silx
silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration
Comparison · Analytics
Holistics vs xportr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Holistics and xportr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Holistics vs xportr: at a glance
What is Holistics?
Holistics is adding governance to the AI layer it spent the summer building.
Holistics ships small, frequent notes - often one or two sentences - covering three strands at once: AI features in Explore and Chat, as-code control over presentation through AML, and workspace hygiene like file history and dark mode. The August entries turn to the AI layer's edges rather than its capabilities, with an AI user attribute for restricting what the assistant can reach. Several entries are barely a line long, so scope frequently has to be read from the headline.
What is xportr?
The CDISC transport writer collapsed six pipeline calls into one, then spent two years hardening it
xportr applies CDISC metadata — variable types, lengths, labels, formats, ordering — to R data frames and writes the SAS transport files that go into regulatory submissions. Since v0.4.0 the package has had a single entry point, xportr_process(), that runs the whole chain and writes, and metadata arrives as a plain specification rather than a metacore object. The v0.5.0 release in January 2026 finished the cleanup by deleting every deprecated argument left over from that redesign.
Holistics vs xportr: editorial side-by-side
Holistics
5.0ANALYTICS
Holistics is adding governance to the AI layer it spent the summer building.
◆ Current state
Holistics ships small, frequent notes - often one or two sentences - covering three strands at once: AI features in Explore and Chat, as-code control over presentation through AML, and workspace hygiene like file history and dark mode. The August entries turn to the AI layer's edges rather than its capabilities, with an AI user attribute for restricting what the assistant can reach. Several entries are barely a line long, so scope frequently has to be read from the headline.
◆ Where it's heading
The AI work has moved through a recognizable sequence: capability first with chart suggestions, then observability with AI Chat Insights for admins, and now access control with an AI-specific user attribute. Alongside it, Holistics keeps pulling presentation into AML - custom charts, theme palettes, currency formats - so the things analysts used to click are versioned as code. File history is the join between the two threads, giving every dashboard, model, and dataset its own restorable timeline.
◆ Prediction
With capability, visibility, and access control now in place for the AI layer, the next step is likely audit or policy depth - logging what the assistant answered against which data - rather than new AI surfaces.
xportr
0.0ANALYTICS
The CDISC transport writer collapsed six pipeline calls into one, then spent two years hardening it
◆ Current state
xportr applies CDISC metadata — variable types, lengths, labels, formats, ordering — to R data frames and writes the SAS transport files that go into regulatory submissions. Since v0.4.0 the package has had a single entry point, xportr_process(), that runs the whole chain and writes, and metadata arrives as a plain specification rather than a metacore object. The v0.5.0 release in January 2026 finished the cleanup by deleting every deprecated argument left over from that redesign.
◆ Where it's heading
The work has moved from building the pipeline to defending it against the ways submission data actually arrives: grouped data frames now raise a warning, date and time variables get class checks, illegal characters are resolved rather than erroring, and xportr_write() warns before a file crosses 5GB instead of producing an unusable artifact. Contributor volume is high and spread across sponsors — Atorus, Roche, GSK and others show up in the PR lists — which is what keeps a validated-context package moving without a single owner.
◆ Prediction
With deprecations cleared in 0.5.0, the next cycle likely targets more input-shape validation of the kind 0.5.0 started — the grouped-data and datetime-class checks read as the first two of a series. Nothing in these entries points to a new output format.
Alternatives to Holistics and xportr
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 Holistics or xportr.
Plotly
Plotly is turning its cloud into a metered compute platform with an enterprise on-ramp.
aniread
aniread stops asking you to know which tracker wrote the file
Rho
Rho's release machinery finally produced a stable build — and it shipped no new product.
Usermaven
Usermaven closed the loop: data comes in from anywhere, and now it goes back out.
OpenCTI
OpenCTI spends a release unblocking queues and hardening upserts
See all Holistics alternatives → · See all xportr alternatives →
Recent activity from Holistics and xportr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoHolisticsAI user attribute restricts AI access to sensitive data
- 16d agoHolisticsCustom currency and unit formats, per field
- 19d agoHolisticsFile history: per-file version timeline and restore
- 22d agoHolisticsCustom charts become AML code with GUI authoring
- 23d agoHolisticsColor palettes can be assigned at the theme level
- 27d agoHolisticsDate-range presets and typed shorthands
- 7mo agoxportrDeprecated arguments deleted; 5GB and datetime guards added
- 1y agoxportrTest fixes for the metacore 0.2.0 update
- 1y agoxportrhms accepted as a numeric type; domain logging filled in
- 1y agoxportrFile-size limit moves into xportr_write, deprecating xportr_split
- 2y agoxportrxportr_process() runs the whole pipeline in one call ⚡
- 2y agoxportrUnused dependencies removed
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Holistics and xportr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Holistics 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 Holistics better than xportr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Holistics 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 Holistics?
Top Holistics alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Holistics alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/holistics for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to xportr?
Top xportr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "xportr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/xportr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.