tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
hoardr vs vcr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of hoardr and vcr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ropensci
hoardr vs vcr: at a glance
What is hoardr?
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
hoardr manages local cache directories for other R packages — where files go, how they are keyed, whether they exist. It underpins caching in several rOpenSci data clients. The last functional additions were in 2018; everything since is a patch issued because CRAN reported a test failure or the maintainer changed.
What is vcr?
Added the HTTP client everyone moved to, then deleted a decade of its own public surface.
vcr records HTTP interactions to disk so R package tests can replay them without network access. Two releases define its current state. Version 1.6.0 added httr2 support alongside the existing httr and crul backends, following the R ecosystem's migration to httr2. Version 2.0 then removed a large amount of accumulated public surface — the logging functions, vcr_last_error(), the exported R6 classes including RequestHandler, Request, VcrResponse and HTTPInteractionList, and several configuration options that had stopped working or could not be implemented correctly.
hoardr vs vcr: editorial side-by-side
hoardr
0.0ANALYTICS
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
◆ Current state
hoardr manages local cache directories for other R packages — where files go, how they are keyed, whether they exist. It underpins caching in several rOpenSci data clients. The last functional additions were in 2018; everything since is a patch issued because CRAN reported a test failure or the maintainer changed.
◆ Where it's heading
This is infrastructure that has reached its final shape. Three of the last three releases were reactive: two responses to CRAN test-failure notifications, one to a maintainer handover. The single behavioural change in that stretch — forward slashes in paths on every operating system — is a consistency fix for downstream packages rather than a feature. Its release cadence is set by CRAN's checks, not by demand.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by another CRAN check failure rather than by new functionality, matching every release since 2018.
vcr
0.0ANALYTICS
Added the HTTP client everyone moved to, then deleted a decade of its own public surface.
◆ Current state
vcr records HTTP interactions to disk so R package tests can replay them without network access. Two releases define its current state. Version 1.6.0 added httr2 support alongside the existing httr and crul backends, following the R ecosystem's migration to httr2. Version 2.0 then removed a large amount of accumulated public surface — the logging functions, vcr_last_error(), the exported R6 classes including RequestHandler, Request, VcrResponse and HTTPInteractionList, and several configuration options that had stopped working or could not be implemented correctly.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is consolidating after years of additive growth. The 2.0 removals are almost all things that were exported without needing to be, or options that promised behaviour the implementation could not guarantee — check_cassette_names() was deprecated precisely because it cannot be made correct. Cassette maintenance is being simplified too, with re_record_interval now the single mechanism for expiring recordings.
◆ Prediction
Expect the post-2.0 releases to be about migration support and fallout from the removed API, since the breaking list is long enough that reverse dependencies will surface problems. Async support for httr2 stays blocked until req_perform_parallel gains a mocking hook, which the entries note is upstream work.
Alternatives to hoardr and vcr
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 hoardr or vcr.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
Recent activity from hoardr and vcr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8mo agovcr2.0 removes the logging API and the exported R6 classes ⚡
- 1y agovcrMaintainer email address updated
- 1y agohoardrPaths use forward slashes on every platform
- 2y agovcrAdds httr2 support alongside httr and crul ⚡
- 2y agohoardrTest-only patch for a CRAN failure
- 3y agohoardrPatch release for maintainer handover
- 3y agovcrDrops compilation; test setup moves back to helper files
- 3y agovcrFixes request matching with escaped characters
- 5y agovcrvcr_test_path() finds the package root correctly
- 7y agohoardrFixes cache paths leaking between HoardClient instances
- 7y agohoardrFile-existence checks and full-path cache configuration
- 9y agohoardrCRAN disk-writing policy compliance
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between hoardr and vcr?
Both compete on the same themes — ropensci — within Analytics. hoardr and vcr 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 hoardr better than vcr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. hoardr and vcr 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 hoardr?
Top hoardr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "hoardr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hoardr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to vcr?
Top vcr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "vcr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/vcr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.