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Comparison · Analytics

benviplot vs silx

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

Shared themes:data-visualization

benviplot vs silx: at a glance

Featurebenviplotsilx
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesdata-visualization, color-palettes, ggplot2, brazilian-housingscientific-computing, data-visualization, synchrotron, qt
Last editorial update1d ago3h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is benviplot?

A Brazilian housing-data palette package went from internal tooling to public 1.0 in five days.

benviplot supplies color palettes, ggplot2 scales, themes and plot helpers for charts in a consistent house style, oriented around Brazilian urban and rental-market data. The entire public history is compressed into early October 2025: a six-phase release plan took it from removing proprietary data through modernization, testing, vignettes, documentation and CI to a stable 1.0.0. The shipped package carries 36 curated palettes, discrete and continuous scale functions, and a rental price index dataset covering six Brazilian cities.

Read the full benviplot trajectory →

What is silx?

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

Read the full silx trajectory →

benviplot vs silx: editorial side-by-side

B
benviplot
ANALYTICS
0.0

A Brazilian housing-data palette package went from internal tooling to public 1.0 in five days.

◆ Current state

benviplot supplies color palettes, ggplot2 scales, themes and plot helpers for charts in a consistent house style, oriented around Brazilian urban and rental-market data. The entire public history is compressed into early October 2025: a six-phase release plan took it from removing proprietary data through modernization, testing, vignettes, documentation and CI to a stable 1.0.0. The shipped package carries 36 curated palettes, discrete and continuous scale functions, and a rental price index dataset covering six Brazilian cities.

◆ Where it's heading

This is an internal tool being packaged for public consumption rather than a product evolving in the open — the phases were about legal separation, test coverage and check compliance, not new capability. Removing the sensitive QuintoAndar dataset and adding a disclaimer establishing independence was phase one, which frames the whole exercise. The one substantive addition along the way was the IQAIW rental index, built from a public source to replace what was removed.

◆ Prediction

With the release plan completed and the package stable, the most likely next work is periodic refreshes of the rental index dataset, which is published on an ongoing basis from 2023 onward. The entries give no indication of planned new palettes or plot functions.

S
silx
ANALYTICS
5.0

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

◆ Current state

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

◆ Where it's heading

The cadence has slowed markedly since April, and the content has shifted from structural change to plotting and colormap refinement. That is the expected shape after a binding migration: downstream beamline code needs a stable target, so the project trades feature velocity for a quiet surface. The gap between 3.0.1 in May and 3.1.0 in August is the clearest signal of the deliberate slowdown.

◆ Prediction

Expect further point releases servicing the plotting and fitting widgets rather than another structural change, with feature work continuing to arrive in the 3.1.x minors rather than patches.

Alternatives to benviplot and silx

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 benviplot or silx.

See all benviplot alternatives → · See all silx alternatives →

Recent activity from benviplot and silx

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

  1. 5h agosilxFitWidget fix for loading a fit function from file
  2. 9d agosilx3.1.0: asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, dark-theme icons
  3. 3mo agosilx3.0.1: silx view fails to disable HDF5 file locking
  4. 3mo agosilx3.0.0: PySide6 becomes the default Qt binding, Python 3.10 required
  5. 3mo agosilx3.0.0rc1: release candidate for the PySide6 migration
  6. 10mo agobenviplotFirst stable release: 36 palettes, scales and plot helpers
  7. 10mo agobenviplotpkgdown site and multi-platform CI added
  8. 10mo agobenviplotIQAIW rental price index added for six Brazilian cities
  9. 10mo agobenviplotFour vignettes covering palettes, plots and theming
  10. 10mo agobenviplotTest suite of 196 tests, with pre-release bugs fixed
  11. 10mo agobenviplotBreaking 'pal' to 'palette' rename and ggplot2 4.0.0 fixes
  12. 1y agosilx2.2.2: plot axes limits, OpenGL axes and libhdf5 1.14 fixes

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between benviplot and silx?

Both compete on the same themes — data-visualization — within Analytics. silx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 benviplot better than silx?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. silx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 benviplot?

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

What are the best alternatives to silx?

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