vcfR
A genomics workhorse whose visible release feed stops dead in mid-2020.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
ggalign vs ggh4x
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggalign and ggh4x — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ggplot2
ggalign vs ggh4x: at a glance
What is ggalign?
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
ggalign composes multiple ggplots against a shared observation ordering, covering heatmap annotation, oncoplots, phylogenies and circular layouts. Releases have come roughly monthly through 2025, first completing the layout system, then migrating the internals to S7 and absorbing the ggplot2 4.0 changes. The alignment machinery is now exported for other packages to build on.
What is ggh4x?
Handed its axis and legend guides to ggplot2 and legendry, and kept the facets
ggh4x is a set of ggplot2 extensions — nested and manual facets, per-facet scales, forced panel sizes, and statistics such as stat_difference() and stat_rle(). Its guide functions, once a substantial part of the package, are deprecated: 0.3.0 redirected users to ggplot2's own guide arguments and to the legendry package, and 0.3.1 made the deprecated functions return plain equivalents. What remains as this package's own territory is facetting and panel layout.
ggalign vs ggh4x: editorial side-by-side
ggalign
0.0INFRA · APIS
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
◆ Current state
ggalign composes multiple ggplots against a shared observation ordering, covering heatmap annotation, oncoplots, phylogenies and circular layouts. Releases have come roughly monthly through 2025, first completing the layout system, then migrating the internals to S7 and absorbing the ggplot2 4.0 changes. The alignment machinery is now exported for other packages to build on.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel. One widens what can be aligned, with sector facets, ideograms, image point shapes and observation linking. The other keeps rebuilding the foundation, with the S7 migration, repeated renames toward consistent naming, and the deliberate handing of element_polygon() and element_curve() upstream to ggplot2. The renaming is aggressive enough that each recent release soft-deprecates something.
◆ Prediction
With the internals on S7 and the Patch object exported, the next step is most likely stabilising those names rather than another refactor.
ggh4x
0.0INFRA · APIS
Handed its axis and legend guides to ggplot2 and legendry, and kept the facets
◆ Current state
ggh4x is a set of ggplot2 extensions — nested and manual facets, per-facet scales, forced panel sizes, and statistics such as stat_difference() and stat_rle(). Its guide functions, once a substantial part of the package, are deprecated: 0.3.0 redirected users to ggplot2's own guide arguments and to the legendry package, and 0.3.1 made the deprecated functions return plain equivalents. What remains as this package's own territory is facetting and panel layout.
◆ Where it's heading
The handover was signalled well in advance. Version 0.2.5 set the guides' lifecycle to 'questioning' and said outright they might migrate to a new package once ggplot2 overhauled its guide system, and 0.3.0 executed that eighteen months later. Much of the rest of the changelog is anticipatory compatibility work for upcoming ggplot2 releases, the standing cost of being an extension package. Releases carry playful codenames that say nothing about their contents.
◆ Prediction
The deprecated guide functions are scheduled for removal in the next non-hotfix release, so expect that next; continued work should concentrate on facets and panel sizing, the areas neither ggplot2 nor legendry has absorbed.
Alternatives to ggalign and ggh4x
Other Infra & APIs 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 ggalign or ggh4x.
dialr
The R phone-number package stopped only parsing numbers and started asking them where they are.
ggVennDiagram
A Venn diagram package whose public release notes say almost nothing — including about its copyright cleanup.
ordinalsimr
A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.
transltr
A new R localization package that reached CRAN and immediately downgraded itself to experimental.
hereR
An R client for HERE's location APIs, shaped almost entirely by what the vendor exposes next.
See all ggalign alternatives → · See all ggh4x alternatives →
Recent activity from ggalign and ggh4x
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10mo agoggalignalignpatch internals moved to S7; Patch object exported
- 11mo agoggalignInternals migrated to S7; ideogram, tags and image shapes
- 1y agoggh4xDeprecated guides now return plain ggplot2 equivalents
- 1y agoggalignz aesthetic scales and guide collection in borders
- 1y agoggalignchannelGrob() draws across facets; ggplot2 3.5.2 fix
- 1y agoggalignLayout system declared complete; polar facets and coord_circle()
- 1y agoggalignLayouts split into discrete and continuous; linking system added ⚡
- 1y agoggh4xGuide functions deprecated in favour of ggplot2 and legendry ⚡
- 2y agoggh4xCRAN note fix and two facet bug fixes
- 2y agoggh4xAnticipatory changes for ggplot2 3.5.0
- 3y agoggh4xGuides marked 'questioning'; render_empty and panel-area sizing
- 3y agoggh4xSemi-discrete manual scales and facet whitespace handling
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggalign and ggh4x?
Both compete on the same themes — ggplot2 — within Infra & APIs. ggalign and ggh4x 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 ggalign better than ggh4x?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggalign and ggh4x 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to ggalign?
Top ggalign alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggalign alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggalign for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggh4x?
Top ggh4x alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggh4x alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggh4x for the full list with editorial commentary on each.