r2rtf
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
Comparison · Analytics
qualtRics vs rbmi
A side-by-side editorial comparison of qualtRics and rbmi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
qualtRics vs rbmi: at a glance
What is qualtRics?
qualtRics moved its contact functions onto XM Directory days before the old endpoints died.
qualtRics is the R client for the Qualtrics v3 API — fetching survey responses, definitions, distributions, and contact lists into tidy data frames. Version 3.3.0 migrated all_mailinglists() and fetch_mailinglist() from the deprecated Research Core Contacts endpoints to XM Directory, ahead of Qualtrics retiring the old ones on June 30, 2026. Authentication and directory discovery are handled automatically, but the new endpoints return a different data shape, so column names changed. Before that, releases had been steady maintenance for two years, mostly around how survey response archives are unpacked.
What is rbmi?
Reference-based multiple imputation for trials, now shipping without Bayesian support by default.
rbmi implements reference-based multiple imputation for longitudinal clinical trial data with missing values — the estimand machinery regulators expect for handling intercurrent events and dropout. The consequential recent change was 1.3.0 moving rstan from a hard dependency to Suggests, which takes Bayesian imputation out of the default install. Since then the work has been documentation and nomenclature discipline: 1.6.1 standardized on MNAR over a mixed NMAR/MNAR vocabulary and deprecated the nmar.rm argument accordingly.
qualtRics vs rbmi: editorial side-by-side
qualtRics
0.0ANALYTICS
qualtRics moved its contact functions onto XM Directory days before the old endpoints died.
◆ Current state
qualtRics is the R client for the Qualtrics v3 API — fetching survey responses, definitions, distributions, and contact lists into tidy data frames. Version 3.3.0 migrated all_mailinglists() and fetch_mailinglist() from the deprecated Research Core Contacts endpoints to XM Directory, ahead of Qualtrics retiring the old ones on June 30, 2026. Authentication and directory discovery are handled automatically, but the new endpoints return a different data shape, so column names changed. Before that, releases had been steady maintenance for two years, mostly around how survey response archives are unpacked.
◆ Where it's heading
This package's roadmap is set by Qualtrics, not by its maintainers, and the release history reads as a sequence of accommodations — endpoint changes, retired APIs, and edge cases in exported files. The team's own recurring theme is reducing surprise: caching was removed from fetch_survey() in 3.2.0 so results are never stale, error handling was standardized on retry semantics, and column mappings were made inspectable via extract_colmap(). Feature additions, when they come, are new endpoints wrapped rather than new abstractions.
◆ Prediction
With the Contacts migration complete, the next likely work is bringing the remaining Research Core-era functions onto XM Directory equivalents before Qualtrics retires more of the old surface.
rbmi
2.5ANALYTICS
Reference-based multiple imputation for trials, now shipping without Bayesian support by default.
◆ Current state
rbmi implements reference-based multiple imputation for longitudinal clinical trial data with missing values — the estimand machinery regulators expect for handling intercurrent events and dropout. The consequential recent change was 1.3.0 moving rstan from a hard dependency to Suggests, which takes Bayesian imputation out of the default install. Since then the work has been documentation and nomenclature discipline: 1.6.1 standardized on MNAR over a mixed NMAR/MNAR vocabulary and deprecated the nmar.rm argument accordingly.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is optimizing for adoption friction over feature breadth. Dropping a compiled Stan dependency from the default install, deprecating a bespoke seed argument in favor of base set.seed(), and aligning lsmeans() behavior and weight naming with emmeans all point the same direction — behave like a conventional R package rather than a specialized one. Documentation work in 1.6.1 covering @return on every exported function and executable examples reads as preparation for validation scrutiny rather than user demand.
◆ Prediction
Given the FAQ vignette's validation statement and the recent documentation completeness pass, the next work is more likely qualification and estimand documentation than new imputation methods.
Alternatives to qualtRics and rbmi
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 qualtRics or rbmi.
DoseFinding
New stewardship at openpharma, then two releases adding the methods MCP-Mod was missing
webmockr
The stubbing library added httr2 support, then spent a year cutting itself free of everything else
crul
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
dendroNetwork
Six releases, six identical bodies — the feed carries the package abstract instead of release notes
chattr
chattr deleted every LLM integration it had written and outsourced the lot to ellmer
See all qualtRics alternatives → · See all rbmi alternatives →
Recent activity from qualtRics and rbmi
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 22d agorbmiMNAR nomenclature standardized, documentation completed
- 1mo agoqualtRicsMailing list functions migrated to the XM Directory API ⚡
- 11mo agoqualtRicsZip extraction handles more special characters in survey titles
- 1y agorbmirstan demoted to Suggests, Bayesian imputation now opt-in ⚡
- 1y agoqualtRicsFix for questions with both recoded values and variable naming
- 1y agoqualtRicsBuild and CI housekeeping alongside the 3.2.1 release
- 2y agoqualtRicsSurvey response caching removed from fetch_survey()
- 2y agorbmirbmi v1.2.5
- 3y agoqualtRicsArgument checking refactor and include_* NA fix
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between qualtRics and rbmi?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. rbmi is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 qualtRics better than rbmi?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rbmi is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 qualtRics?
Top qualtRics alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qualtRics alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qualtrics for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rbmi?
Top rbmi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rbmi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rbmi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.