rnaturalearth
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Comparison · Analytics
mlr3viz vs scales
A side-by-side editorial comparison of mlr3viz and scales — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
mlr3viz vs scales: at a glance
What is mlr3viz?
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
mlr3viz supplies autoplot methods across mlr3 objects — learners, resample and benchmark results, tuning instances, ensemble feature-selection results. Recent releases are mostly defensive: suppressing ggplot2::fortify() warnings on ROC and PRC curves, pinning legend order so plots are deterministic across ggplot2 environments, and tracking mlr3 1.7.2. A visible piece of scope also left, with the LearnerSurvCoxPH plot moving to mlr3proba.
What is scales?
scales keeps widening what ggplot2 can put on an axis.
scales supplies the breaks, labels and transformations behind ggplot2's axes and legends. Unlike much of the tidyverse infrastructure around it, it still ships genuine feature work each release: native timespan handling in 1.3.0, then custom range-training classes and label_glue() in 1.4.0.
mlr3viz vs scales: editorial side-by-side
mlr3viz
2.5ANALYTICS
mlr3viz keeps the ecosystem's plots working while the plots themselves move out
◆ Current state
mlr3viz supplies autoplot methods across mlr3 objects — learners, resample and benchmark results, tuning instances, ensemble feature-selection results. Recent releases are mostly defensive: suppressing ggplot2::fortify() warnings on ROC and PRC curves, pinning legend order so plots are deterministic across ggplot2 environments, and tracking mlr3 1.7.2. A visible piece of scope also left, with the LearnerSurvCoxPH plot moving to mlr3proba.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being narrowed toward generic plotting infrastructure while learner-specific plots migrate to the packages that own those learners. What it does add is access rather than new charts — passing parameters through to precrec::autoplot(), better hints when the wrong autoplot type is requested, and a confidence-interval plot for mlr3inferr. Determinism across ggplot2 versions has become a recurring concern, which is what happens when a visualization package is depended on by documentation and tests.
◆ Prediction
Following the Cox proportional-hazards precedent, further learner-specific plots are likely to move to their owning packages, leaving mlr3viz with the cross-cutting result objects.
scales
0.0ANALYTICS
scales keeps widening what ggplot2 can put on an axis.
◆ Current state
scales supplies the breaks, labels and transformations behind ggplot2's axes and legends. Unlike much of the tidyverse infrastructure around it, it still ships genuine feature work each release: native timespan handling in 1.3.0, then custom range-training classes and label_glue() in 1.4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs toward extensibility and type coverage. First came built-in support for awkward types like difftime and hms; 1.4.0 inverts that by letting any third-party class participate in range training simply by implementing range() or levels(). Labelling is getting more expressive rather than merely more numerous.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued type-support and labelling work, with extension points that let downstream packages plug in their own classes instead of scales enumerating every one.
Alternatives to mlr3viz and scales
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 mlr3viz or scales.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
rstanarm
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
taxa
taxa started a ground-up rewrite in 2021 and has published almost nothing since.
rotl
rotl's whole release history is keeping name matching honest against a moving taxonomy.
See all mlr3viz alternatives → · See all scales alternatives →
Recent activity from mlr3viz and scales
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 18d agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.11.1 pins legend order for deterministic plots
- 5mo agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.11.0 quiets ggplot2 fortify warnings on ROC curves
- 1y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.10.1 passes plotting parameters through to precrec
- 1y agoscalesscales 1.4.0 opens range training to custom classes
- 1y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.10.0 adds a LearnerSurvCoxPH plot
- 2y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.9.0 adds EnsembleFSResult plots
- 2y agomlr3vizmlr3viz 0.8.0 tracks paradox 1.0.0
- 2y agoscalesscales 1.3.0 makes timespans first-class on axes
- 3y agoscalesscales 1.2.1 re-documents to fix .Rd HTML issues
- 4y agoscalesscales 1.2.0 fixes currency sign order and adds scale_cut
- 6y agoscalesscales 1.1.1 fixes palette inversion and adds oob_keep()
- 6y agoscalesscales 1.1.0 reorganises breaks and labels into a naming scheme
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mlr3viz and scales?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Analytics. mlr3viz 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 mlr3viz better than scales?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mlr3viz 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to mlr3viz?
Top mlr3viz alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mlr3viz alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mlr3viz for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to scales?
Top scales alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "scales alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/scales-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.