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Comparison · Infra & APIs
PowerTOST vs tf
A side-by-side editorial comparison of PowerTOST and tf — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
PowerTOST vs tf: at a glance
What is PowerTOST?
A bioequivalence sample-size workhorse whose news is which regulator it now covers
PowerTOST computes power and sample size for bioequivalence and its changelog reads as a record of regulatory divergence more than statistical development. Version 1.5-3 added the Gulf Co-operation Council as a regulator setting; 1.5-4 and 1.5-6 stripped 'FDA' out of the narrow-therapeutic-index function names once China's CDE began requiring the same evaluation. The most recent release, 1.5-7, is a single fix to how nvec() splits a total sample size across sequences.
What is tf?
tf gave functional data a second dimension: curves whose values are vectors.
tf supplies the vector classes underneath the tidyfun stack — tfd for raw functional observations, tfb for basis-represented ones, both built on vctrs so curves sit in a data frame column and behave like any other vector. Until July that codomain was scalar. The 0.5.0 release adds tfd_mv and tfb_mv, classes for functions whose values are vectors in R^d, and rebuilds the analysis verbs to match.
PowerTOST vs tf: editorial side-by-side
PowerTOST
0.0INFRA · APIS
A bioequivalence sample-size workhorse whose news is which regulator it now covers
◆ Current state
PowerTOST computes power and sample size for bioequivalence and its changelog reads as a record of regulatory divergence more than statistical development. Version 1.5-3 added the Gulf Co-operation Council as a regulator setting; 1.5-4 and 1.5-6 stripped 'FDA' out of the narrow-therapeutic-index function names once China's CDE began requiring the same evaluation. The most recent release, 1.5-7, is a single fix to how nvec() splits a total sample size across sequences.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is in long maintenance with a widening regulatory surface: the statistical methods are settled, and releases arrive when an agency publishes a framework that can be expressed as a settings variant of an existing method. Function naming has been deliberately decoupled from any single agency, with the deprecated FDA-suffixed aliases carried for years before removal. Cadence has slowed to roughly one release every eighteen months.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another regulator setting or a small fix; on the deprecation notice already given, the power.NTIDFDA()-style aliases are the obvious removal candidate.
tf
0.0INFRA · APIS
tf gave functional data a second dimension: curves whose values are vectors.
◆ Current state
tf supplies the vector classes underneath the tidyfun stack — tfd for raw functional observations, tfb for basis-represented ones, both built on vctrs so curves sit in a data frame column and behave like any other vector. Until July that codomain was scalar. The 0.5.0 release adds tfd_mv and tfb_mv, classes for functions whose values are vectors in R^d, and rebuilds the analysis verbs to match.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is widening what a functional observation can be, then porting the toolkit onto it. Registration arrived first in 0.4.0 for univariate curves and immediately gained an srvf_mv method for aligning components jointly, and tfb_mfpc() ports principal component analysis to the multivariate case with a single set of scores shared across components. Alongside that runs steady dependency shedding — mvtnorm and pracma both replaced by inlined samplers that reproduce prior draws bit-for-bit, glue dropped for cli in the previous release — and an unusually long tail of NA-handling and edge-case fixes, several caught in pre-release review of the new classes.
◆ Prediction
The new classes ship with FPCA, registration and shape alignment but the release notes describe tidyfun::tf_unnest() as the consumer of one new export, so the visible next step is the rest of the tidyfun stack catching up to vector-valued columns. Expect follow-up patches on the vctrs casting paths, which is where most of this release's late fixes clustered.
Alternatives to PowerTOST and tf
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 PowerTOST or tf.
mpactr
mpactr spent two spring releases normalizing case in metadata after users kept tripping on it.
surveytidy
surveytidy taught every dplyr verb to operate on a whole collection of surveys at once.
surveycore
surveycore declared its API stable with every survey design type covered.
PEIMAN2
PEIMAN2 cut its annotation database loose from its release cycle without breaking CRAN.
prospectr
prospectr spent its biggest release in years fixing spectra it had been quietly mangling.
See all PowerTOST alternatives → · See all tf alternatives →
Recent activity from PowerTOST and tf
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agotfVector-valued functional data becomes a first-class type ⚡
- 5mo agotfCurve registration, five depth measures and sub-domain splitting
- 10mo agoPowerTOSTFix for splitting total sample size across sequences
- 2y agotfFix: tf_crosscov normalization
- 2y agoPowerTOSTNTID functions renamed off the FDA acronym; GCC guidance in vignettes
- 4y agoPowerTOSTpower.NTID() aliases added; FDA-suffixed names deprecated
- 5y agoPowerTOSTGulf Co-operation Council added as a regulator setting
- 5y agoPowerTOSTMaintenance release with vignette and documentation clarifications
- 5y agoPowerTOSTstringsAsFactors fix for older R in a vignette example
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between PowerTOST and tf?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. PowerTOST and tf 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 PowerTOST better than tf?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. PowerTOST and tf 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 PowerTOST?
Top PowerTOST alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "PowerTOST alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/powertost for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tf?
Top tf alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.