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Comparison · Analytics
gratia vs simlandr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gratia and simlandr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
gratia vs simlandr: 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 simlandr?
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
simlandr builds potential landscape plots from simulations of dynamic systems, with barrier-height calculations and batch simulation grids. Its three substantive releases are all consolidation: parameters renamed, functions renamed, defaults removed. By 0.3.0 the bespoke accessors had been replaced by ggplot2's autolayer() and base summary(), and the package carried print, summary, and plot methods for its own classes.
gratia vs simlandr: 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.
simlandr
0.0ANALYTICS
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
◆ Current state
simlandr builds potential landscape plots from simulations of dynamic systems, with barrier-height calculations and batch simulation grids. Its three substantive releases are all consolidation: parameters renamed, functions renamed, defaults removed. By 0.3.0 the bespoke accessors had been replaced by ggplot2's autolayer() and base summary(), and the package carried print, summary, and plot methods for its own classes.
◆ Where it's heading
Every release trades a package-specific name for a conventional one - var and par became arg and ele, get_geom() became an autolayer() method, get_barrier_height() became a summary() method, hash_big.matrix became hash_big_matrix. The one methodological change, an adjusted minimal energy path algorithm, arrived inside a release otherwise full of renames. Removing default values for barrier calculation because they were often unsuitable reads as the maintainer deciding the defaults were doing harm.
◆ Prediction
The feed stops at 0.3.0 in late 2022, mid-consolidation; these entries give no indication of what followed, if anything did.
Alternatives to gratia and simlandr
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 simlandr.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
healthyR.data
From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
See all gratia alternatives → · See all simlandr alternatives →
Recent activity from gratia and simlandr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 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
- 3y agosimlandrAccessors replaced by autolayer and summary methods
- 3y agosimlandrroxygen2 updated for HTML5 compatibility
- 4y agogratiaM1 example output fixes and confint tibble returns
- 4y agosimlandrBatch simulation arguments renamed; energy path algorithm adjusted
- 4y agosimlandrManual improved and a test function added
- 5y agosimlandrPackage cleaned for CRAN compatibility
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gratia and simlandr?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. gratia and simlandr 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 gratia better than simlandr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gratia and simlandr 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 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 simlandr?
Top simlandr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "simlandr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/simlandr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.