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IBM SPSS Modeler vs IBM SPSS Statistics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM SPSS Modeler
Ranking in Data Mining
4th
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM SPSS Statistics
Ranking in Data Mining
3rd
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 18.1%, up from 16.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 16.6%, up from 12.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining
 

Featured Reviews

PeterHuo - PeerSpot reviewer
Good tool for extracting data from data warehouses, creating streams, and manipulating logic to extract final data
There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performance issue seems to be related to the server. We design streams on the client and submit them to the server, which generates a large SQL statement. There are two potential bottlenecks: one in the server and another in data extraction. I'm unsure about the exact mechanics of data splitting when fetching from the database. When streams become larger, performance bottlenecks may occur in the IBM SPSS Modeler server or the database. Sometimes the server crashes and needs to be restarted to release memory on both sides. I'm not sure exactly where the problem is caused, as I focus on stream design rather than server issues. The problem could be on the IBM SPSS Modeler server and database.
Laurence Moseley - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers reliable results for academic research and keeps you close to your data.
SPSS is perfectly adequate if all you want are some results. If you only need the results, you do not require the trail of evidence on how you obtained those results. I mainly used it for cross tabs, correlation, regression, chi-squared tests, and similar analyses often seen in published papers; I used it for my papers as well. For wider uses I find Knime keeps me in touch with my data, however much I transform them.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It handles large data better than the previous system that we were using, which was basically Excel and Access. We serve upwards of 300,000 parts over a 150 regions and we need to crunch a lot of numbers."
"The ease of use in the user interface is the best part of it. The ability to customize some of my streams with R and Python has been very useful to me, I've automated a few things with that."
"Automated modelling, classification, or clustering are very useful."
"The supervised models are valuable. It is also very organized and easy to use."
"It scales. I have not run into any challenges where it will not perform.​"
"It is just a lot faster. So you do not have to write a bunch of code, you can throw that stuff on there pretty quickly and do prototyping quickly."
"Stability is good."
"It continues to be a very flexible platform, so that it handles R and Python and other types of technology. It seems to be growing with additional open-source movement out there on different platforms."
"The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information in it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it."
"It has the ability to easily change any variable in our research."
"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."
"The solution is very comprehensive, especially compared to Minitabs, which is considered more for manufacturing. However, whatever data you want to analyze can be handled with SPSS."
"I've found the descriptive statistics and cross-tabs valuable. The very simple correlations and regressions are as well."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the Bayesian statistics and descriptive statistics."
"One feature I found very valuable was the analysis of variance (ANOVA)."
"Custom tables and macros: They allow us to create useful reports quickly for a broad audience."
 

Cons

"Formula writing is not straightforward for an Excel user. Totally new set of functions, which takes time to learn and teach."
"When I used it in the office, back in the day, we did have some stability issues. Sometimes it just randomly crashed and we couldn't get good feedback. But when I use it for my own stuff now I don't have any problems."
"There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performance issue seems to be related to the server. We design streams on the client and submit them to the server, which generates a large SQL statement. There are two potential bottlenecks: one in the server and another in data extraction. I'm unsure about the exact mechanics of data splitting when fetching from the database."
"The challenge for the very technical data scientists: It is constraining for them.​"
"Requires more development."
"Customer support is hard to contact."
"The product does not have a search function for tags."
"Expensive to deploy solutions. You need to buy an extra deployment unit."
"In some cases, the product takes time to load a large dataset. They could improve this particular area."
"This solution is not suitable for use with Big Data."
"SPSS slows down the computer or the laptop if the data is huge; then you need a faster computer."
"The design of the experience can be improved."
"The technical support should be improved."
"There is a learning curve; it's not very steep, but there is one."
"The product should provide more ways to import data and export results that are user-friendly for high-level executives."
"The solution could improve by providing a visual network for predictions and a self-organizing map for clustering."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"It is an expensive product."
"The government has funds and a budget, it's hard to say if it's expensive or cheap. In Canada, they have a yearly budget. They used to encourage people to use the modeler for development. If ten users use the server with ten licenses, it runs faster. But if forty users use the same appliance, everything slows down. People then think it's not easy to do things and prefer using remote tools like Python to extract data from the database. It's not about being expensive or cheap, but about people's knowledge and experience in how to do the work."
"$5,000 annually."
"It got us a good amount of money with quick and efficient modeling."
"The scalability was kind of limited by our ability to get other people licenses, and that was usually more of a financial constraint. It's expensive, but it's a good tool."
"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty expensive."
"If you are in a university and the license is free then you can use the tool without any charges, which is good."
"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."
"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"More affordable training for new staff members."
"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"The price of IBM SPSS Statistics could improve."
"The pricing of the modeler is high and can reduce the utility of the product for those who can not afford to adopt it."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
11%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Modeler?
Compared to other tools, the product works much easier to analyze data without coding.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Modeler?
The government has funds and a budget, it's hard to say if it's expensive or cheap. In Canada, they have a yearly budget. They used to encourage people to use the modeler for development. If ten us...
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Modeler?
There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performanc...
What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?
The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?
SPSS is horrendously expensiver. On a laptop Knime is free of charge (Windows, Mac, Linux)
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?
Better guidance both in producing programs and interpreting their output.
 

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler
SPSS Statistics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Reisebªro Idealtours GmbH, MedeAnalytics, Afni, Israel Electric Corporation, Nedbank Ltd., DigitalGlobe, Vodafone Hungary, Aegon Hungary, Bureau Veritas, Brammer Group, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, InSites Consulting, Fortis Turkey
LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Modeler vs. IBM SPSS Statistics and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.