vcfR
A genomics workhorse whose visible release feed stops dead in mid-2020.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
ggVennDiagram vs REDCapR
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggVennDiagram and REDCapR — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
ggVennDiagram vs REDCapR: at a glance
What is ggVennDiagram?
A Venn diagram package whose public release notes say almost nothing — including about its copyright cleanup.
ggVennDiagram draws Venn diagrams as ggplot2 objects. The visible release feed is thin and irregular: three entries between 2021 and 2024, two of which contain nothing but a pointer to NEWS. Only the most recent, V1.5, describes actual changes, and both of them are legal housekeeping rather than features.
What is REDCapR?
The REDCap API client finished its breaking cleanup and settled into CRAN-compliance mode.
REDCapR is a mature R client for the REDCap research data-capture API, and its release stream shows a package that has already made its consequential changes. The last two releases (1.5.0, 1.6.0) exist purely to satisfy CRAN checks — dropping native pipes from non-essential code, keeping examples from touching an external server. The functional surface has been stable since early 2025.
ggVennDiagram vs REDCapR: editorial side-by-side
ggVennDiagram
0.0INFRA · APIS
A Venn diagram package whose public release notes say almost nothing — including about its copyright cleanup.
◆ Current state
ggVennDiagram draws Venn diagrams as ggplot2 objects. The visible release feed is thin and irregular: three entries between 2021 and 2024, two of which contain nothing but a pointer to NEWS. Only the most recent, V1.5, describes actual changes, and both of them are legal housekeeping rather than features.
◆ Where it's heading
What can be read here is not a feature direction but a tidying of provenance. V1.5 removed code copied from yulab.utils and made the package comply with the copyright terms of the venn package it draws on, with the yulab.utils maintainer appearing as a first-time contributor to do it. Everything else in the window defers to a changelog kept outside the feed, so the direction of the package itself is not readable from these entries.
◆ Prediction
No reliable prediction is available from this feed — the release notes are pointers rather than descriptions, and the visible entries skip whole version ranges.
REDCapR
0.0INFRA · APIS
The REDCap API client finished its breaking cleanup and settled into CRAN-compliance mode.
◆ Current state
REDCapR is a mature R client for the REDCap research data-capture API, and its release stream shows a package that has already made its consequential changes. The last two releases (1.5.0, 1.6.0) exist purely to satisfy CRAN checks — dropping native pipes from non-essential code, keeping examples from touching an external server. The functional surface has been stable since early 2025.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from a deliberate interface break in 1.2.0 — read functions returning tibbles, the *_collapsed parameter family deprecated — through 1.4.0 broadening API coverage into REDCap's file repository, and then into pure maintenance. Test infrastructure has been getting more attention than features: a redirection layer so users can point the suite at their own server, a multilevel-model test project. That is the signature of a package whose maintainer is defending stability rather than expanding scope.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued CRAN-compliance releases at roughly quarterly cadence; any new feature work is most likely further coverage of REDCap endpoints the package does not yet wrap, following the file-repository pattern.
Alternatives to ggVennDiagram and REDCapR
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 ggVennDiagram or REDCapR.
dialr
The R phone-number package stopped only parsing numbers and started asking them where they are.
ordinalsimr
A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.
transltr
A new R localization package that reached CRAN and immediately downgraded itself to experimental.
hereR
An R client for HERE's location APIs, shaped almost entirely by what the vendor exposes next.
funcharts
One paper, one release: the functional control chart package ships methods as they get published.
See all ggVennDiagram alternatives → · See all REDCapR alternatives →
Recent activity from ggVennDiagram and REDCapR
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10mo agoREDCapRCRAN compliance fix: examples no longer hit an external server
- 1y agoREDCapRNative pipes removed to keep pre-4.1 R support
- 1y agoREDCapRDevelopment version bump to 1.4.0.9000
- 1y agoREDCapRFile repository listing lands in the API client
- 1y agoREDCapRTest suite gains a bring-your-own-server redirection layer
- 1y agoREDCapRRead functions return tibbles; the collapsed-parameter family is deprecated ⚡
- 2y agoggVennDiagramCopied code removed and venn copyright terms satisfied
- 2y agoggVennDiagramCRAN release 1.4.9
- 5y agoggVennDiagramCRAN release v1.1.4
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggVennDiagram and REDCapR?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. ggVennDiagram and REDCapR 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 ggVennDiagram better than REDCapR?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggVennDiagram and REDCapR 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 ggVennDiagram?
Top ggVennDiagram alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggVennDiagram alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggvenndiagram for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to REDCapR?
Top REDCapR alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "REDCapR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/redcapr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.