pr2database
The protist reference database keeps widening past the rRNA gene it was built on.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
ggalign vs sits
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggalign and sits — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggalign vs sits: at a glance
What is ggalign?
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
ggalign composes multiple ggplots against a shared observation ordering, covering heatmap annotation, oncoplots, phylogenies and circular layouts. Releases have come roughly monthly through 2025, first completing the layout system, then migrating the internals to S7 and absorbing the ggplot2 4.0 changes. The alignment machinery is now exported for other packages to build on.
What is sits?
An R package for satellite time series just grew a Python API.
sits classifies satellite image time series — building data cubes from cloud archives, training deep learning models on them, and producing land-cover maps. The releases here are dense feature lists in a steady 1.5.x line, and two themes recur in every one: more source collections wired in, and more of the classification pipeline made parallel or chunked. Version 1.5.3 added pysits, a Python API onto the same engine.
ggalign vs sits: editorial side-by-side
ggalign
0.0INFRA · APIS
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
◆ Current state
ggalign composes multiple ggplots against a shared observation ordering, covering heatmap annotation, oncoplots, phylogenies and circular layouts. Releases have come roughly monthly through 2025, first completing the layout system, then migrating the internals to S7 and absorbing the ggplot2 4.0 changes. The alignment machinery is now exported for other packages to build on.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel. One widens what can be aligned, with sector facets, ideograms, image point shapes and observation linking. The other keeps rebuilding the foundation, with the S7 migration, repeated renames toward consistent naming, and the deliberate handing of element_polygon() and element_curve() upstream to ggplot2. The renaming is aggressive enough that each recent release soft-deprecates something.
◆ Prediction
With the internals on S7 and the Patch object exported, the next step is most likely stabilising those names rather than another refactor.
sits
0.0INFRA · APIS
An R package for satellite time series just grew a Python API.
◆ Current state
sits classifies satellite image time series — building data cubes from cloud archives, training deep learning models on them, and producing land-cover maps. The releases here are dense feature lists in a steady 1.5.x line, and two themes recur in every one: more source collections wired in, and more of the classification pipeline made parallel or chunked. Version 1.5.3 added pysits, a Python API onto the same engine.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is positioning itself as the interface layer to Earth observation archives rather than as an algorithm library. Each release absorbs another provider — Planetary Computer, Digital Earth Africa and Australia, CDSE, TERRASCOPE, Open Geo Hub, PLANET — so the differentiator is coverage and the uniform cube abstraction over it. The Python API extends the same logic to the language most of that community actually works in. Alongside, the work is increasingly about scale: chunk parallelisation, multicores sampling, GPU classification, WebGL rendering.
◆ Prediction
With collections still being added release over release, expect more providers and continued performance work on the classification and regularisation paths. The open question the entries do not answer is how far pysits tracks the R API, since it appears once and is not mentioned again in later releases.
Alternatives to ggalign and sits
Other Infra & APIs 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 ggalign or sits.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
trackeR
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
See all ggalign alternatives → · See all sits alternatives →
Recent activity from ggalign and sits
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agositsSNIC segmentation, imputation helpers and QGIS palette export
- 8mo agositsOne-line hotfix for a CRAN compiler requirement
- 10mo agoggalignalignpatch internals moved to S7; Patch object exported
- 11mo agoggalignInternals migrated to S7; ideogram, tags and image shapes
- 11mo agositsHotfix: TAE embeddings, MPC token handling, texture divide-by-zero
- 11mo agositsA Python API arrives, alongside SAR texture measures ⚡
- 1y agoggalignz aesthetic scales and guide collection in borders
- 1y agoggalignchannelGrob() draws across facets; ggplot2 3.5.2 fix
- 1y agoggalignLayout system declared complete; polar facets and coord_circle()
- 1y agositsExclusion masks, multiple tiling systems and faster segment classification
- 1y agoggalignLayouts split into discrete and continuous; linking system added ⚡
- 1y agositsFour more archives wired in, including Digital Earth Africa
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggalign and sits?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggalign and sits 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 ggalign better than sits?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggalign and sits 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to ggalign?
Top ggalign alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggalign alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggalign for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to sits?
Top sits alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sits alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sits for the full list with editorial commentary on each.