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ggspatial vs textrecipes

A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggspatial and textrecipes — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

ggspatial vs textrecipes: at a glance

Featureggspatialtextrecipes
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesgeospatial, ggplot2, r-stats, terra-migrationtext-processing, tidymodels, recipes, sparse-data
Last editorial update2h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is ggspatial?

ggspatial finishes its move off raster and onto terra

ggspatial puts spatial data into ggplot2. Its recent history is a single multi-year migration: terra support arrived alongside raster in 1.1.6, and by 1.1.10 terra is the default in the bundled data loaders while raster is described as deprecated. Everything between those two releases is ggplot2 compatibility patching.

Read the full ggspatial trajectory →

What is textrecipes?

Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.

textrecipes supplies the recipes steps for turning text into model-ready columns: tokenizing, hashing, term frequency, TF-IDF, and word embeddings. Version 1.1.0 added a sparse argument to step_dummy_hash(), step_texthash(), step_tf() and step_tfidf() so they emit sparse vectors. The releases before it are a long consistency pass — keep_original_cols on every step that creates columns, informative errors on name collisions, tunable arguments documented, integer rather than double output where integers are what is meant.

Read the full textrecipes trajectory →

ggspatial vs textrecipes: editorial side-by-side

G
ggspatial
ANALYTICS
0.0

ggspatial finishes its move off raster and onto terra

◆ Current state

ggspatial puts spatial data into ggplot2. Its recent history is a single multi-year migration: terra support arrived alongside raster in 1.1.6, and by 1.1.10 terra is the default in the bundled data loaders while raster is described as deprecated. Everything between those two releases is ggplot2 compatibility patching.

◆ Where it's heading

The package tracks the R spatial stack's own generational shift rather than setting direction itself — sf and stars support, then terra, then preparing S3 methods for the next ggplot2. Feature work is rare; the value it delivers is staying current with the layers underneath it.

◆ Prediction

The likely next step is completing the ggplot2 S3 method preparation that 1.1.10 started, with raster support eventually dropped rather than maintained in parallel.

T
textrecipes
ANALYTICS
0.0

Text features finally stay sparse all the way to the model.

◆ Current state

textrecipes supplies the recipes steps for turning text into model-ready columns: tokenizing, hashing, term frequency, TF-IDF, and word embeddings. Version 1.1.0 added a sparse argument to step_dummy_hash(), step_texthash(), step_tf() and step_tfidf() so they emit sparse vectors. The releases before it are a long consistency pass — keep_original_cols on every step that creates columns, informative errors on name collisions, tunable arguments documented, integer rather than double output where integers are what is meant.

◆ Where it's heading

Two forces drive this package. One is memory: text produces wide, mostly-zero matrices, and the sparse work is the direct answer, landing in the same period that workflows learned to fit and predict on dgCMatrix input. The other is upstream churn — the tweets tokenizer was deprecated because tokenizers deprecated it, the politeness feature disappeared when textfeatures left Suggests. The package's own agenda is consistency; its release timing belongs to its dependencies.

◆ Prediction

Expect the sparse argument to spread to the remaining column-producing steps, since only four of them have it, and expect more steps to be reworked as recipes' own sparse-data support matures.

Alternatives to ggspatial and textrecipes

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 ggspatial or textrecipes.

See all ggspatial alternatives → · See all textrecipes alternatives →

Recent activity from ggspatial and textrecipes

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 11mo agoggspatialterra becomes the default raster backend
  2. 1y agotextrecipesHashing and TF-IDF steps can emit sparse vectors
  3. 1y agotextrecipesstep_textfeatures() sped up; clean_levels NA bug fixed
  4. 2y agotextrecipestextfeatures dependency dropped; politeness feature removed
  5. 2y agotextrecipesuntokenize and normalization return factors
  6. 2y agoggspatialExample fixes for the updated raster/terra stack
  7. 2y agotextrecipeskeep_original_cols everywhere; hashing column order fixed
  8. 3y agotextrecipesTunable arguments documented; name collisions now error
  9. 3y agoggspatialannotation_spatial() fix for the latest ggplot2
  10. 3y agoggspatialFix for behaviour deprecated in ggplot2
  11. 3y agoggspatialterra support, categorical rasters and better stars handling
  12. 8y agoggspatialPackage size and CRAN check time reduced

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between ggspatial and textrecipes?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggspatial and textrecipes 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 ggspatial better than textrecipes?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggspatial and textrecipes 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 ggspatial?

Top ggspatial alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggspatial alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggspatial for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to textrecipes?

Top textrecipes alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "textrecipes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/textrecipes for the full list with editorial commentary on each.