tibblify
tibblify learned to derive its own specs from OpenAPI, removing the step users disliked most
Comparison · Analytics
forrel vs reproducible
A side-by-side editorial comparison of forrel and reproducible — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
forrel vs reproducible: at a glance
What is forrel?
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
forrel handles forensic pedigree analysis: kinship likelihood ratios, profile simulation, relationship checking, and missing person calculations. Version 1.9.0 synced with pedtools 2.11.0's loop handling, which the release notes credit with enabling complex pedigrees that were previously intractable, and moved profileSim() to mirai for parallelism. It also added fEstimate() for inbreeding coefficients and parentChildLikelihood() as a fast path for the simplest case.
What is reproducible?
reproducible added a windowed read path so remote GeoTiffs never fully download
reproducible provides caching and input-preparation tooling for R workflows, with prepInputs() as the central entry point for fetching, cropping and post-processing spatial data. Only two releases are on record here, both from May 2026 and two days apart: a feature release followed immediately by a CRAN-triggered patch.
forrel vs reproducible: editorial side-by-side
forrel
0.0ANALYTICS
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
◆ Current state
forrel handles forensic pedigree analysis: kinship likelihood ratios, profile simulation, relationship checking, and missing person calculations. Version 1.9.0 synced with pedtools 2.11.0's loop handling, which the release notes credit with enabling complex pedigrees that were previously intractable, and moved profileSim() to mirai for parallelism. It also added fEstimate() for inbreeding coefficients and parentChildLikelihood() as a fast path for the simplest case.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long threads run through the window. One is making the common operations cheap: faster simulations through reorganized likelihood calculations, a dedicated parent-child path, dropped map attribute preservation, log-likelihoods to avoid underflow in kinshipLR(). The other is making relationship checking presentable, with checkPairwise() growing ggplot2 and plotly output, verbal relationship descriptions, and bootstrap p-values. Reference data is maintained alongside both, with the FORCE SNP panel completed and an X-chromosomal counterpart added.
◆ Prediction
With profileSim() on mirai and the loop handling synced, the next likely step is extending mirai parallelism to the other simulation-heavy functions such as exclusionPower() and the bootstrap in checkPairwise().
reproducible
0.0ANALYTICS
reproducible added a windowed read path so remote GeoTiffs never fully download
◆ Current state
reproducible provides caching and input-preparation tooling for R workflows, with prepInputs() as the central entry point for fetching, cropping and post-processing spatial data. Only two releases are on record here, both from May 2026 and two days apart: a feature release followed immediately by a CRAN-triggered patch.
◆ Where it's heading
3.1.0 adds prepInputsCOG, a fast path inside prepInputs for remote tiled GeoTiffs including Cloud Optimized GeoTiffs. When the URL is HTTP(S) and any of to, cropTo or maskTo is supplied, only the spatial window of interest is fetched through GDAL's /vsicurl/, and the resulting windowed SpatRaster continues through the normal post-processing pipeline. The same release renames the inputPaths options to the destinationPathShared family with backwards-compatible aliases and a deprecation message, and lets alsoExtract accept regex patterns.
◆ Prediction
The COG path being opt-out via options(reproducible.useCOG = FALSE) suggests confidence in it as a default, so wider application across the prepInputs family is the plausible next step. Two entries is a thin base for predicting cadence.
Alternatives to forrel and reproducible
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 forrel or reproducible.
spsurvey
spsurvey has spent four years consolidating after its 5.0.0 rewrite rather than adding to it
StreamCatTools
StreamCatTools is quietly moving off web services and onto cloud-native GeoParquet
qcTAF
qcTAF is building an automated checklist for reproducible fisheries assessments, one criterion at a time
rpymat
After three dormant years, rpymat returned to fix the OpenMP crash that breaks R and conda together
ieegio
ieegio's first release lands electrode trajectory burning and a WebGL-free surface plot
See all forrel alternatives → · See all reproducible alternatives →
Recent activity from forrel and reproducible
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoforrelmirai parallelism and faster profile simulation
- 3mo agoreproducibleInode comparison fix for large-inode file systems
- 3mo agoreproducibleprepInputsCOG fetches only the spatial window from remote GeoTiffs
- 1y agoforrelFORCE SNP panel completed and X-chromosomal set added
- 1y agoforrelrankProfiles() and access to special lumping
- 1y agoforrelacrossComps argument and readFam() unexported
- 1y agoforrelcheckPairwise() overhauled with p-values and new plot backends
- 2y agoforrelFamilias interoperability split into pedFamilias
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between forrel and reproducible?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. forrel and reproducible 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 forrel better than reproducible?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. forrel and reproducible 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 forrel?
Top forrel alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "forrel alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/forrel for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to reproducible?
Top reproducible alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "reproducible alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/reproducible for the full list with editorial commentary on each.