writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
Comparison · Analytics
rnaturalearth vs tidypredict
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rnaturalearth and tidypredict — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
rnaturalearth vs tidypredict: at a glance
What is rnaturalearth?
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
1.0.0 ended sp support outright, making sf the default and offering terra's SpatVector via `returnclass`, after 0.3.3 had signposted that with lifecycle badges. The two releases since move to delivery mechanics: 1.1.0 reads data directly out of the zip through the GDAL Virtual File System, starts moving unloaded downloads to GeoPackage instead of shapefile, and switches the base URL to naciscdn.org; 1.2.0 adds caching to `ne_download()` when `destdir` is persistent, swaps devtools for pak when installing the companion data packages, and handles Natural Earth's inconsistent raster zip layouts.
What is tidypredict?
tidypredict now translates the gradient-boosting libraries people actually deploy
tidypredict converts fitted R models into SQL and dplyr expressions so predictions can run inside a database instead of in R. The 1.1.0 release added rpart, CatBoost, and LightGBM, with full objective and tree-type coverage for the boosted models. That followed 1.0.0, which broke random-forest output into a single formula, added glmnet, and cut fit-translation time for xgboost, partykit, and ranger.
rnaturalearth vs tidypredict: editorial side-by-side
rnaturalearth
0.0ANALYTICS
rnaturalearth finished its sp exit and is now optimising how the data actually arrives.
◆ Current state
1.0.0 ended sp support outright, making sf the default and offering terra's SpatVector via `returnclass`, after 0.3.3 had signposted that with lifecycle badges. The two releases since move to delivery mechanics: 1.1.0 reads data directly out of the zip through the GDAL Virtual File System, starts moving unloaded downloads to GeoPackage instead of shapefile, and switches the base URL to naciscdn.org; 1.2.0 adds caching to `ne_download()` when `destdir` is persistent, swaps devtools for pak when installing the companion data packages, and handles Natural Earth's inconsistent raster zip layouts.
◆ Where it's heading
With the class question settled, the work has shifted to not re-downloading and not unpacking — VFS reads, caching, and a container format that does not need a sidecar of four files. That points at the package being used in repeated or automated contexts rather than interactive one-offs. The shapefile-to-GeoPackage transition is explicitly incomplete.
◆ Prediction
Completing the GeoPackage transition for `load = FALSE` downloads is the obvious next step, since 1.1.0 described it as in progress.
tidypredict
0.0ANALYTICS
tidypredict now translates the gradient-boosting libraries people actually deploy
◆ Current state
tidypredict converts fitted R models into SQL and dplyr expressions so predictions can run inside a database instead of in R. The 1.1.0 release added rpart, CatBoost, and LightGBM, with full objective and tree-type coverage for the boosted models. That followed 1.0.0, which broke random-forest output into a single formula, added glmnet, and cut fit-translation time for xgboost, partykit, and ranger.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's value scales directly with how many model types it can translate, and the recent work has concentrated on the tree ensembles that dominate tabular modelling in practice. Coverage now extends past what parsnip wraps, since raw CatBoost models are supported alongside parsnip and bonsai ones with an explicit escape hatch for categorical features. Performance work on the translation step suggests the models being converted have grown large enough for that to matter.
◆ Prediction
With the major boosting libraries covered, the remaining gap is what happens to preprocessing, so tighter integration with recipes or orbital for translating whole workflows is the natural next step.
Alternatives to rnaturalearth and tidypredict
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 rnaturalearth or tidypredict.
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 rnaturalearth alternatives → · See all tidypredict alternatives →
Recent activity from rnaturalearth and tidypredict
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agotidypredicttidypredict 1.1.0 adds CatBoost, LightGBM, and rpart support ⚡
- 6mo agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.2.0
- 8mo agotidypredicttidypredict 1.0.1 fixes base_score extraction for xgboost 3
- 8mo agotidypredicttidypredict 1.0.0 unifies random forest output and adds glmnet
- 1y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.1.0
- 1y agotidypredicttidypredict 0.5.1 exports internals for the orbital package
- 2y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 1.0.0 drops sp for sf and terra
- 3y agornaturalearthrnaturalearth 0.3.3 deprecates sp, imports terra
- 3y agotidypredicttidypredict 0.5 hands maintenance to a new maintainer
- 4y agotidypredicttidypredict 0.4.9 relicenses to MIT and fixes SQL generation
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rnaturalearth and tidypredict?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rnaturalearth and tidypredict 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 rnaturalearth better than tidypredict?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rnaturalearth and tidypredict 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 rnaturalearth?
Top rnaturalearth alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rnaturalearth alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rnaturalearth for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidypredict?
Top tidypredict alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidypredict alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidypredict for the full list with editorial commentary on each.