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Comparison · Analytics
rstanarm vs stacks
A side-by-side editorial comparison of rstanarm and stacks — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
rstanarm vs stacks: at a glance
What is rstanarm?
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
2.32.2 is entirely infrastructure and dependency work: formula machinery migrated from lme4 to reformulas, `r_eff` no longer computed for loo by default, the Stan R packages repo replaced by R-Universe, rstantools adopted to fix build and export errors, and CRAN NOTE cleanups — contributed largely by four first-time contributors. 2.32.1 and 2.26.1 follow the same pattern, tracking rstan syntax and adding `posterior::as_draws()` support. The last release with substantive modelling content is 2.21.1, which changed how default priors are determined and flipped `autoscale` to FALSE outside default priors.
What is stacks?
Model stacking in tidymodels, quietly migrating off foreach and onto future
stacks builds ensembles from tidymodels tuning results, and its release history is dominated by one long project: replacing foreach-based parallelism with the future framework. That transition completed in 1.1.0, where foreach backends began being ignored with a warning and the minimum R version rose to 4.1. Releases are infrequent and small, with the most recent being a CRAN re-submission rather than a change.
rstanarm vs stacks: editorial side-by-side
rstanarm
0.0ANALYTICS
rstanarm is community-maintained now, tracking Stan and lme4 rather than adding models.
◆ Current state
2.32.2 is entirely infrastructure and dependency work: formula machinery migrated from lme4 to reformulas, `r_eff` no longer computed for loo by default, the Stan R packages repo replaced by R-Universe, rstantools adopted to fix build and export errors, and CRAN NOTE cleanups — contributed largely by four first-time contributors. 2.32.1 and 2.26.1 follow the same pattern, tracking rstan syntax and adding `posterior::as_draws()` support. The last release with substantive modelling content is 2.21.1, which changed how default priors are determined and flipped `autoscale` to FALSE outside default priors.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has moved from feature development into ecosystem maintenance, and the contributor list shows why it survives: outside developers keep it compiling against a moving Stan, lme4 and CRAN. The `as_draws()` support and the reformulas migration both point the same way — rstanarm increasingly consumes shared infrastructure (posterior, reformulas, rstantools) instead of carrying its own.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to track another upstream change — rstan, reformulas or CRAN policy — rather than add model families. The pre-fit model surface looks settled.
stacks
0.0ANALYTICS
Model stacking in tidymodels, quietly migrating off foreach and onto future
◆ Current state
stacks builds ensembles from tidymodels tuning results, and its release history is dominated by one long project: replacing foreach-based parallelism with the future framework. That transition completed in 1.1.0, where foreach backends began being ignored with a warning and the minimum R version rose to 4.1. Releases are infrequent and small, with the most recent being a CRAN re-submission rather than a change.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is mature and its remaining work is compatibility rather than capability — tracking the parallelism story across tidymodels, keeping object sizes sane after butchering and reloading, and staying aligned with recipes deprecations. The augment() method added for vetiver compatibility shows the same instinct: fit into the surrounding ecosystem rather than grow independently of it. Nothing in the visible history suggests new ensembling methods are being pursued.
◆ Prediction
With the future migration finished, the next release is most likely maintenance keeping pace with tune and recipes rather than anything users would notice.
Alternatives to rstanarm and stacks
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 rstanarm or stacks.
writexl
writexl spent nine years refusing to do formatting, then shipped all of it in 2.0.0.
rgbif
rgbif is steadily pushing users off paged searching and onto real downloads.
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 rstanarm alternatives → · See all stacks alternatives →
Recent activity from rstanarm and stacks
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10mo agorstanarmrstanarm 2.32.2 migrates formula machinery to reformulas
- 1y agostacksstacks 1.1.1 re-released to clear a CRAN check note
- 1y agostacksstacks 1.1.0 completes the move to future-based parallelism
- 2y agostacksstacks 1.0.5 fixes butchered stack size inflation
- 2y agostacksstacks 1.0.4 introduces future-based parallel processing
- 2y agorstanarmrstanarm 2.32.1 fixes unit_vector error, enables LTO
- 2y agostacksstacks 1.0.3 clears recipes deprecations and a type-check bug
- 2y agorstanarmrstanarm 2.26.1 adopts new rstan syntax and as_draws()
- 3y agostacksstacks 1.0.2 adds an augment() method for vetiver compatibility
- 4y agorstanarmrstanarm 2.21.3 fixes loo() and adds stan_jm offsets
- 6y agorstanarmrstanarm 2.21.1 changes default prior behaviour
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between rstanarm and stacks?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. rstanarm and stacks 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 rstanarm better than stacks?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rstanarm and stacks 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 rstanarm?
Top rstanarm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rstanarm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rstanarm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to stacks?
Top stacks alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "stacks alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/stacks for the full list with editorial commentary on each.