distributions3
distributions3 0.3.0 adds sample-based distributions and likelihood derivatives
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fastglm and NocoDB — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
A fast GLM solver stops being one function and becomes a count-model family
fastglm ran C++ IRLS for standard generalized linear models for six years with almost no releases. In May 2026 it added three top-level model types — negative binomial with jointly estimated dispersion, hurdle, and zero-inflated — each with the entire fitting driver in C++ rather than an R loop around a C++ kernel. The following release generalised Firth bias reduction to every standard family across dense, sparse and streaming backends.
Interfaces gets the permissions layer it needed, one release after launching.
NocoDB ships monthly, and the last two releases are a launch and its follow-through. 2026.08.0 introduced Interfaces, custom app surfaces built over a base; 2026.08.1 gives that layer what it was missing — per-dashboard visibility and editing permissions, field edit permissions enforced on interface pages, team-granted access, and page reordering. Alongside it the grid gains realtime presence with per-collaborator colours and jump-to-cursor, folders for grouping tables and views, up to three frozen fields, and nested records in List View.
fastglm ran C++ IRLS for standard generalized linear models for six years with almost no releases. In May 2026 it added three top-level model types — negative binomial with jointly estimated dispersion, hurdle, and zero-inflated — each with the entire fitting driver in C++ rather than an R loop around a C++ kernel. The following release generalised Firth bias reduction to every standard family across dense, sparse and streaming backends.
The package changed what it is. Through 0.0.3 it was a drop-in replacement for glm() competing on speed; from 0.1.0 it targets the models people leave base R for — MASS::glm.nb, pscl::hurdle, pscl::zeroinfl — and reimplements their full estimation loops natively. The 0.1.1 follow-up is consolidation on that new surface: Firth generalised past binomial logit, SQUAREM acceleration on the zero-inflation EM driver, and a run of clamping guards and initialization fixes on the families most prone to overflow.
The numerical-stability work in 0.1.1 clusters on Tweedie and the inverse and sqrt link families, which suggests those paths are the newest and least exercised — expect further correctness fixes there before new model types.
NocoDB ships monthly, and the last two releases are a launch and its follow-through. 2026.08.0 introduced Interfaces, custom app surfaces built over a base; 2026.08.1 gives that layer what it was missing — per-dashboard visibility and editing permissions, field edit permissions enforced on interface pages, team-granted access, and page reordering. Alongside it the grid gains realtime presence with per-collaborator colours and jump-to-cursor, folders for grouping tables and views, up to three frozen fields, and nested records in List View.
The pattern is consistent: NocoDB launches a surface, then spends the next release making it governable and usable at team scale. Presence and folders are collaboration parity rather than new direction — the directional bet was Interfaces, and this release is that bet being made safe for the eighty people who only need to approve something. The permission system is now the same one across tables, fields, dashboards, and interface pages, which is the consolidation that makes the app layer sellable.
Write-back actions and embedding are the remaining pieces app builders expect from Interfaces, and the availability tables in each release suggest they land on the paid tier.
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 fastglm or NocoDB.
distributions3 0.3.0 adds sample-based distributions and likelihood derivatives
Basedash keeps pushing its data out of the workspace — now to people without accounts
RStudio ships through release branches, and the notes are commit messages
dbt Fusion's second beta is adapter work: ClickHouse gets materializations, indexes, and catalogs
Fulcrum is betting its whole map stack on Esri, with a hard Google Maps cutoff on September 1.
Holistics keeps fencing in the AI layer it spent the summer building.
See all fastglm alternatives → · See all NocoDB alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. NocoDB is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. NocoDB is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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.
Top fastglm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fastglm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fastglm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top NocoDB alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NocoDB alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nocodb for the full list with editorial commentary on each.