← Back to home
Comparison · Analytics

Fulcrum vs vellumwidget

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

Fulcrum vs vellumwidget: at a glance

FeatureFulcrumvellumwidget
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score6.36.3
Sparks · 30d01
Top themesgis, esri-migration, offline-maps, field-data-capturer-graphics, interactive-widgets, declarative-interaction, shiny
Last editorial update3h ago3d ago
WebsiteVisit →

What is Fulcrum?

Fulcrum is betting its whole map stack on Esri, with a hard Google Maps cutoff on September 1.

Fulcrum is a field data collection platform, and nearly every entry in the last month touches mapping. The web app ships weekly fix batches for layer rendering (KML/KMZ, MBTiles, ArcGIS Feature Services), while iOS and Android push near-weekly builds against the ArcGIS SDK. The newest iOS build turns to app-level responsiveness - database queries moved off the main path and the record editor kept interactive while Photo FastFill works in the background.

Read the full Fulcrum trajectory →

What is vellumwidget?

vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.

vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.

Read the full vellumwidget trajectory →

Fulcrum vs vellumwidget: editorial side-by-side

F
Fulcrum
ANALYTICS
6.3

Fulcrum is betting its whole map stack on Esri, with a hard Google Maps cutoff on September 1.

◆ Current state

Fulcrum is a field data collection platform, and nearly every entry in the last month touches mapping. The web app ships weekly fix batches for layer rendering (KML/KMZ, MBTiles, ArcGIS Feature Services), while iOS and Android push near-weekly builds against the ArcGIS SDK. The newest iOS build turns to app-level responsiveness - database queries moved off the main path and the record editor kept interactive while Photo FastFill works in the background.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is a full consolidation onto Esri. The legacy Google Maps engine retires on September 1 with automatic migration for anyone who has not switched, and Esri now carries Google's satellite and street basemaps so the imagery argument is neutralized. Underneath, the mobile SDK moved to ArcGIS 300.0.0 and ONNX on-device inference gave way to a new INFERENCE format. Two capabilities are visibly staged behind early access rather than shipped: Photo FastFill, and a GPS integration still described as Alpha.

◆ Prediction

Expect the weeks before September 1 to stay dominated by migration-shaped fixes and Esri parity work, with Photo FastFill the nearer of the two early-access programs to general availability given it is already running in shipped builds.

V
vellumwidget
ANALYTICS
6.3

vellumwidget is dissolving its own API: interaction now lives in the plot spec, not the widget call.

◆ Current state

vellumwidget compiles a vellum scene or a vellumplot plot into a self-contained client-side htmlwidget with hover, select, brush, lasso, pan/zoom and export, and no server round-trip. The two-way Shiny story is complete: interactions surface as reactive inputs keyed by output id, and vellumwidget_proxy() drives an already-rendered widget from the server without re-rendering it. The last two releases are fidelity work rather than new surface, calibrating hit-testing from the rendered positions of marks and rendering the raster base image at 2x for HiDPI screens.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is declarative. 0.7.0 removed the interaction-intent arguments from as_widget() outright, dropping the signature from roughly 36 arguments to 24 and moving highlight, filter and cross-filter into vellumplot's spec via select_point(), condition() and filter_by(). Each release since has enacted more of that compiled spec on the frozen scene, from conditional encodings to single-view filters to cross-view cross-filtering, leaving the widget as an interpreter of the plot rather than a configuration surface of its own. The bug fixes track the same theme the engine's do: measured geometry and rendered geometry must not drift.

◆ Prediction

The notes name the remaining hold-outs explicitly, saying hover_mode, crosshair, legend_click, select_mode and the tooltip-appearance arguments remain only until their spec equivalents land, so the next releases most likely move those into vellumplot and shrink as_widget() further. The scale binds flagged as following the filter work are the other stated next step.

Alternatives to Fulcrum and vellumwidget

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 Fulcrum or vellumwidget.

See all Fulcrum alternatives → · See all vellumwidget alternatives →

Recent activity from Fulcrum and vellumwidget

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

  1. 1d agoFulcrumiOS: async database queries, non-blocking Photo FastFill
  2. 5d agoFulcrumWeb fixes: shared-view exports, MBTiles popups, KML and ArcGIS layers
  3. 7d agoFulcrumAndroid: update offline map layers in place, non-blocking Photo FastFill
  4. 8d agoFulcrumiOS fix: slow location resolution blocked record saves
  5. 13d agoFulcrumWeb: SSO email wording and ArcGIS/deck.gl version bumps
  6. 14d agoFulcrumAndroid fixes: ArcGIS stability, signature button, photo markup
  7. 18d agovellumwidget2x raster base image for HiDPI, and exact element hit-testing
  8. 23d agovellumwidgetInteraction moves into the plot spec; as_widget() sheds a third of its arguments
  9. 1mo agovellumwidgetAxis-aware zoom re-ticks the axes instead of scaling the whole scene
  10. 1mo agovellumwidgetSelectable native SVG text, and crisp canvas redraw when zooming raster
  11. 1mo agovellumwidgetServer-side proxy drives a rendered widget without re-rendering it
  12. 1mo agovellumwidgetShiny input read-back, and keyboard plus screen-reader access by default

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Fulcrum and vellumwidget?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Fulcrum and vellumwidget are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, 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 Fulcrum better than vellumwidget?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Fulcrum and vellumwidget are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, 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 Fulcrum?

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

What are the best alternatives to vellumwidget?

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