rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
modeldata vs writexl
A side-by-side editorial comparison of modeldata and writexl — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
modeldata vs writexl: at a glance
What is modeldata?
The tidymodels example-data package grows one dataset at a time, on nobody's schedule
modeldata exists to supply the datasets and simulation functions that tidymodels documentation, tests, and teaching material depend on. Releases arrive roughly once or twice a year and consist almost entirely of new data sets plus occasional simulation methods. The most recent work adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation and moves the package off the magrittr pipe onto base R's.
What is writexl?
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
For most of its history writexl was a deliberately minimal wrapper: bump the vendored libxlsxwriter, handle NA and Date coercion correctly, support a list of data frames for multiple sheets, and nothing else. 2.0.0, released August 2026, changes that — near-full libxlsxwriter coverage, cell/worksheet/workbook formatting, cell comments, an `xl_cell_general` class carrying value, formula and hyperlink, a cell-by-cell refactor, libxlsxwriter 1.2.4, and memory-safety work. It landed the same day as 1.5.4, a typo fix on the old line.
modeldata vs writexl: editorial side-by-side
modeldata
0.0ANALYTICS
The tidymodels example-data package grows one dataset at a time, on nobody's schedule
◆ Current state
modeldata exists to supply the datasets and simulation functions that tidymodels documentation, tests, and teaching material depend on. Releases arrive roughly once or twice a year and consist almost entirely of new data sets plus occasional simulation methods. The most recent work adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation and moves the package off the magrittr pipe onto base R's.
◆ Where it's heading
Two lines run through the history: broadening coverage of task types — ordinal classification, multinomial, regression, QSAR-style chemistry data — and building out synthetic simulation so tutorials can demonstrate a method without shipping a real dataset for it. The simulation side has grown from a single regression generator into a family with logistic and multinomial variants and a keep_truth option that exposes the error-free outcome. Infrastructure changes appear only when the wider tidyverse moves, as the base-pipe transition shows.
◆ Prediction
The pattern points to another simulation method or a dataset filling a task type the collection still lacks, rather than any change in what the package does.
writexl
6.3ANALYTICS
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
◆ Current state
For most of its history writexl was a deliberately minimal wrapper: bump the vendored libxlsxwriter, handle NA and Date coercion correctly, support a list of data frames for multiple sheets, and nothing else. 2.0.0, released August 2026, changes that — near-full libxlsxwriter coverage, cell/worksheet/workbook formatting, cell comments, an `xl_cell_general` class carrying value, formula and hyperlink, a cell-by-cell refactor, libxlsxwriter 1.2.4, and memory-safety work. It landed the same day as 1.5.4, a typo fix on the old line.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has changed category. Its selling point was being the dependency-free, opinion-free way to get a data frame into xlsx; 2.0.0 makes it a formatting-capable writer that now compares itself against openxlsx2 in its own test suite. The cell-by-cell refactor is what made that possible and is also the largest structural change in the package's history. Note that a single contributor drove essentially all of it.
◆ Prediction
Expect follow-up releases fixing edge cases in the new formatting and comment APIs — the cell-by-cell rewrite is too large to land clean, and the 2.0.0 notes already mention an off-by-one in date columns.
Alternatives to modeldata and writexl
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 modeldata or writexl.
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.
taxize
taxize spends its releases absorbing other people's API changes, one dead source at a time.
See all modeldata alternatives → · See all writexl alternatives →
Recent activity from modeldata and writexl
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8d agowritexlwritexl 2.0.0 adds formatting, comments and full libxlsxwriter coverage ⚡
- 8d agowritexlwritexl 1.5.4 fixes a documentation typo
- 11mo agomodeldatamodeldata 1.5.1 fixes documentation and column-name typos
- 1y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.5.0 adds a Worley (1987) regression simulation
- 2y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.4.0 adds the cat_adoption data set
- 2y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.3.0 adds the deliveries data set
- 3y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.2.0 adds eight data sets across regression and classification
- 3y agomodeldatamodeldata 1.1.0 adds logistic and multinomial simulation plus keep_truth
- 5y agowritexlwritexl 1.4.0 updates libxlsxwriter to 1.0.3
- 6y agowritexlwritexl 1.2 fixes NA in formulas and hyperlinks
- 7y agowritexlwritexl 1.1 fixes NA strings and bit64 coercion
- 8y agowritexlwritexl 1.0 writes Date values as datetimes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between modeldata and writexl?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. writexl is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 modeldata better than writexl?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. writexl is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 modeldata?
Top modeldata alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "modeldata alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/modeldata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to writexl?
Top writexl alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "writexl alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/writexl for the full list with editorial commentary on each.