n2kanalysis
n2kanalysis has spent eight years wiring INLA models to an S3 bucket.
Comparison · Analytics
shapviz vs tidyterra
A side-by-side editorial comparison of shapviz and tidyterra — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
shapviz vs tidyterra: at a glance
What is shapviz?
shapviz refines its SHAP plots release by release while chasing ggplot2's moving target.
shapviz turns SHAP values from XGBoost, LightGBM, H2O, kernelshap and other sources into standard diagnostic plots — importance, dependence, waterfall, force and interaction. Recent work is plot ergonomics: shared y-axis control across dependence plots, a bar view for interaction values, and axis collection via patchwork. The two most recent releases are pure compatibility and bug fixes.
What is tidyterra?
tidyterra finished wiring terra objects into the tidyverse, one verb family at a time.
tidyterra supplies tidyverse methods and ggplot2 geoms for terra's SpatRaster and SpatVector classes, so spatial objects can be manipulated with dplyr verbs and plotted without conversion. The 1.0.0 release in January 2026 set a hard ggplot2 4.0.0 floor and added broom-style generics — tidy(), glance() and required_pkgs() across SpatRaster, SpatVector, SpatGraticule and SpatExtent. The 1.1.0 and 1.2.0 releases since have filled in the remaining dplyr and tidyr verb surface for SpatVector.
shapviz vs tidyterra: editorial side-by-side
shapviz
0.0ANALYTICS
shapviz refines its SHAP plots release by release while chasing ggplot2's moving target.
◆ Current state
shapviz turns SHAP values from XGBoost, LightGBM, H2O, kernelshap and other sources into standard diagnostic plots — importance, dependence, waterfall, force and interaction. Recent work is plot ergonomics: shared y-axis control across dependence plots, a bar view for interaction values, and axis collection via patchwork. The two most recent releases are pure compatibility and bug fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel here. One is visual refinement converging on conventions from Python's shap — the 0.10.0 notes openly float switching share_y to TRUE to match it. The other is connector maintenance, keeping pace with H2O, XGBoost 1.x and 2.x, shapr and permshap as each changes. Neither thread adds new explanation methods; shapviz's job is presentation, and it is being polished rather than extended.
◆ Prediction
Expect share_y = TRUE to become the default and further ggplot2 4.x fallout, with connector updates arriving as the upstream SHAP packages release.
tidyterra
0.0ANALYTICS
tidyterra finished wiring terra objects into the tidyverse, one verb family at a time.
◆ Current state
tidyterra supplies tidyverse methods and ggplot2 geoms for terra's SpatRaster and SpatVector classes, so spatial objects can be manipulated with dplyr verbs and plotted without conversion. The 1.0.0 release in January 2026 set a hard ggplot2 4.0.0 floor and added broom-style generics — tidy(), glance() and required_pkgs() across SpatRaster, SpatVector, SpatGraticule and SpatExtent. The 1.1.0 and 1.2.0 releases since have filled in the remaining dplyr and tidyr verb surface for SpatVector.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is converging on complete verb coverage rather than branching into new capability. 1.2.0 landed the grouping and nesting family — group_split, group_nest, nest_by, nest, nest_join, group_map, group_modify, reframe, cross_join, complete, expand — which is the last large gap between SpatVector and an ordinary data frame. Its cadence is set externally: releases track ggplot2 and dplyr version transitions, adopting arguments like .by as they stabilize upstream. The maintainer now states AI assistance explicitly for both documentation and generated methods.
◆ Prediction
With the verb surface close to complete, expect the next releases to track upstream ggplot2 and dplyr changes and to extend coverage to SpatRaster where methods currently exist only for SpatVector.
Alternatives to shapviz and tidyterra
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 shapviz or tidyterra.
n1qn1c
A Fortran-descended optimizer got thread-safe, then found two flags that never worked.
ggstatsplot
ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.
collapse
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
gtsummary
gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.
broadcast
broadcast is filling in NumPy-style array broadcasting for R, operator by operator.
See all shapviz alternatives → · See all tidyterra alternatives →
Recent activity from shapviz and tidyterra
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agotidyterraGrouping and nesting verbs arrive for SpatVector
- 5mo agotidyterra.by stabilizes across mutate, filter, slice and fill
- 6mo agotidyterra1.0.0 requires ggplot2 4.0 and adds broom-style generics ⚡
- 10mo agoshapvizggplot 4.0 compatibility fix
- 1y agoshapvizFixes duplicated bars in sv_interaction()
- 1y agoshapvizggplot2 and patchwork dependency bumps
- 1y agoshapvizShared y-axis control and bar-style interaction plots
- 1y agotidyterraTest hotfix for CRAN
- 1y agotidyterramask_projection stops rasters wrapping around the globe
- 1y agotidyterraFactor levels combined across layers; scale limits truncate legends
- 1y agoshapvizH2O random forests gain TreeSHAP support
- 1y agoshapvizFixes a broken vignette link
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between shapviz and tidyterra?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Analytics. shapviz and tidyterra 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 shapviz better than tidyterra?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. shapviz and tidyterra 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 shapviz?
Top shapviz alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "shapviz alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/shapviz for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidyterra?
Top tidyterra alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidyterra alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidyterra for the full list with editorial commentary on each.