comtradr
comtradr's 1.0 line is a long tail of patches against a brittle UN trade API.
Comparison · Analytics
haven vs pins
A side-by-side editorial comparison of haven and pins — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
haven vs pins: at a glance
What is haven?
haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.
haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.
What is pins?
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
haven vs pins: editorial side-by-side
haven
0.0ANALYTICS
haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.
◆ Current state
haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.
◆ Where it's heading
Development has shifted from extending the file-format surface to keeping a C dependency compiling against newer toolchains. The deprecation of write_sas() narrowed that surface deliberately, steering users to write_xpt() because the sas7bdat format is undocumented and unsupported upstream.
◆ Prediction
Expect further ReadStat sync releases triggered by compiler or R-devel breakage rather than new format support or writing features.
pins
0.0ANALYTICS
pins keeps adding a storage backend per release while retiring its original API
◆ Current state
pins publishes and versions R objects to a board, where a board is whatever storage you have. The recent releases read as a steady list of new boards - Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Databricks Volumes, Connect vanity URLs - alongside serialization changes that track which formats R users actually want: parquet via nanoparquet, and qs replaced by qs2.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long-running processes, neither dramatic. Backend coverage expands toward wherever teams already store artifacts, which increasingly means Databricks and cloud object storage rather than a shared drive. Meanwhile the legacy pin() API from before the board model has been in a staged deprecation across at least three releases, escalated each time rather than removed.
◆ Prediction
Expect another board or two as storage platforms are requested, and the legacy pin() functions to finally become errors; the format list will keep tracking whichever serializer the R community settles on.
Alternatives to haven and pins
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 haven or pins.
billboarder
An htmlwidget whose release notes are mostly billboard.js version bumps, quiet since 2021.
bbotk
bbotk is generalizing from an optimizer toolkit into an evaluation framework.
bayesplot
bayesplot keeps widening its posterior-check catalogue while absorbing each ggplot2 break.
animation
Contribution-driven maintenance on a package whose last structural change was magick support.
tsibble
tsibble shipped one release in five and a half years - the data structure is finished
Recent activity from haven and pins
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agopinsqs2 replaces qs; pins can be written in multiple formats
- 1y agohavenhaven 2.5.5 syncs ReadStat for stricter gcc diagnostics
- 1y agopinsPin previews on Connect; Databricks host normalization
- 1y agopinsAdds board_databricks() and switches parquet to nanoparquet
- 2y agohavenhaven 2.5.4 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
- 2y agopinspin_write() arguments must be named; Connect caches removed
- 2y agopinsMessage clarity and Google Drive dribble handling
- 2y agopinsboard_gdrive() added; cache location configurable
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.3 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.2 fixes SAS catalog reads and deprecates write_sas()
- 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.1 aligns labelled headers and fixes name repair
- 4y agohavenhaven 2.5.0 adds custom variable widths when writing files
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between haven and pins?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. haven and pins 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 haven better than pins?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. haven and pins 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 haven?
Top haven alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "haven alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/haven for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to pins?
Top pins alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pins alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pins-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.