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Comparison · Infra & APIs

hereR vs states

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

hereR vs states: at a glance

FeaturehereRstates
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesgeospatial, routing, api-client, r-packagepolitical-science, panel-data, country-codes, datasets
Last editorial update1h ago3h 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 states?

State-panel tooling holding steady since its 2020 data and ergonomics release.

states supplies the Gleditsch & Ward and Correlates of War state lists and the tooling to turn them into country-year or country-month panels, with plot_missing() for coverage checks. The substantive work landed in 2020; the releases since are compatibility fixes against ggplot2, dplyr, readr and testthat. The most recent entry is a single test repair.

Read the full states trajectory →

hereR vs states: 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.

S
states
INFRA · APIS
0.0

State-panel tooling holding steady since its 2020 data and ergonomics release.

◆ Current state

states supplies the Gleditsch & Ward and Correlates of War state lists and the tooling to turn them into country-year or country-month panels, with plot_missing() for coverage checks. The substantive work landed in 2020; the releases since are compatibility fixes against ggplot2, dplyr, readr and testthat. The most recent entry is a single test repair.

◆ Where it's heading

The package has reached the point where its own data and API are settled and the release trigger is upstream churn in the tidyverse. What movement there is goes toward making the two state lists interchangeable, with the microstates coding carried from G&W onto the COW data as the clearest example, rather than toward new datasets.

◆ Prediction

The next release is most likely another compatibility pass; a data refresh would be the signal that the package is active again.

Alternatives to hereR and states

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 states.

See all hereR alternatives → · See all states alternatives →

Recent activity from hereR and states

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

  1. 0y agostatesplot_missing() test fixed for the next ggplot2
  2. 1y agohereRSpeed limits and five more isoline transport modes
  3. 1y agohereRPedestrian consumption model dropped; route request rate lowered
  4. 2y agohereRTraffic v7 and Weather v3 migration breaks three functions
  5. 2y agostatesggplot2 and dplyr deprecation cleanup
  6. 2y agostatesBundled state data stripped to plain data frames
  7. 3y agohereRResubmission after CRAN archival over an undeliverable email
  8. 4y agohereRToll costs and currency selection arrive in routing
  9. 4y agohereRArrival-time routing enabled; failed requests report their endpoint
  10. 5y agostatesMicrostate coding for COW data and state_panel() shortcuts
  11. 7y agostatesSimpler defaults for state_panel() and plot_missing()

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between hereR and states?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. hereR and states 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 hereR better than states?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. hereR and states 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 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 states?

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