pins
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
Comparison · Analytics
Fulcrum vs sparklyr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Fulcrum and sparklyr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Fulcrum vs sparklyr: at a glance
| Feature | Fulcrum | sparklyr |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Analytics | Analytics |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 0.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | field-data-collection, esri-arcgis, offline-maps, on-device-inference | spark, databricks, dbplyr-compatibility, maintenance |
| Last editorial update | 15h ago | 48m ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Fulcrum?
Fulcrum's mobile train is all Esri migration cleanup, with on-device inference quietly changing format.
Fulcrum ships iOS, Android, and web releases on a near-weekly cadence, and this stretch is dominated by mapping work following the Google Maps retirement announced for September. Recent builds upgraded to ArcGIS SDK 300.0.0, moved the web map engine to current ArcGIS and deck.gl versions, and worked through the resulting stability issues — basemap loading, location resolution, black map screens, panning and zooming performance. The most consequential change is easy to miss: ONNX support for on-device machine learning inference was removed in favor of a new INFERENCE format that reads labels from an uploaded labels.txt.
What is sparklyr?
sparklyr now spends its releases absorbing dbplyr changes and feeding pysparklyr
sparklyr connects R to Spark, and almost nothing in this window originates inside the package. Releases restore compatibility after dbplyr changes its SQL generation, adapt to Spark 4.0 and to R 4.4's version-comparison changes, and convert functions into S3 methods so pysparklyr can supply its own implementations.
Fulcrum vs sparklyr: editorial side-by-side
Fulcrum
6.3ANALYTICS
Fulcrum's mobile train is all Esri migration cleanup, with on-device inference quietly changing format.
◆ Current state
Fulcrum ships iOS, Android, and web releases on a near-weekly cadence, and this stretch is dominated by mapping work following the Google Maps retirement announced for September. Recent builds upgraded to ArcGIS SDK 300.0.0, moved the web map engine to current ArcGIS and deck.gl versions, and worked through the resulting stability issues — basemap loading, location resolution, black map screens, panning and zooming performance. The most consequential change is easy to miss: ONNX support for on-device machine learning inference was removed in favor of a new INFERENCE format that reads labels from an uploaded labels.txt.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a platform consolidation being paid down one point release at a time. Having committed to Esri, Fulcrum is absorbing the instability that came with it, and each release reads as fixes to symptoms of the same migration. Underneath, the offline and field-capture story continues to get real attention — downloaded offline map layers can now be updated in place, and Photo FastFill moved to background processing so it no longer blocks editing.
◆ Prediction
Expect the release notes to stay fix-dominated through the September Google Maps cutoff, with the migration-related map defects tapering after it passes. Photo FastFill leaving early access is the most likely next substantive item.
sparklyr
0.0ANALYTICS
sparklyr now spends its releases absorbing dbplyr changes and feeding pysparklyr
◆ Current state
sparklyr connects R to Spark, and almost nothing in this window originates inside the package. Releases restore compatibility after dbplyr changes its SQL generation, adapt to Spark 4.0 and to R 4.4's version-comparison changes, and convert functions into S3 methods so pysparklyr can supply its own implementations.
◆ Where it's heading
Two dependencies set the agenda. dbplyr repeatedly changes identifier quoting and lazy-table internals, and each change costs sparklyr a release. Meanwhile the package is being hollowed into a backend: ml_fit(), spark_apply(), spark_write_delta() and now tune_grid_spark() exist as methods so that pysparklyr, the Databricks Connect path, can override them. Dependency removal - tibble, rappdirs, digest - runs alongside as the package slims down.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to continue tracking dbplyr and Spark versions, and more functions to be converted to methods as functionality shifts toward pysparklyr; new capability arriving in sparklyr itself looks unlikely.
Alternatives to Fulcrum and sparklyr
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 Fulcrum or sparklyr.
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
ggpubr
ggpubr reached 1.0.0 with p-value formatting presets for specific journals
See all Fulcrum alternatives → · See all sparklyr alternatives →
Recent activity from Fulcrum and sparklyr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 23h agoFulcrumAndroid: update offline map layers in place, non-blocking Photo FastFill
- 1d agoFulcrumiOS fix: slow location resolution blocked record saves
- 6d agoFulcrumWeb: SSO email wording and ArcGIS/deck.gl version bumps
- 7d agoFulcrumAndroid fixes: ArcGIS stability, signature button, photo markup
- 7d agoFulcrumiOS fixes: basemap loading and black map screen
- 8d agoFulcrumiOS: ArcGIS SDK 300.0.0 and ONNX replaced by a new INFERENCE format
- 1mo agosparklyrRestores compatibility after dbplyr changed Hive quoting
- 3mo agosparklyrAdds tune_grid_spark() for pysparklyr to implement
- 10mo agosparklyrFixes lazy-table field lookup and a name collision
- 1y agosparklyrCatches up with released Spark 4.0; ml_load() reads via Spark
- 2y agosparklyrDatabricks autoloader streaming ingestion; R 4.4 fixes
- 2y agosparklyrDrops tibble and rappdirs; retires Spark 2.3 JARs
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Fulcrum and sparklyr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Fulcrum is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 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 Fulcrum better than sparklyr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Fulcrum is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 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 Fulcrum?
Top Fulcrum alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Fulcrum alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fulcrum for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to sparklyr?
Top sparklyr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sparklyr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sparklyr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.