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Comparison · Infra & APIs

nominatimlite vs wooldridge

A side-by-side editorial comparison of nominatimlite and wooldridge — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

nominatimlite vs wooldridge: at a glance

Featurenominatimlitewooldridge
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesr, geocoding, openstreetmap, nominatimeconometrics, teaching-data, r-package, cran-maintenance
Last editorial update2d ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is nominatimlite?

nominatimlite's real work was self-hosting and caching; 0.6.0 is an internal refactor with no API change

nominatimlite is a dependency-light R client for the Nominatim geocoding API, returning results as plain data frames or sf objects. The features that define it landed in 0.4.0 — structured queries, local Nominatim server support, and JSONV2 output — and 0.5.0 added session-scoped caching plus a 1.2-second inter-request delay to stay within the public API's usage policy. 0.6.0 in June 2026 changed no public behaviour.

Read the full nominatimlite trajectory →

What is wooldridge?

A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.

wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.

Read the full wooldridge trajectory →

nominatimlite vs wooldridge: editorial side-by-side

N
nominatimlite
INFRA · APIS
0.0

nominatimlite's real work was self-hosting and caching; 0.6.0 is an internal refactor with no API change

◆ Current state

nominatimlite is a dependency-light R client for the Nominatim geocoding API, returning results as plain data frames or sf objects. The features that define it landed in 0.4.0 — structured queries, local Nominatim server support, and JSONV2 output — and 0.5.0 added session-scoped caching plus a 1.2-second inter-request delay to stay within the public API's usage policy. 0.6.0 in June 2026 changed no public behaviour.

◆ Where it's heading

The package has settled. Recent effort goes to being a well-behaved API citizen and to internal consistency: 0.6.0 raised the minimum R to 4.1.0 and refactored URL construction, progress handling, coordinate validation and output preparation with AI assistance, explicitly leaving the public API untouched. That refactor is part of a sweep across the same maintainer's packages in the same weeks.

◆ Prediction

With the API surface stable and rate-limiting handled, future releases most likely track upstream Nominatim endpoint changes, as 0.4.0 did for v4.4.0. Nothing in the entries points to new query capabilities.

W
wooldridge
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.

◆ Current state

wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.

◆ Where it's heading

The maintainer has been systematically shrinking the package's attack surface for years. Dependencies used only for vignette examples were cut after one of them broke its API and triggered a CRAN removal notice; test infrastructure moved from testthat to tinytest and from Travis and AppVeyor to GitHub Actions; datasets were compressed by stripping attributes left over from the Stata imports. The stated goal, written into the 1.4-2 notes, is that this should be the easiest package the maintainer has to look after.

◆ Prediction

Nothing in the recent entries points to new data; the next release will most likely be triggered by another CRAN check failure or by a new edition of the textbook adding datasets.

Alternatives to nominatimlite and wooldridge

Other Infra & APIs 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 nominatimlite or wooldridge.

See all nominatimlite alternatives → · See all wooldridge alternatives →

Recent activity from nominatimlite and wooldridge

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1mo agowooldridgeDocs re-compiled so the previous release's URL fixes take effect
  2. 2mo agonominatimliteInternal refactor with no public API change; minimum R now 4.1.0
  3. 5mo agonominatimliteSession caching and 1.2s throttling for API calls
  4. 7mo agonominatimliteMinor fixes to reverse geocoding functions
  5. 1y agonominatimliteDocumentation update
  6. 2y agonominatimliteFix crash on long OSM IDs in address lookup
  7. 2y agonominatimliteStructured queries, local server support and JSONV2 output
  8. 3y agowooldridgeCI moved to GitHub Actions; live-data examples disabled
  9. 3y agowooldridgeDocumentation content and formatting pass
  10. 4y agowooldridgeFour 7th-edition datasets added; tests moved to tinytest
  11. 4y agowooldridgeVignette scope cut to drop heavy and API-unstable dependencies
  12. 7y agowooldridgeVignette repaired after an upstream API rename

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between nominatimlite and wooldridge?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. nominatimlite and wooldridge 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 nominatimlite better than wooldridge?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. nominatimlite and wooldridge 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to nominatimlite?

Top nominatimlite alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nominatimlite alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nominatimlite for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to wooldridge?

Top wooldridge alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "wooldridge alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/wooldridge for the full list with editorial commentary on each.