened the Bootstrap 4 path. Everything after that is Bootstrap 5 compatibility, navigation polish, and rendering fixes — with a two-and-a-half-year gap between 0.6.2 and 0.6.3.
What is ggpubr?
ggpubr reached 1.0.0 with p-value formatting presets for specific journals
ggpubr adds publication-ready statistics and annotation to ggplot2. Two releases define its capability: 0.5.0 introduced the stat_*_test family and geom_pwc() for pairwise comparison brackets, and 1.0.0 added p-value formatting presets matching named journal house styles. In between, most releases are ggplot2 and dplyr deprecation chasing.
flexdashboard vs ggpubr: editorial side-by-side
flexdashboard
0.0ANALYTICS
flexdashboard has slowed to a fix-only trickle since the bslib theming rework
◆ Current state
flexdashboard turns R Markdown into dashboard layouts, and its last structural release was 0.6.0's integration with bslib, which handed theming to shared tidyverse infrastructure and opened the Bootstrap 4 path. Everything after that is Bootstrap 5 compatibility, navigation polish, and rendering fixes — with a two-and-a-half-year gap between 0.6.2 and 0.6.3.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has reached the stage where its releases exist to keep it working against newer Bootstrap, knitr and Quarto behavior rather than to add anything. Theming was outsourced to bslib, icons to Font Awesome, and the remaining surface is the layout syntax itself, which has not changed. The long release gaps are the clearest signal here.
◆ Prediction
The entries do not support a confident prediction of new capability; the realistic read is continued Bootstrap 5 compatibility fixes as bslib moves, at whatever cadence maintenance allows.
ggpubr
0.0ANALYTICS
ggpubr reached 1.0.0 with p-value formatting presets for specific journals
◆ Current state
ggpubr adds publication-ready statistics and annotation to ggplot2. Two releases define its capability: 0.5.0 introduced the stat_*_test family and geom_pwc() for pairwise comparison brackets, and 1.0.0 added p-value formatting presets matching named journal house styles. In between, most releases are ggplot2 and dplyr deprecation chasing.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from drawing statistics to matching the conventions of where they get published - style presets are a different kind of feature from a new test. That sits on a persistent maintenance load: after_stat migrations, linewidth parameters, R-devel changing how the Wilcoxon test handles ties. ggpubr absorbs upstream deprecations so that figure code written years ago keeps rendering.
◆ Prediction
Expect the preset list to grow as users request their own journals' conventions, and the deprecation-chasing to continue with each ggplot2 release; the statistical test coverage looks complete enough that additions there would be surprising.
Alternatives to flexdashboard and ggpubr
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 flexdashboard or ggpubr.
tsibble
tsibble shipped one release in five and a half years - the data structure is finished
yardstick
yardstick made fairness metrics a first-class part of tidymodels evaluation
tune
tune extends tuning past the model itself to postprocessors, and adds a second parallel backend
leaflet
leaflet relicensed to MIT and finished migrating off R's retired spatial stack
bigrquery
bigrquery went MIT, then handed its slowest path to the BigQuery Storage API
See all flexdashboard alternatives → · See all ggpubr alternatives →
Recent activity from flexdashboard and ggpubr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoggpubrJournal-specific p-value formatting presets in 1.0.0 ⚡
- 5mo agoggpubrRaises R and dplyr minimums, migrates off deprecated syntax
- 6mo agoflexdashboardBootstrap 5 box margins and theme.preset fixes
- 9mo agoggpubrPins Wilcoxon p-values against an R-devel change
- 1y agoggpubrFixes after_stat() namespace failures in reverse dependencies
- 3y agoflexdashboardNavigation dropdown icons and Bootstrap 5 page handling
- 3y agoggpubrggadjust_pvalue() and reproducible jitter seeds
- 3y agoflexdashboardLogo position regression from 0.6.0 fixed
- 3y agoggpubrgeom_pwc() and the stat_*_test family arrive ⚡
- 3y agoflexdashboardbslib integration takes over dashboard theming
- 5y agoflexdashboardFont Awesome icon sets supported
- 5y agoflexdashboardPandoc 2.0 compatibility fix
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between flexdashboard and ggpubr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. flexdashboard and ggpubr 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 flexdashboard better than ggpubr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. flexdashboard and ggpubr 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 flexdashboard?
Top flexdashboard alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "flexdashboard alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/flexdashboard for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggpubr?
Top ggpubr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggpubr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggpubr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.