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Alteryx vs IBM SPSS Modeler 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

Alteryx
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Predictive Analytics (1st), Data Preparation Tools (1st)
IBM SPSS Modeler
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Alteryx is 6.1%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 2.4%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms
 

Q&A Highlights

SI
Nov 02, 2020
 

Featured Reviews

Theresa McLaughlin - PeerSpot reviewer
Quick development enables seamless data processing despite occasional support issues
There were times when the product would fail during development without an apparent reason. The support structure changed; initially, we received great support, however, it later became less reliable due to licensing issues and a tiered support system. Licensing negotiations were problematic, affecting our product usage. For instance, our licenses were temporarily lost during negotiations when an agreement couldn't be reached.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Alteryx is so advanced. It's just drag and drop."
"The value add of Alteryx is the agility for making changes, and speed of deployment."
"The solution has a very strong community that is involved in the product. It helps make the usage easier and helps us find answers to our questions."
"It saves time on a lot projects. ​"
"The most valuable feature is user-friendliness, as Alteryx can be used by those without any coding experience or experienced data scientists as it has the functionality to embed R and Python scripts."
"The filtering is fast, and it provides a search tool that is great."
"The three data signs and data engineering are great features."
"I like that I can merge data from different sources into one place."
"Compared to other tools, the product works much easier to analyze data without coding."
"It's a very organized product. It's easy to use."
"​It works fine. I have not had any stability issues; it is always up.​"
"It is pretty scalable."
"It makes pretty good use of memory. There are algorithms take a long time to run in R, and somehow they run more efficiently in Modeler."
"Our business units' capabilities with SPSS Modeler is high. They no longer waste time on modeling and algorithms, meaning they are not coding any more. For example, segmentation projects now take one to three months, rather than six months to a year, as before."
"IBM was chosen because of usability. It's point and click, whereas the other out-of-the box-solution, or open-source solutions, require full-on programming and a much higher skill level."
"Automated modelling, classification, or clustering are very useful."
 

Cons

"I think sometimes the solution doesn't load properly or takes so much time for the workflows. Though the workflow runs and completes the file in Excel, if you use the same formula, it's a bit slow. Also, the image processing is not so good because I tried to do some image processing and they were like, sometimes they put two to eight. In the document, it was two, but the OCR predicted it as eight."
"The principal problem is the pricing. They're expensive products."
"The workflow and pipeline need to improve."
"The interface could be improved."
"Alteryx needs to focus on the supply chain aspect since detecting financial figures and data anomalies is currently insufficient."
"We can't browse multiple files. When we deploy a solution on a gallery, let's say I have ten different files, and I have to upload them all at once. This is something that's difficult in the gallery. So case by case, I see some downsides, but often we do something alternative."
"There have been some issues with licensing, particularly with the increased prices. This has led some companies, including ours, to consider reducing the number of licenses or potentially discontinuing their use of Alteryx."
"Lacks an open source edition which would be helpful."
"I can say the solution is outdated."
"The time series should be improved."
"Unstructured data is not appropriate for SPSS Modeler."
"Formula writing is not straightforward for an Excel user. Totally new set of functions, which takes time to learn and teach."
"It would be helpful if SPSS supported open-source features, for example, embedding R or Python scripts in SPSS Modeler."
"We would like to see better visualizations and easier integration with Cognos Analytics for reporting."
"It is very good, but slow. The slowness may be because we have not finalized all the background information in SPSS. It still needs some tweaking."
"It's not as user friendly as it could be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing as a ten, as it is highly priced."
"It is an expensive solution."
"It's probably on the pricey side, but they provide some really useful ways to grow and test."
"The designer license costs 5000 euros. The server edition is 1000 euros."
"The price for Alteryx Designer is reasonable but the price for Alteryx Server for universal collaborations is too expensive."
"In order to have designers, and, if you want to collaborate, you have to buy a server. If the designer is $5,000, and if you want a server, you have to pay $80,000."
"Opt for the three year subscription. It is 20% less than the yearly one."
"The solution has a more costly license than other tools in the market."
"Its price is okay for a company, but for personal use, it is considered somewhat expensive."
"When you are close to end of quarter, IBM and its partners can get you 60% to 70% discounts, so literally wait for the last day of the quarter for the best prices. You may feel like you are getting robbed if you can't receive a good discount."
"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty expensive."
"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."
"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."
"Having in mind all four tools from Garner’s top quadrant, the pricing of this tool is competitive and it reflects the quality that it offers."
"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"$5,000 annually."
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Answers from the Community

SI
Nov 2, 2020
Nov 2, 2020
There are some important differences between both products. So probably, the first question I'll ask you is "for what use case are you evaluating these products?" Of course, there are some general differences, starting with the T.C.O. and functionalities. Alteryx is a code-free and code-friendly platform that allows you to tackle the whole cycle of your data, starting on the consumption from a...
2 out of 5 answers
AB
Nov 11, 2019
One of the differences is that with Alteryx you can use it as an ETL and analytics tool. Please connect with me directly if you want to know more.
MR
Nov 11, 2019
I am unfamiliar with the IBM SPSS Modeler but use KNIME and Alteryx for different projects. Alteryx is an excellent, very easy to get started with and get to results data cleansing, ETL, analytics, geospatial modeling, predictive analytics. I build reusable macros in Alteryx, use flexible inputs for what-if modeling, feed information to Power BI or Tableau. It seems price competitive against SPSS.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
11%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
One of the differences is that with Alteryx you can use it as an ETL and analytics tool. Please connect with me directly if you want to know more.
What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
Alteryx is an extremely easy and flexible data tool, flexible in terms of drag and drop toolset and also has python, R integrations if your team requires this. It can handle over 2 billion rows of...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
I am not familiar with IBM SPSS Modeler, therefore, I cannot compare these two products. Regarding Alteryx I can say the following: - An excellent desktop tool for Data Prep and analytics. - Featu...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SPSS Modeler
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AnalyticsIq Inc., belk, BloominBrands Inc., Cardinalhealth, Cineplex, Dairy Queen
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Alteryx vs. IBM SPSS Modeler and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.