pr2database
The protist reference database keeps widening past the rRNA gene it was built on.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
ggalign vs plssem
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggalign and plssem — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggalign vs plssem: 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 plssem?
plssem took PLS-SEM into multilevel data, then spent two releases making the estimates trustworthy.
plssem is a young R implementation of partial least squares structural equation modelling, three CRAN releases old and shipping monthly. Its distinguishing work is the MC-PLS family — consistent PLS estimators the maintainer extended to mixed-effects designs in June — and the releases since have been about getting standard errors, admissibility and fit measures onto the same footing as the point estimates.
ggalign vs plssem: 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.
plssem
0.0INFRA · APIS
plssem took PLS-SEM into multilevel data, then spent two releases making the estimates trustworthy.
◆ Current state
plssem is a young R implementation of partial least squares structural equation modelling, three CRAN releases old and shipping monthly. Its distinguishing work is the MC-PLS family — consistent PLS estimators the maintainer extended to mixed-effects designs in June — and the releases since have been about getting standard errors, admissibility and fit measures onto the same footing as the point estimates.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is capability first, inference second. Multilevel MC-PLSc and MC-OrdPLSc arrived in 0.1.2 together with Monte-Carlo delta-method standard errors and a Polyak-Juditsky extrapolation step; 0.1.3 then extended delta-method errors to redundant parameters and thresholds, optimized their computation, added a loglikelihood-based fit measure and generated dynamic bounds to keep MC-PLS solutions admissible. Admissibility recurs throughout — penalized inadmissible solutions in 0.1.1, variance lower bounds and negative residual variance handling in 0.1.3, and an option to drop inadmissible bootstraps rather than silently include them. The release notes are pull-request lists, so the reasoning behind each change stays in the repository.
◆ Prediction
The MIMIC mode and GLS estimator both landed in the most recent release without the standard-error and fit-measure work that followed earlier additions, so extending inference to cover them is the natural next step. Bootstrap defaults moving to 500 replications suggests runtime is a live constraint and further optimization is likely.
Alternatives to ggalign and plssem
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 plssem.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
trackeR
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
See all ggalign alternatives → · See all plssem alternatives →
Recent activity from ggalign and plssem
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoplssemMIMIC mode, a GLS structural estimator and delta-method thresholds
- 2mo agoplssemMC-PLSc and MC-OrdPLSc extend to multilevel and mixed-effects models ⚡
- 3mo agoplssemParallel bootstrapping, kNN and mean imputation, higher-order constructs
- 10mo agoggalignalignpatch internals moved to S7; Patch object exported
- 11mo agoggalignInternals migrated to S7; ideogram, tags and image shapes
- 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 ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggalign and plssem?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggalign and plssem 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 plssem?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggalign and plssem 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 plssem?
Top plssem alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "plssem alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/plssem for the full list with editorial commentary on each.