rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
modelbased vs rredlist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of modelbased and rredlist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
modelbased vs rredlist: at a glance
What is modelbased?
modelbased is turning marginal effects into a full contrast grammar
modelbased computes marginal means, contrasts, and slopes from fitted models, and it ships every one to two months with a consistent shape: new comparison types, broader model support, and steady renaming toward clearer vocabulary. The recent arc runs from marginal effects inequality measures through inequality ratios to an omnibus global test and a post_process argument for multi-step comparisons. Argument names have been settled along the way, with trend becoming slope and an alias left behind.
What is rredlist?
rredlist threw out its species-centric API in 1.0.0 and rebuilt around assessments.
rredlist 1.0.0 is a hard break: the IUCN Red List API moved to v4, and the package followed by dropping v3 support entirely, reorganising around assessments rather than species, renaming or removing most functions, changing returned data structures, and requiring users to generate a new API key. The two releases since are consolidation on that new shape — `rl_assessment_list()` and `rl_assessment_extract()` for retrieving and unpacking many assessments at once, a `scope` argument on the `*_latest()` functions, and NULL-safe extraction.
modelbased vs rredlist: editorial side-by-side
modelbased
0.0ANALYTICS
modelbased is turning marginal effects into a full contrast grammar
◆ Current state
modelbased computes marginal means, contrasts, and slopes from fitted models, and it ships every one to two months with a consistent shape: new comparison types, broader model support, and steady renaming toward clearer vocabulary. The recent arc runs from marginal effects inequality measures through inequality ratios to an omnibus global test and a post_process argument for multi-step comparisons. Argument names have been settled along the way, with trend becoming slope and an alias left behind.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is building a compositional vocabulary rather than a fixed menu — contrasts of average slopes, contrasts across two numeric predictors, inequality summaries across all outcome categories, and now user-supplied post-processing of comparisons. Support quietly widens underneath, covering nestedLogit, brms finite mixtures, and offsets under population and average estimation. Plotting gets attention in proportion to how often these results are presented rather than tabulated, including collapse_by_group() for showing averaged raw data under mixed-model fits.
◆ Prediction
With post_process and omnibus tests both landed, the likely next step is making these composed comparisons easier to report — formatting or plotting methods for the multi-step results rather than new comparison types.
rredlist
0.0ANALYTICS
rredlist threw out its species-centric API in 1.0.0 and rebuilt around assessments.
◆ Current state
rredlist 1.0.0 is a hard break: the IUCN Red List API moved to v4, and the package followed by dropping v3 support entirely, reorganising around assessments rather than species, renaming or removing most functions, changing returned data structures, and requiring users to generate a new API key. The two releases since are consolidation on that new shape — `rl_assessment_list()` and `rl_assessment_extract()` for retrieving and unpacking many assessments at once, a `scope` argument on the `*_latest()` functions, and NULL-safe extraction.
◆ Where it's heading
Post-1.0.0 work is clearly aimed at bulk use: fetch many assessments, pull a chosen field out of each. That is a different usage pattern from the one-species-at-a-time queries the v3-era functions encouraged, and it suits the conservation-analysis workloads the package is actually used for. Deprecated v3 functions are still present and flagged for eventual removal.
◆ Prediction
The deprecated v3-era functions are the obvious next thing to disappear, and further bulk-retrieval helpers are likely given both post-1.0 releases went that way.
Alternatives to modelbased and rredlist
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 modelbased or rredlist.
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 modelbased alternatives → · See all rredlist alternatives →
Recent activity from modelbased and rredlist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.16.0 adds post-processing and omnibus contrast tests
- 3mo agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.15.0 contrasts average slopes across numeric predictors
- 5mo agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.14.0 renames trend to slope and adds collapse_by_group()
- 8mo agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.13.1 adds marginal group-level estimates and as.data.frame()
- 11mo agorredlistrredlist 1.1.1 extracts multiple assessment elements
- 11mo agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.13.0 adds inequality ratios and slope marginalization
- 1y agorredlistrredlist 1.1.0 adds bulk assessment retrieval and extraction
- 1y agomodelbasedmodelbased 0.12.0 introduces marginal effects inequality measures
- 1y agorredlistrredlist 1.0.0 rebuilds on IUCN Red List API v4 ⚡
- 3y agorredlistrredlist 0.7.1 changes maintainer
- 5y agorredlistrredlist 0.7.0 adds vignette and HTTPS base URL
- 6y agorredlistrredlist 0.6.0 improves docs and NA handling
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between modelbased and rredlist?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. modelbased and rredlist 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 modelbased better than rredlist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. modelbased and rredlist 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 modelbased?
Top modelbased alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "modelbased alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/modelbased for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rredlist?
Top rredlist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rredlist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rredlist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.