Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM SPSS Modeler vs KNIME 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
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
KNIME
Ranking in Data Mining
1st
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 17.3%, up from 16.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KNIME is 25.7%, down from 27.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining
 

Q&A Highlights

EzzAbdelfattah - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 30, 2019
 

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
Has a drag-and-drop interface and AI capabilities
It's difficult to pinpoint one single feature because KNIME has so many. For starters, it's very easy to learn. You can get started with just a one-hour video. The drag-and-drop interface makes it user-friendly. For example, if you want to read an Excel file, drag the "read Excel file" node from the repository, configure it by specifying the file location, and run it. This gives you a table with all your data. Next, you can clean the data by handling missing values, selecting specific columns you want to analyze, and then proceeding with your analysis, such as regression or correlation. KNIME has over 4,500 nodes available for download. In addition, KNIME offers various extensions. For instance, the text processing extension allows you to process text data efficiently. It's more powerful than other tools like NVivo and Palantir. KNIME also has AI capabilities. If you're unsure about the next step, the AI assistant can suggest the most frequently used nodes based on your previous work. Another valuable feature is the integration with Python. If you need to perform a task that requires Python, you can simply add a Python node, write the necessary code,

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The quality is very good."
"It helped me in that I didn't need to write them by hand, and I could get a result in one or two minutes. That helped me a lot."
"The supervised models are valuable. It is also very organized and easy to use."
"It's very easy to use. The drag and drop feature makes it very easy when you are building and testing the streams. That's very useful."
"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."
"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."
"A lot of jobs that are stuck in Excel due to the huge numbers of rows are tackled pretty quickly."
"Our go live process has been slightly enhanced compared to the previous programmatic process. There is now a faster time to production from the business end."
"This solution is easy to use and especially good at data preparation and wrapping."
"Stability is excellent. I would give it a nine out of ten."
"The most valuable is the ability to seamlessly connect operators without the need for extensive programming."
"What I like most about KNIME is that it's user-friendly. It's a low-code, no-code tool, so students don't need coding knowledge. You can make use of different kinds of nodes. KNIME even has a good description of each node."
"It's very convenient to write your own algorithms in KNIME. You can write it in Java script or Python transcript."
"It is possible to configure the system to effectively manage memory and space requirements."
"We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
 

Cons

"We would like to see better visualizations and easier integration with Cognos Analytics for reporting."
"We have run into a few problems doing some entity matching/analytics."
"It would be beneficial if the tool would include more well-known machine learning algorithms."
"​Initial setup of the software was complex, because of our own problems within the government."
"Customer support is hard to contact."
"Expensive to deploy solutions. You need to buy an extra deployment unit."
"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."
"​I would like better integration into the Weather Company solution. I have raised a couple of concerns about this integration and having more time series capabilities.​"
"To enhance accessibility and user-friendliness, there is a need for improvements in the interface and usability of deep learning and large-scale learning languages."
"There are some parameters that I would like to have at a bigger scale. The upper limit of one node that tries to find spots or areas in photos was too small for us. It would need to be bigger."
"The solution is inconvenient when it comes to wrangling data that includes multiple steps or features because each step or feature requires its own icon."
"It's very general in terms of architecture, and as a result, it doesn't support efficient running. That is, the speed needs to be improved."
"The graphic features of KNIME need improvement"
"We do not have much documentation in Portuguese."
"KNIME's licensing and data management aren't as straightforward relative to Alteryx. Alteryx's tools are more sophisticated, so you need fewer to use it compared to KNIME. I think tab implementation could be easier, too."
"It's difficult to pinpoint one single feature because KNIME has so many. For starters, it's very easy to learn. You can get started with just a one-hour video. The drag-and-drop interface makes it user-friendly. For example, if you want to read an Excel file, drag the "read Excel file" node from the repository, configure it by specifying the file location, and run it. This gives you a table with all your data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It is a huge increase to time savings."
"$5,000 annually."
"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty 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."
"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."
"If you are in a university and the license is free then you can use the tool without any charges, which is good."
"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"KNIME desktop is free, which is great for analytics teams. Server is well priced, depending on how much support is required."
"There is a Community Edition and paid versions available."
"At this time, I am using the free version of Knime."
"The price of KNIME is quite reasonable and the designer tool can be used free of charge."
"I use the tool's free version."
"KNIME is a cheap product. I currently use KNIME's open-source version."
"They have different versions, but I am using the open-source one."
"With KNIME, you can use the desktop version free of charge as much as you like. I've yet to hit its limits. If I did, I'd have to go to the server version, and for that you have to pay. Fortunately, I don't have to at the moment."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Mining solutions are best for your needs.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

EzzAbdelfattah - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 30, 2019
Dec 30, 2019
The main difference lies in the community that has KNIME because the additional modules serve a multitude of different jobs from image processing, management of ssh file systems to chemical molecule calculations.
2 out of 4 answers
ZW
Dec 27, 2019
KNIME. It free, open-source, and you can plug in Java, Python, R, and Matlab. The community is awesome.
Dec 28, 2019
The main difference lies in the community that has KNIME because the additional modules serve a multitude of different jobs from image processing, management of ssh file systems to chemical molecule calculations.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
11%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
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 KNIME?
Since KNIME is a no-code platform, it is easy to work with.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KNIME?
I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with KNIME?
I have seen the potential to interact with Python, which is currently a bit limited. I am interested in the newer version, 5.4, when it becomes available. The machine learning and profileration asp...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler
KNIME Analytics Platform
 

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
Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Modeler vs. KNIME and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.