Getting Started

Software and other preparations

Published

26 Feb 2026, 18:37:13

Let’s make sure you have everything you need to get off to a good start!

The tutorials included in this Bayesian Intro will provide hands-on experience with Bayesian modelling for beginners using free and open source software–Stan and R. We use Stan because it is fast, flexible, well documented, and supported by an active community of developers and users (see Reading section). Note that we use R, but Stan also has support for Python, Julia, MATLAB, and command line interfaces, among others (see Stan Toolkit).

Software

Before we get started, let’s make sure that you have the right software installed on your computer. If you want to skip the installation and simply read along with the exercises, you can go ahead to the next section(s) now. When you’re ready to run code on your own computer, just come back to this page to find links to the required software.

You will need the following software to be able to run the example code on your own computer:

  1. R and RStudio or Positron (or your favourite R IDE)
  2. Getting Started with CmdStanR. (Note: Be sure to complete the Introduction and Installing CmdStan sections).

Reading

Bayesian Statistics

Stan Software

Books

© 2026 Real Good Research. All rights reserved.
Content: CC-BY 4.0 | Code: MIT