STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
gratia vs rmediation
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gratia and rmediation — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
gratia vs rmediation: at a glance
What is gratia?
The tidy front-end for GAMs, now stable enough that upstream ggplot2 sets its release calendar.
gratia wraps mgcv-fitted generalized additive models in tidy data frames and ggplot2 graphics — smooth_estimates(), fitted_values(), derivatives(), draw() and appraise() cover evaluation, prediction and diagnostics. The API reached its intended shape at 0.9.0, when every generated column was renamed to a dot-prefixed form, and 0.10.0 added conditional_values() for covariate-conditional prediction plots.
What is rmediation?
RMediation shipped a three-normal CDF, then found it was silently wrong.
RMediation is a long-standing CRAN package for confidence intervals on mediated effects, now built on an S7 class hierarchy. Over eight weeks it added ProductNormal3 for serial indirect effects of the form a1*a2*b, folded the engine into the existing pprodnormal naming family, and then replaced that engine outright after finding it returned wrong probabilities without warning. The dev branch is at 1.7.0; CRAN still serves 1.6.1.
gratia vs rmediation: editorial side-by-side
gratia
0.0ANALYTICS
The tidy front-end for GAMs, now stable enough that upstream ggplot2 sets its release calendar.
◆ Current state
gratia wraps mgcv-fitted generalized additive models in tidy data frames and ggplot2 graphics — smooth_estimates(), fitted_values(), derivatives(), draw() and appraise() cover evaluation, prediction and diagnostics. The API reached its intended shape at 0.9.0, when every generated column was renamed to a dot-prefixed form, and 0.10.0 added conditional_values() for covariate-conditional prediction plots.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has moved through a long rewrite cycle and out the other side. Successive releases replaced evaluate_smooth() with smooth_estimates(), rebuilt draw() on top of it, then renamed the entire output vocabulary to avoid colliding with user variables. That work is finished; 0.11.1 is driven almost entirely by ggplot2 4.0.0 compatibility, with new mgcv family support for quantile residuals riding along. Development now tracks upstream breakage rather than internal redesign.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to continue absorbing ggplot2 4.x and mgcv changes, with incremental family coverage in quantile_residuals() as the visible new work. The entries give no signal on which mgcv families come next.
rmediation
3.8ANALYTICS
RMediation shipped a three-normal CDF, then found it was silently wrong.
◆ Current state
RMediation is a long-standing CRAN package for confidence intervals on mediated effects, now built on an S7 class hierarchy. Over eight weeks it added ProductNormal3 for serial indirect effects of the form a1*a2*b, folded the engine into the existing pprodnormal naming family, and then replaced that engine outright after finding it returned wrong probabilities without warning. The dev branch is at 1.7.0; CRAN still serves 1.6.1.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from a hand-rolled numerical layer to one that checks itself: the new default integrator escalates its node count until successive rules agree, warns when it hits the cap instead of returning a number, and exposes a diagnostics argument for the convergence estimate. The correctness fix went to dev ahead of the CRAN window rather than being held for it, which suggests wrong-answer bugs are treated as release-blocking regardless of cadence. Serial mediation is where the new surface area is concentrated.
◆ Prediction
1.7.0 exists specifically to land before CRAN's 2026-08-21 update window, so the next move is a CRAN submission promoting it to main; whether hcubature survives past that as a cross-check option is the open question.
Alternatives to gratia and rmediation
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 gratia or rmediation.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all gratia alternatives → · See all rmediation alternatives →
Recent activity from gratia and rmediation
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15h agormediationv1.7.0 — pprodnormal3() correctness fix ⚡
- 1mo agormediationp_prod3() renamed into the pprodnormal family
- 1mo agormediationProductNormal3: exact CDF for a product of three normals ⚡
- 2mo agormediationmedfit reaches CRAN; Remotes pointer dropped
- 11mo agogratiaggplot2 4.0.0 compatibility, plus four more quantile-residual families
- 1y agogratiaconditional_values() replaces vis.gam for conditional prediction plots
- 2y agogratiaparametric_effects() joins the dot-prefix rename; LSS families begin
- 2y agogratiaEvery generated column gains a dot prefix ⚡
- 3y agogratiaReal variable names in smooth_samples(), plus dplyr 1.1.0 fixes
- 4y agogratiaM1 example output fixes and confint tibble returns
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gratia and rmediation?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rmediation is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 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 gratia better than rmediation?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rmediation is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 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 gratia?
Top gratia alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gratia alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gratia for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rmediation?
Top rmediation alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rmediation alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rmediation for the full list with editorial commentary on each.