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Comparison · Infra & APIs

hereR vs inlabru

A side-by-side editorial comparison of hereR and inlabru — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Shared themes:r-package

hereR vs inlabru: at a glance

FeaturehereRinlabru
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score0.02.5
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesgeospatial, routing, api-client, r-packagebayesian-modelling, spatial-statistics, r-package, api-consolidation
Last editorial update1h ago8h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is hereR?

An R client for HERE's location APIs, shaped almost entirely by what the vendor exposes next.

hereR wraps HERE's routing, isoline, traffic, weather and geocoding endpoints for R, returning sf objects. Development is steady and reactive: each release either adopts a transport mode, parameter or API version HERE has newly made available, or corrects a rate limit that was producing 429 errors in practice. The current release adds speed-limit control and five more isoline transport modes.

Read the full hereR trajectory →

What is inlabru?

A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time

inlabru wraps INLA for spatial, point-process and latent-Gaussian models in R. It is mid-modernisation: since 2.12.0 cut the sp stack, each release has renamed part of the public surface, standardised how external packages attach custom mappers, or replaced internal machinery. 2.15.0 is the latest step, pairing a new predictor evaluation and linearisation implementation with broom's tidy(), glance() and augment() methods and four non-zero-truncated observation families.

Read the full inlabru trajectory →

hereR vs inlabru: editorial side-by-side

H
hereR
INFRA · APIS
0.0

An R client for HERE's location APIs, shaped almost entirely by what the vendor exposes next.

◆ Current state

hereR wraps HERE's routing, isoline, traffic, weather and geocoding endpoints for R, returning sf objects. Development is steady and reactive: each release either adopts a transport mode, parameter or API version HERE has newly made available, or corrects a rate limit that was producing 429 errors in practice. The current release adds speed-limit control and five more isoline transport modes.

◆ Where it's heading

Two threads run through the whole history. One is coverage — new modes, tolls and currency, arrival times, speed limits — arriving in the package shortly after they appear in HERE's API. The other is defensive operational tuning, with request rates repeatedly lowered below HERE's documented limits because the documented limits do not hold up. 1.0.0 was the one moment the package had to move rather than choose, migrating traffic to v7 and weather to v3 and breaking three functions' output in the process.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next release to enable whatever HERE exposes next in routing or isolines, and to keep adjusting request rates empirically; the package's own design appears settled.

I
inlabru
INFRA · APIS
2.5

A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time

◆ Current state

inlabru wraps INLA for spatial, point-process and latent-Gaussian models in R. It is mid-modernisation: since 2.12.0 cut the sp stack, each release has renamed part of the public surface, standardised how external packages attach custom mappers, or replaced internal machinery. 2.15.0 is the latest step, pairing a new predictor evaluation and linearisation implementation with broom's tidy(), glance() and augment() methods and four non-zero-truncated observation families.

◆ Where it's heading

The arc is consolidation of the extension surface rather than expansion of the model catalogue. Every release adds mappers or families with one hand and removes a dependency, a re-export or a deprecated path with the other — plyr in 2.15.0, fmesher's Depends entry in 2.14.1, sp and ggmap in 2.12.0. The compatibility flag bru_compat_pre_2_14_enable and the temporary fm_int/fm_pixels re-exports show a maintainer sequencing breaks across releases instead of landing them together.

◆ Prediction

The 2.14 compatibility flag is still defaulting to TRUE and the fmesher re-exports are described in the entries as temporary, so the next obvious move is a release that flips bru_compat_pre_2_14_enable off and drops those re-exports.

Alternatives to hereR and inlabru

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 hereR or inlabru.

See all hereR alternatives → · See all inlabru alternatives →

Recent activity from hereR and inlabru

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 23d agoinlabruPredictor linearisation rewritten; broom tidiers, truncated families
  2. 3mo agoinlabruBugfix release: factor contrasts, raster extraction, error classes
  3. 5mo agoinlabruNew mappers, standardised cgeneric support, bru_obs storage refactor
  4. 1y agoinlabruMapper classes shortened to bm_*, experimental predictor aggregation
  5. 1y agohereRSpeed limits and five more isoline transport modes
  6. 1y agohereRPedestrian consumption model dropped; route request rate lowered
  7. 1y agoinlabruDrops sp and ggmap for an sf-native spatial stack
  8. 2y agohereRTraffic v7 and Weather v3 migration breaks three functions
  9. 3y agohereRResubmission after CRAN archival over an undeliverable email
  10. 4y agohereRToll costs and currency selection arrive in routing
  11. 4y agohereRArrival-time routing enabled; failed requests report their endpoint

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between hereR and inlabru?

Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. inlabru is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 hereR better than inlabru?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. inlabru is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to hereR?

Top hereR alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "hereR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/herer for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to inlabru?

Top inlabru alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "inlabru alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/inlabru for the full list with editorial commentary on each.