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Comparison · Infra & APIs

inlabru vs ordinalsimr

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

Shared themes:r-package

inlabru vs ordinalsimr: at a glance

Featureinlabruordinalsimr
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score2.50.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesbayesian-modelling, spatial-statistics, r-package, api-consolidationordinal-data, shiny, simulation, statistical-tests
Last editorial update9h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is inlabru?

A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time

inlabru wraps INLA for spatial, point-process and latent-Gaussian models in R. It is mid-modernisation: since 2.12.0 cut the sp stack, each release has renamed part of the public surface, standardised how external packages attach custom mappers, or replaced internal machinery. 2.15.0 is the latest step, pairing a new predictor evaluation and linearisation implementation with broom's tidy(), glance() and augment() methods and four non-zero-truncated observation families.

Read the full inlabru trajectory →

What is ordinalsimr?

A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.

ordinalsimr compares ordinal endpoints by simulation — you specify probability distributions, sample sizes and iterations, and it runs the candidate statistical tests against them so you can see which behaves best. It is delivered as a Shiny application with a data-entry grid, and its entire release history spans six days in January 2025: three tags inside 90 minutes on the 20th, then a CRAN-compliance release on the 26th.

Read the full ordinalsimr trajectory →

inlabru vs ordinalsimr: editorial side-by-side

I
inlabru
INFRA · APIS
2.5

A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time

◆ Current state

inlabru wraps INLA for spatial, point-process and latent-Gaussian models in R. It is mid-modernisation: since 2.12.0 cut the sp stack, each release has renamed part of the public surface, standardised how external packages attach custom mappers, or replaced internal machinery. 2.15.0 is the latest step, pairing a new predictor evaluation and linearisation implementation with broom's tidy(), glance() and augment() methods and four non-zero-truncated observation families.

◆ Where it's heading

The arc is consolidation of the extension surface rather than expansion of the model catalogue. Every release adds mappers or families with one hand and removes a dependency, a re-export or a deprecated path with the other — plyr in 2.15.0, fmesher's Depends entry in 2.14.1, sp and ggmap in 2.12.0. The compatibility flag bru_compat_pre_2_14_enable and the temporary fm_int/fm_pixels re-exports show a maintainer sequencing breaks across releases instead of landing them together.

◆ Prediction

The 2.14 compatibility flag is still defaulting to TRUE and the fmesher re-exports are described in the entries as temporary, so the next obvious move is a release that flips bru_compat_pre_2_14_enable off and drops those re-exports.

O
ordinalsimr
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.

◆ Current state

ordinalsimr compares ordinal endpoints by simulation — you specify probability distributions, sample sizes and iterations, and it runs the candidate statistical tests against them so you can see which behaves best. It is delivered as a Shiny application with a data-entry grid, and its entire release history spans six days in January 2025: three tags inside 90 minutes on the 20th, then a CRAN-compliance release on the 26th.

◆ Where it's heading

The release bodies are auto-generated pull-request lists covering the repository's whole history, so they read as a build log rather than a changelog: data entry UI, an rhandsontable statistics module, iteration and sample-size modules, binomial confidence intervals, plot tests, and a rename to the current package name late in development. What that log shows is a single-author project built to completion privately and then published all at once, with the public version history existing mainly to satisfy CRAN.

◆ Prediction

With the CRAN submission accepted and no post-release entries in the feed, the next move is most likely a maintenance release; the PR log gives no signal of planned work beyond the tests already implemented.

Alternatives to inlabru and ordinalsimr

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 inlabru or ordinalsimr.

See all inlabru alternatives → · See all ordinalsimr alternatives →

Recent activity from inlabru and ordinalsimr

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

  1. 23d agoinlabruPredictor linearisation rewritten; broom tidiers, truncated families
  2. 3mo agoinlabruBugfix release: factor contrasts, raster extraction, error classes
  3. 5mo agoinlabruNew mappers, standardised cgeneric support, bru_obs storage refactor
  4. 1y agoinlabruMapper classes shortened to bm_*, experimental predictor aggregation
  5. 1y agoordinalsimrv0.1.3 CRAN submission
  6. 1y agoordinalsimrOrdinal endpoint simulator submitted to CRAN
  7. 1y agoordinalsimrREADME refreshed and DOI added to the citation file
  8. 1y agoordinalsimrDevelopment tag ahead of the CRAN submission
  9. 1y agoinlabruDrops sp and ggmap for an sf-native spatial stack

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between inlabru and ordinalsimr?

Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. inlabru is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 inlabru better than ordinalsimr?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. inlabru is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to inlabru?

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

What are the best alternatives to ordinalsimr?

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