poppr
A population-genetics workhorse in long-term maintenance, shipping only what CRAN demands.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of netrankr and rfacebookstat — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
A centrality package that absorbed an abandoned neighbour rather than let its functions vanish.
netrankr computes centrality rankings on networks using partial orders rather than committing to a single index, and lets users build their own indices from relational components. The latest release folds in functions from the archived NetSwan package and clears deprecated igraph calls. Earlier work removed the midpoint calculation from rank_intervals, a change the notes themselves flag as possibly breaking.
A Facebook Marketing API client for R whose release schedule belongs to Meta, not its author.
rfacebookstat wraps the Facebook Marketing API for R analysts, and nearly every release is a migration to a newer API version — v14, v15, v16, v19, v20 all appear in this window. Feature work rides along with those migrations: fbGetAdAccounts() gained a spend_cap field, and fbGetMarketingStat() gained use_unified_attribution_setting, which switches results to the ad-set-level attribution settings and overrides the older account-level argument.
netrankr computes centrality rankings on networks using partial orders rather than committing to a single index, and lets users build their own indices from relational components. The latest release folds in functions from the archived NetSwan package and clears deprecated igraph calls. Earlier work removed the midpoint calculation from rank_intervals, a change the notes themselves flag as possibly breaking.
Development is sparse and driven by ecosystem pressure — igraph deprecations, CRAN archival of related packages, JOSS submission requirements. The analytic core has been stable since the partial-order framework was established; what changes is the surrounding surface and its compatibility with a moving graph stack. Absorbing NetSwan is the first real expansion in years.
Expect further igraph compatibility passes; whether the NetSwan absorption is a one-off rescue or the start of consolidating orphaned network packages is not something these entries settle.
rfacebookstat wraps the Facebook Marketing API for R analysts, and nearly every release is a migration to a newer API version — v14, v15, v16, v19, v20 all appear in this window. Feature work rides along with those migrations: fbGetAdAccounts() gained a spend_cap field, and fbGetMarketingStat() gained use_unified_attribution_setting, which switches results to the ad-set-level attribution settings and overrides the older account-level argument.
The package's direction is set almost entirely by Meta's deprecation cycle, and the release notes read as a log of keeping up. The attribution work is the one strand with its own logic: an argument added in 2.10.0, then fixed in 2.12.1 when it turned out not to apply unless fetch_by was also used. Three versions cut within four and a half hours on one day in April 2023 show migrations being cleared in batches rather than steadily.
The next release will almost certainly be a migration to a newer Marketing API version, since that has triggered every version in this history; whether anything else ships with it depends on what Meta changes.
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 netrankr or rfacebookstat.
A population-genetics workhorse in long-term maintenance, shipping only what CRAN demands.
An urban accessibility toolkit that grew into a distributional-equity toolkit.
A Google Ads API client for R that exists to stay one step ahead of deprecation.
The Carpentries' lesson skin, rebuilt on Bootstrap 5 with dark mode and a wider reach.
A project-bound modelling package that shipped its final scenario workflow and stopped.
A Japan Meteorological Agency client whose real product is keeping its bundled datasets current.
See all netrankr alternatives → · See all rfacebookstat alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. netrankr and rfacebookstat 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.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. netrankr and rfacebookstat 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.
Top netrankr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "netrankr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/netrankr-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top rfacebookstat alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rfacebookstat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rfacebookstat for the full list with editorial commentary on each.