rnaturalearth
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
Comparison · Analytics
osmdata vs writexl
A side-by-side editorial comparison of osmdata and writexl — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
osmdata vs writexl: at a glance
What is osmdata?
osmdata keeps tightening its Overpass query surface, breaking small things to get types right.
The last two releases are the substantive ones. 0.4.0 lets `getbb()` resolve OSM relations via Wikidata ids, adds `filter_osm_user()` to Overpass query objects, and corrects metadata typing so timestamps are POSIXct rather than locale-dependent strings. 0.3.0 dropped the re-exported magrittr pipe, raised the R floor to 4.1 for the base pipe, and fixed polygon output to follow the OGC simple-features model instead of treating every ring as an independent polygon. Earlier entries are CRAN repairs and query-construction fixes.
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.
osmdata vs writexl: editorial side-by-side
osmdata
0.0ANALYTICS
osmdata keeps tightening its Overpass query surface, breaking small things to get types right.
◆ Current state
The last two releases are the substantive ones. 0.4.0 lets `getbb()` resolve OSM relations via Wikidata ids, adds `filter_osm_user()` to Overpass query objects, and corrects metadata typing so timestamps are POSIXct rather than locale-dependent strings. 0.3.0 dropped the re-exported magrittr pipe, raised the R floor to 4.1 for the base pipe, and fixed polygon output to follow the OGC simple-features model instead of treating every ring as an independent polygon. Earlier entries are CRAN repairs and query-construction fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is deliberate correctness work: each release accepts a small breaking change to make returned objects match the standard they claim to follow, whether that is OGC polygon structure, POSIXct timestamps, or UTF-8 metadata columns. Alongside it, the Overpass query builder keeps gaining filters — by area, by out type, by osm_types, now by user and via Wikidata. The package is maturing rather than expanding.
◆ Prediction
More Overpass filter and query-object composition helpers are the likeliest next additions, since that is where both recent releases put their new surface.
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 osmdata 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 osmdata 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 osmdata alternatives → · See all writexl alternatives →
Recent activity from osmdata 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
- 1mo agoosmdataosmdata 0.4.0
- 11mo agoosmdataosmdata 0.3.0
- 2y agoosmdataosmdata 0.2.5 resubmitted after CRAN removal
- 3y agoosmdataosmdata 0.2.3 fixes test broken by sp deprecation
- 3y agoosmdataosmdata 0.2.2 adds out:csv queries and centre coordinates
- 3y agoosmdataosmdata 0.2.1 deprecates nodes_only, fixes memory leaks
- 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 osmdata 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 osmdata 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 osmdata?
Top osmdata alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "osmdata alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/osmdata 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.