tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
gigs vs posteriordb
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gigs and posteriordb — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
gigs vs posteriordb: at a glance
What is gigs?
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
gigs implements international newborn and infant growth standards — INTERGROWTH-21st, WHO — converting anthropometric measurements to z-scores and centiles and classifying growth outcomes. The 0.5.0 release rewrote the public API around rOpenSci review feedback; the two releases after it change no code at all, existing purely to get the documentation site building.
What is posteriordb?
A reference posterior database that hit 1.0 with a paper, and is now graded on the statistics it ships.
posteriordb distributes Bayesian models with data and reference posterior draws so inference algorithms can be benchmarked against a common target. It reached 1.0.0 alongside a published paper, and ships both R and Python access. Recent work is about the metadata around the draws — licences, machine-readable dataset descriptors, and additional summary statistics.
gigs vs posteriordb: editorial side-by-side
gigs
0.0ANALYTICS
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
◆ Current state
gigs implements international newborn and infant growth standards — INTERGROWTH-21st, WHO — converting anthropometric measurements to z-scores and centiles and classifying growth outcomes. The 0.5.0 release rewrote the public API around rOpenSci review feedback; the two releases after it change no code at all, existing purely to get the documentation site building.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has moved from vector-in, vector-out conversion helpers to a data.frame-oriented interface with a single classify_growth() entry point that computes whatever outcomes the supplied columns allow. That is a shift from library to tool — the user describes their data rather than picking the right function. The trailing releases suggest the code is settled and the remaining work is packaging and discoverability.
◆ Prediction
With the API rewrite absorbed and hosting moved to rOpenSci, the next substantive release should add growth standards or outcomes rather than reshape the interface again.
posteriordb
0.0ANALYTICS
A reference posterior database that hit 1.0 with a paper, and is now graded on the statistics it ships.
◆ Current state
posteriordb distributes Bayesian models with data and reference posterior draws so inference algorithms can be benchmarked against a common target. It reached 1.0.0 alongside a published paper, and ships both R and Python access. Recent work is about the metadata around the draws — licences, machine-readable dataset descriptors, and additional summary statistics.
◆ Where it's heading
The database is maturing from a model collection into a citable benchmark asset: licence information per model, a Croissant metadata file for dataset discovery, and summary statistics like mean squared value and lag-1 autocorrelation that let users judge whether reference draws are good enough for their comparison. Earlier releases were about content and correctness; current ones are about making the content machine-readable and verifiable.
◆ Prediction
Further work should continue on draw-quality diagnostics and metadata rather than model count, since the last two releases both added ways to assess the reference draws instead of adding posteriors.
Alternatives to gigs and posteriordb
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 gigs or posteriordb.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all gigs alternatives → · See all posteriordb alternatives →
Recent activity from gigs and posteriordb
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoposteriordb1.0.0: licences, Croissant metadata, and draw diagnostics
- 1y agogigsDocs and Zenodo archiving
- 1y agogigsDocs-only release; nothing changed internally
- 1y agogigsConversion API rewritten around data frames and classify_growth() ⚡
- 2y agogigsDocumentation fixes for autotest compliance
- 2y agogigsINTERGROWTH-21st fetal standards and input validation
- 2y agogigsPatch release with documentation update
- 2y agoposteriordbStan code updated to 2.26 syntax; posterior tags cleaned
- 3y agoposteriordbNew posteriors and a corrected dogs model
- 5y agoposteriordbPython module gains GitHub-backed and env-var database paths
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gigs and posteriordb?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. gigs and posteriordb 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 gigs better than posteriordb?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gigs and posteriordb 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 gigs?
Top gigs alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gigs alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gigs for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to posteriordb?
Top posteriordb alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "posteriordb alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/posteriordb for the full list with editorial commentary on each.