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Comparison · Analytics

qualtRics vs typst-gather

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

qualtRics vs typst-gather: at a glance

FeaturequaltRicstypst-gather
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themessurvey-data, api-client, qualtrics, ropenscitypst, hermetic-builds, rust, cli-tooling
Last editorial update1h ago41m ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

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.

Read the full qualtRics trajectory →

What is typst-gather?

Extracted from Quarto's CLI, typst-gather learned to explain a dependency tree before fetching it.

typst-gather collects Typst packages into a local cache so documents build offline and hermetically. It was extracted from quarto-cli and reached CRAN-equivalent shape in three releases over a single day, then added an `analyze` subcommand that walks `@Preview` and `@Local` imports — following transitive dependencies of local packages — and prints structured JSON without downloading or copying anything.

Read the full typst-gather trajectory →

qualtRics vs typst-gather: editorial side-by-side

Q
qualtRics
ANALYTICS
0.0

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.

T
typst-gather
ANALYTICS
0.0

Extracted from Quarto's CLI, typst-gather learned to explain a dependency tree before fetching it.

◆ Current state

typst-gather collects Typst packages into a local cache so documents build offline and hermetically. It was extracted from quarto-cli and reached CRAN-equivalent shape in three releases over a single day, then added an `analyze` subcommand that walks `@Preview` and `@Local` imports — following transitive dependencies of local packages — and prints structured JSON without downloading or copying anything.

◆ Where it's heading

The 0.2.0 restructuring is the tell: subcommands with backwards compatibility, config readable from stdin, and every diagnostic message moved to stderr so stdout carries nothing but JSON. Those are the conventions of a tool meant to be called by another program, not typed by a person. Given its origin inside Quarto's toolchain, the plausible consumer is a build system that needs to know a document's package requirements before deciding what to fetch.

◆ Prediction

The analyze path currently reports imports; the natural extension visible from here is acting on that report — lockfile output or verification that a cache satisfies a document's dependency set — though the entries do not commit to either.

Alternatives to qualtRics and typst-gather

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 typst-gather.

See all qualtRics alternatives → · See all typst-gather alternatives →

Recent activity from qualtRics and typst-gather

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

  1. 1mo agoqualtRicsMailing list functions migrated to the XM Directory API
  2. 5mo agotypst-gatheranalyze subcommand reports the import graph as JSON
  3. 5mo agotypst-gatherWindows path escaping fix and README expansion
  4. 5mo agotypst-gatherSplit out of quarto-cli as a standalone package gatherer
  5. 11mo agoqualtRicsZip extraction handles more special characters in survey titles
  6. 1y agoqualtRicsFix for questions with both recoded values and variable naming
  7. 1y agoqualtRicsBuild and CI housekeeping alongside the 3.2.1 release
  8. 2y agoqualtRicsSurvey response caching removed from fetch_survey()
  9. 3y agoqualtRicsArgument checking refactor and include_* NA fix

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between qualtRics and typst-gather?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. qualtRics and typst-gather 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 qualtRics better than typst-gather?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. qualtRics and typst-gather 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 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 typst-gather?

Top typst-gather alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "typst-gather alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/typst-gather for the full list with editorial commentary on each.