tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
lime vs webmockr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of lime and webmockr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
lime vs webmockr: at a glance
What is lime?
The R port of LIME has shipped one commit in three years, and it was an xgboost compatibility patch
lime is the R implementation of local interpretable model-agnostic explanations, and it is effectively in preservation rather than development. Its last substantive feature release was 0.5.0 in 2019; 0.5.3 in 2022 recorded a maintainer handover and general upkeep; 0.5.4 in December 2025 exists solely to keep the package working across xgboost versions. Six releases span eight years, and only two of them contain features.
What is webmockr?
The stubbing library added httr2 support, then spent a year cutting itself free of everything else
webmockr intercepts HTTP requests in R tests and returns stubbed responses, and since 1.0.0 it covers all three clients that matter — httr, httr2 and crul. The releases through 2025 have been about shedding dependencies: internal R6 classes unexported in 2.1.0, crul demoted from Imports to Suggests in the same release, and the mutual dependency with vcr severed in 2.2.0. The package now installs and runs without pulling in the rest of the rOpenSci HTTP stack.
lime vs webmockr: editorial side-by-side
lime
0.0ANALYTICS
The R port of LIME has shipped one commit in three years, and it was an xgboost compatibility patch
◆ Current state
lime is the R implementation of local interpretable model-agnostic explanations, and it is effectively in preservation rather than development. Its last substantive feature release was 0.5.0 in 2019; 0.5.3 in 2022 recorded a maintainer handover and general upkeep; 0.5.4 in December 2025 exists solely to keep the package working across xgboost versions. Six releases span eight years, and only two of them contain features.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is upstream-driven survival: every release since 0.5.0 responds to a change in something lime depends on — glmnet's namespace, order() semantics on data frames, xgboost's interface. The one deliberate change in that stretch was moving htmlwidgets, shiny and shinythemes to Suggests, which lightens installation for the majority of users who never open the interactive explainer. Nothing in the feed indicates work on the explanation method itself.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release, whenever it comes, to be another compatibility patch triggered by a dependency change rather than anything touching how explanations are computed. The three-year gaps make timing unpredictable.
webmockr
0.0ANALYTICS
The stubbing library added httr2 support, then spent a year cutting itself free of everything else
◆ Current state
webmockr intercepts HTTP requests in R tests and returns stubbed responses, and since 1.0.0 it covers all three clients that matter — httr, httr2 and crul. The releases through 2025 have been about shedding dependencies: internal R6 classes unexported in 2.1.0, crul demoted from Imports to Suggests in the same release, and the mutual dependency with vcr severed in 2.2.0. The package now installs and runs without pulling in the rest of the rOpenSci HTTP stack.
◆ Where it's heading
Two arcs run in sequence. The first is coverage — multiple queued responses in 0.7.0, basic auth mocking, async through crul, then httr2 — building out what can be stubbed. The second, starting with 2.0.0, is correctness and independence: stubs are now deleted if an error occurs mid-construction rather than lingering half-built, partial matching arrives for bodies and queries, and the dependency graph is pruned release by release. The 2.2.0 split from vcr landed within a minute of crul's release taking mocking control into its own clients.
◆ Prediction
RequestPattern is documented as still exported in 2.1.0 but slated for removal, so the next major release is where that lands. Expect continued dependency pruning rather than new client support — the three clients that exist are already covered.
Alternatives to lime and webmockr
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 lime or webmockr.
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.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
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.
See all lime alternatives → · See all webmockr alternatives →
Recent activity from lime and webmockr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8mo agolimexgboost compatibility restored across versions
- 1y agowebmockrvcr dependency severed
- 1y agowebmockrInternal classes unexported; crul becomes an optional dependency
- 1y agowebmockrFailed stub construction cleans up; partial matching extends to bodies and queries
- 2y agowebmockrhttr2 joins httr and crul as a supported client ⚡
- 3y agowebmockrQueued responses, body matching and integer status codes fixed
- 3y agowebmockrRegex URI matching fixed
- 3y agolimeMaintainer handover and general upkeep
- 5y agolimeShiny dependencies moved to Suggests
- 6y agolimeNamespace fix for glmnet changes
- 7y agolimegower_pow added and lambda aligned with the Python implementation
- 8y agolimeh2o support, NA handling, and date columns held during permutation
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lime and webmockr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. lime and webmockr 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 lime better than webmockr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. lime and webmockr 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 lime?
Top lime alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "lime alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/lime for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to webmockr?
Top webmockr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "webmockr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/webmockr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.