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IBM SPSS Modeler vs SAS Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

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
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (17th)
SAS Analytics
Ranking in Data Mining
5th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 17.9%, up from 16.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Analytics is 7.7%, down from 7.8% 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.
AltanAtabarut - PeerSpot reviewer
Good interactive reports and dashboards but expensive to run
You need to constantly jump from data prep to visualization, then back to data for fixing quality, enriching, and visualizing again. Then you start modeling and need to switch back and forth again. Eventually, you have to democratize the results so that anyone can look and interactively question the underlying insights. For all of these purposes - data to BI or data to AI to BI - it is never a linear one way relationship; it's rather a closed loop for continuous analysis monitoring and sharing. If used this way, SAS Visual analytics can enable continuous improvement and innovation in a corporation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives you a GUI interface, which is a lot more user-friendly and easier to use compared to writing R scripts or Python."
"It scales. I have not run into any challenges where it will not perform.​"
"The visual modeling capability is one of its attractive features."
"We have full control of the data handling process."
"We are creating models and putting them into production much faster than we would if we had just gone with a strict, code-based solution, like R or Python."
"The quality is very good."
"We have been able to do some predictive modeling with it"
"Extremely easy to use, it offers a generous selection of proprietary machine learning algorithms."
"It has also been around for an extremely long time, has a strong history, and good market penetration."
"It is able to connect to all major platforms, and all the smaller platforms that I have come across."
"It has improved the level of efficacy and validity of our reports."
"I use SAS daily to analyze data, produce reports, and other outputs."
"They have provided virtually everything we have needed to accomplish our task, as well as continuously improving our accuracy."
"The technical support is okay."
"Modeling ones and figures, such as PROC LIFETEST, PROC LOGISTICS, PROC GPLOT. PROC FREQ and PROC MEANS, are also among the valuable features."
"I like that it is quickly embedding interactive reports and dashboards into a website, Outlook Mail, or even a mobile app."
 

Cons

"When you are not using the product, such as during the pandemic where we had worldwide lockdowns, you still have to pay for the licensing."
"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."
"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."
"C&DS will not meet our scalability needs."
"I would like see more programming languages added, like MATLAB. That would be better."
"The platform that you can deploy it on needs improvement because I think it is Windows only. I do not think it can run off a Red Hat, like the server products. I am pretty sure it is Windows and AIX only."
"The time series should be improved."
"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."
"The training for SAS Business Intelligence is often difficult to arrange. It is often cancelled due to not enough people being enrolled."
"Once a SAS figure is produced one would like to modify things, such as titles, legends, and incorporate risk sets as a footer on the plots."
"This solution should be made more user-friendly."
"They could enhance the AI capabilities of the product."
"The installation could also be easier, and the price could be better."
"The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved."
"​Support at universities used to be limited, but I hear this is changing.​"
"One of the things that can be simplified is self-service analytics, especially for a citizen developer or a citizen data scientist."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"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."
"It is a huge increase to time savings."
"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."
"$5,000 annually."
"Our licensing covers the usage for around 50 data analysts."
"​The cost for SAS Business Intelligence can prove to be a little prohibitive.​"
"I rate the product’s pricing a one out of ten."
"SAS is very expensive."
"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay."
"Licensing was rather straightforward."
"​Setup costs were quite reasonable."
"Prices were comparable with alternative solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
11%
Government
10%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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 SAS Analytics?
I like that it is quickly embedding interactive reports and dashboards into a website, Outlook Mail, or even a mobile app.
What needs improvement with SAS Analytics?
SAS Analytics could improve in areas such as handling stress tests and workloads, as well as predicting financial movements, specifically profit and loss movements.
What is your primary use case for SAS Analytics?
I use SAS Analytics ( /products/sas-analytics-reviews ) in my work to analyze data, such as selecting credits for traditional securitization. Recently, I used SAS Analytics ( /products/sas-analytic...
 

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler
No data available
 

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
Aegon, Alberta Parks, Amway China, Axel Springer, Bank of America, Belgium Special Tax, CAP Index, CareSource, CBE Group, Cemig, Center for Responsible Lending, CESCE, Ceska sporitelna, Chantecler, Chico's, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, CIGNA Thailand, City of Wiesbaden, Germany, Confused.com, Creditreform, Des Moines Area Community College, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DIRECTV, Dow Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, Dun & Bradstreet, EDF Energy, Electrabel GDF SUEZ, ERGO Insurance Group, Erste Bank Croatia, Farmers Mutual Group, Finnair, Florida Department of Corrections, Geneia, Generali Hellas, Genting Malaysia Berhad, Grameenphone, Grandi Salumifici Italiani, HealthPartners, Highmark, Hong Kong Efficiency Unit, HP, Hyundai Securities, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family ServicesInc Research, ING-DiBa, Institut Pertanian Bogor, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), IOM, Kelley Blue Book, Lenovo, Lillebaelt Hospital, Los Angeles County, Maspex Wadowice Group, National Bank of Greece, New Zealand Ministry of Health, New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, Nippon Paper, NMIMS, North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), Oberweis Dairy, ODEC, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, Oklahoma State University, OneBeacon, Orange Business Services, Orange County Child Support Services, Organic, Orlando Magic, OTP Bank, Plano Independent School District, Project Odyssey, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RSA Canada, SCAD, Scotiabank, Singapore National Library Board, Sobeys Inc., SRA International, Staples, Statistics Estonia, Swisscom, SymphonyIRI Group, Telecom Italia, Telef‹nica O2, Town of Cary, Transitions Optical, TrueCar, Turkcell Superonline, UniCredit Bank Serbia, University of Alabama, University of Missouri, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Modeler vs. SAS Analytics and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.