PurpleAir
The R client for PurpleAir sensors keeps finding its time-averaging was wrong.
Comparison · Analytics
invasimapr vs rphylopic
A side-by-side editorial comparison of invasimapr and rphylopic — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
invasimapr vs rphylopic: at a glance
What is invasimapr?
invasimapr halved its install size and became citable; the science stayed put.
invasimapr estimates species invasiveness and site invasibility from trait, environmental and resident-community data, exposing a traits → competition → invasion-fitness pipeline behind seven high-level wrappers. Its three releases are all packaging and standards work: a first citable archive in June 2026, then a maturity release bringing it in line with the B-Cubed software development guide. The one behavioral addition in that release is an opt-in standardise_inputs argument on compute_invasion_fitness(), off by default.
What is rphylopic?
The R package that puts organism silhouettes on plots keeps widening where they can be drawn.
rphylopic fetches PhyloPic silhouettes and places them into R graphics — base plots, ggplot2 layers, legends, and now phylogenetic trees and igraph networks. The 1.x line has been consistent about two things: adding a new plotting context per release, and steadily replacing its early sizing vocabulary with explicit width and height arguments. Attribution handling is unusually developed for a package this size, with permalinks and per-image credit built into the retrieval functions.
invasimapr vs rphylopic: editorial side-by-side
invasimapr
0.0ANALYTICS
invasimapr halved its install size and became citable; the science stayed put.
◆ Current state
invasimapr estimates species invasiveness and site invasibility from trait, environmental and resident-community data, exposing a traits → competition → invasion-fitness pipeline behind seven high-level wrappers. Its three releases are all packaging and standards work: a first citable archive in June 2026, then a maturity release bringing it in line with the B-Cubed software development guide. The one behavioral addition in that release is an opt-in standardise_inputs argument on compute_invasion_fitness(), off by default.
◆ Where it's heading
The pressure is toward being installable and auditable rather than more capable — install slimmed from roughly 100 MB to 56 MB, R CMD check warnings and notes resolved, sp moved to Suggests, a Darwin Core-aligned data dictionary added, and a Zenodo concept DOI with CITATION.cff, codemeta.json and .zenodo.json. The package moves in lockstep with its B-Cubed sibling dissmapr, tagged within minutes of each other at both 0.1.0 and 0.2.1, which points at project-level standards deadlines rather than independent release decisions. Trait dispersion metrics and scenario exploration remain on the roadmap.
◆ Prediction
Standards compliance is now complete and the roadmap names functional trait dispersion metrics and scenario exploration tools, so the next release is the first that can plausibly be about invasion ecology rather than packaging.
rphylopic
0.0ANALYTICS
The R package that puts organism silhouettes on plots keeps widening where they can be drawn.
◆ Current state
rphylopic fetches PhyloPic silhouettes and places them into R graphics — base plots, ggplot2 layers, legends, and now phylogenetic trees and igraph networks. The 1.x line has been consistent about two things: adding a new plotting context per release, and steadily replacing its early sizing vocabulary with explicit width and height arguments. Attribution handling is unusually developed for a package this size, with permalinks and per-image credit built into the retrieval functions.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is expanding the set of places a silhouette can appear rather than changing what the package does. Base plots came first, then ggplot2 aesthetics and legend glyphs, then trees, then network vertices via an igraph shape registered automatically when both packages load. The other running thread is defensive maintenance against upstream churn: retries on failed API calls, fixes for ggplot2 4.0.0, and now an in-memory cache so repeated calls stop hammering the PhyloPic API. The ysize and size deprecation, opened in 1.5.0, is now complete and the arguments are scheduled for removal.
◆ Prediction
The deprecated ysize and size arguments look set to be removed in the next release, and on the pattern of the last four, another plotting context is a likelier addition than a change to the retrieval layer.
Alternatives to invasimapr and rphylopic
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 invasimapr or rphylopic.
piecepackr
A board game graphics package runs one of the most disciplined deprecation cycles in R.
e2tree
The explainable-ensemble-tree package now measures whether its own explanations are faithful.
discretefdr
The discrete-data FDR package is being pared into one piece of a larger multiple-testing suite.
contentanalysis
A scientific-text analysis package moved from counting citations to classifying argument structure.
relialearnr
The teaching arm of an R reliability suite keeps pace with whatever its analysis siblings ship.
See all invasimapr alternatives → · See all rphylopic alternatives →
Recent activity from invasimapr and rphylopic
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoinvasimaprVersion bump; notes identical to 0.2.0
- 1mo agorphylopicSilhouettes become igraph vertices; API responses cached
- 1mo agoinvasimaprB-Cubed standards alignment; install slimmed to 56 MB
- 1mo agoinvasimaprinvasimapr v0.1.0: First citable release
- 8mo agorphylopicBase R phylogenies gain silhouette annotation
- 1y agorphylopicExplicit width and height replace the old sizing arguments
- 2y agorphylopicSilhouette legends and attribution permalinks
- 2y agorphylopicSilhouette resolution helper and safer colour defaults
- 2y agorphylopicRendering dependencies bumped for grImport2 and rsvg
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between invasimapr and rphylopic?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. invasimapr and rphylopic 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 invasimapr better than rphylopic?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. invasimapr and rphylopic 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 invasimapr?
Top invasimapr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "invasimapr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/invasimapr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rphylopic?
Top rphylopic alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rphylopic alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rphylopic for the full list with editorial commentary on each.