tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
posteriordb vs xportr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of posteriordb and xportr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
posteriordb vs xportr: at a glance
What is posteriordb?
A reference posterior database that hit 1.0 with a paper, and is now graded on the statistics it ships.
posteriordb distributes Bayesian models with data and reference posterior draws so inference algorithms can be benchmarked against a common target. It reached 1.0.0 alongside a published paper, and ships both R and Python access. Recent work is about the metadata around the draws — licences, machine-readable dataset descriptors, and additional summary statistics.
What is xportr?
The CDISC transport writer collapsed six pipeline calls into one, then spent two years hardening it
xportr applies CDISC metadata — variable types, lengths, labels, formats, ordering — to R data frames and writes the SAS transport files that go into regulatory submissions. Since v0.4.0 the package has had a single entry point, xportr_process(), that runs the whole chain and writes, and metadata arrives as a plain specification rather than a metacore object. The v0.5.0 release in January 2026 finished the cleanup by deleting every deprecated argument left over from that redesign.
posteriordb vs xportr: editorial side-by-side
posteriordb
0.0ANALYTICS
A reference posterior database that hit 1.0 with a paper, and is now graded on the statistics it ships.
◆ Current state
posteriordb distributes Bayesian models with data and reference posterior draws so inference algorithms can be benchmarked against a common target. It reached 1.0.0 alongside a published paper, and ships both R and Python access. Recent work is about the metadata around the draws — licences, machine-readable dataset descriptors, and additional summary statistics.
◆ Where it's heading
The database is maturing from a model collection into a citable benchmark asset: licence information per model, a Croissant metadata file for dataset discovery, and summary statistics like mean squared value and lag-1 autocorrelation that let users judge whether reference draws are good enough for their comparison. Earlier releases were about content and correctness; current ones are about making the content machine-readable and verifiable.
◆ Prediction
Further work should continue on draw-quality diagnostics and metadata rather than model count, since the last two releases both added ways to assess the reference draws instead of adding posteriors.
xportr
0.0ANALYTICS
The CDISC transport writer collapsed six pipeline calls into one, then spent two years hardening it
◆ Current state
xportr applies CDISC metadata — variable types, lengths, labels, formats, ordering — to R data frames and writes the SAS transport files that go into regulatory submissions. Since v0.4.0 the package has had a single entry point, xportr_process(), that runs the whole chain and writes, and metadata arrives as a plain specification rather than a metacore object. The v0.5.0 release in January 2026 finished the cleanup by deleting every deprecated argument left over from that redesign.
◆ Where it's heading
The work has moved from building the pipeline to defending it against the ways submission data actually arrives: grouped data frames now raise a warning, date and time variables get class checks, illegal characters are resolved rather than erroring, and xportr_write() warns before a file crosses 5GB instead of producing an unusable artifact. Contributor volume is high and spread across sponsors — Atorus, Roche, GSK and others show up in the PR lists — which is what keeps a validated-context package moving without a single owner.
◆ Prediction
With deprecations cleared in 0.5.0, the next cycle likely targets more input-shape validation of the kind 0.5.0 started — the grouped-data and datetime-class checks read as the first two of a series. Nothing in these entries points to a new output format.
Alternatives to posteriordb and xportr
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 posteriordb or xportr.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
See all posteriordb alternatives → · See all xportr alternatives →
Recent activity from posteriordb and xportr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agoxportrDeprecated arguments deleted; 5GB and datetime guards added
- 1y agoxportrTest fixes for the metacore 0.2.0 update
- 1y agoposteriordb1.0.0: licences, Croissant metadata, and draw diagnostics
- 1y agoxportrhms accepted as a numeric type; domain logging filled in
- 1y agoxportrFile-size limit moves into xportr_write, deprecating xportr_split
- 2y agoxportrxportr_process() runs the whole pipeline in one call ⚡
- 2y agoxportrUnused dependencies removed
- 2y agoposteriordbStan code updated to 2.26 syntax; posterior tags cleaned
- 3y agoposteriordbNew posteriors and a corrected dogs model
- 5y agoposteriordbPython module gains GitHub-backed and env-var database paths
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between posteriordb and xportr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. posteriordb and xportr 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 posteriordb better than xportr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. posteriordb and xportr 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 posteriordb?
Top posteriordb alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "posteriordb alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/posteriordb for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to xportr?
Top xportr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "xportr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/xportr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.