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Comparison · Analytics
ggsurvfit vs waywiser
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggsurvfit and waywiser — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggsurvfit vs waywiser: at a glance
What is ggsurvfit?
ggsurvfit is in correctness-and-compatibility mode, not feature mode.
The package draws survival and cumulative-incidence curves on a ggplot2 grammar, with risk tables, p-values and quantile annotations. Recent releases are entirely fixes and upstream tracking: ggplot2 v4.0.0 compatibility in 2025, and a 2026 patch correcting a Gray-test p-value that could be reported for the wrong competing event.
What is waywiser?
Spatial model assessment that spent the last year on cross-platform arithmetic and CRAN rules.
waywiser provides spatial model assessment metrics in a tidymodels idiom — spatial autocorrelation measures, area of applicability, and multi-scale assessment of predictions. The substantive work landed in 0.3.0 through 0.5.0, and the recent releases are consolidation: 0.6.0 made metric functions return NA everywhere they previously returned NaN, because macOS disagreed with every other platform, and taught ww_multi_scale() to handle classification and class probability metrics correctly when given rasters. The three releases since are entirely CRAN policy compliance — no internet downloads during checks, no writing to directories, no syntax that would raise the R version floor.
ggsurvfit vs waywiser: editorial side-by-side
ggsurvfit
2.5ANALYTICS
ggsurvfit is in correctness-and-compatibility mode, not feature mode.
◆ Current state
The package draws survival and cumulative-incidence curves on a ggplot2 grammar, with risk tables, p-values and quantile annotations. Recent releases are entirely fixes and upstream tracking: ggplot2 v4.0.0 compatibility in 2025, and a 2026 patch correcting a Gray-test p-value that could be reported for the wrong competing event.
◆ Where it's heading
The feature surface settled around 1.0.0, when risk-table alignment was exported and colour and linetype defaults became configurable. Since then the work is keeping pace with survival, ggplot2 and tidycmprsk changes, and closing cases where the plotted curve and the annotation disagreed — the p-value matched by position rather than name, confidence limits swapped for multi-state models, quantiles read off a plateau.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to track upstream survival or ggplot2 changes rather than add plotting features; the CDISC censoring convention adopted in Surv_CNSR() suggests further alignment with clinical data standards is the likelier direction.
waywiser
0.0ANALYTICS
Spatial model assessment that spent the last year on cross-platform arithmetic and CRAN rules.
◆ Current state
waywiser provides spatial model assessment metrics in a tidymodels idiom — spatial autocorrelation measures, area of applicability, and multi-scale assessment of predictions. The substantive work landed in 0.3.0 through 0.5.0, and the recent releases are consolidation: 0.6.0 made metric functions return NA everywhere they previously returned NaN, because macOS disagreed with every other platform, and taught ww_multi_scale() to handle classification and class probability metrics correctly when given rasters. The three releases since are entirely CRAN policy compliance — no internet downloads during checks, no writing to directories, no syntax that would raise the R version floor.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has reached the point where the interesting bugs are cross-platform and cross-package rather than statistical. Its main function, ww_multi_scale(), has been the focus of nearly every release since 0.4.0, working through units handling, aggregation ordering, raster inputs and metric-type dispatch. The dependency on vip and the tidymodels metric machinery means a share of releases exist only to track breaking changes elsewhere.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next substantive release to continue on ww_multi_scale() edge cases, given that it has absorbed most of the fixes in this window. The recent run of CRAN-compliance patches suggests no feature work is currently in flight.
Alternatives to ggsurvfit and waywiser
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 ggsurvfit or waywiser.
maplegend
The legend engine mapsf spun out, now covering legend types the parent map package can draw.
lang
R help pages translated on demand by whichever LLM you point it at.
mapsf
Thematic mapping in base R that finally got a theming system, then spent two years polishing legends.
qualtRics
qualtRics moved its contact functions onto XM Directory days before the old endpoints died.
fabletools
The tidyverts forecasting core rebuilt model combination on full residual covariance.
See all ggsurvfit alternatives → · See all waywiser alternatives →
Recent activity from ggsurvfit and waywiser
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 20d agoggsurvfitGray-test p-values matched to the plotted outcome by name
- 10mo agoggsurvfitggplot2 v4.0.0 compatibility and multi-state CI label fix
- 1y agowaywiserStops downloading data during CRAN checks
- 1y agowaywiserVignettes no longer write to CRAN directories
- 1y agowaywiserKeeps the R version floor below 4.1
- 2y agowaywiserNaN results become NA; raster metrics dispatch correctly
- 2y agoggsurvfitNegative follow-up times and a cloglog transformation
- 2y agowaywiserGuards against ignored grid arguments; faster on sf data
- 2y agoggsurvfitAesthetic defaults become switchable and alignment is exported
- 2y agowaywiserFixes wrong observation counts and ignored grid units
- 2y agoggsurvfitConfidence limits corrected for monotonicity-reversing transforms
- 3y agoggsurvfitGlue syntax in risk tables and coxph model support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggsurvfit and waywiser?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggsurvfit is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 ggsurvfit better than waywiser?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggsurvfit is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 ggsurvfit?
Top ggsurvfit alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggsurvfit alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggsurvfit for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to waywiser?
Top waywiser alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "waywiser alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/waywiser for the full list with editorial commentary on each.