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IBM SPSS Statistics vs SAS Enterprise Miner 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 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
SAS Enterprise Miner
Ranking in Data Mining
7th
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
18th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 15.9%, up from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Enterprise Miner is 4.7%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining
 

Featured Reviews

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.
reviewer1352853 - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable product that is easy to deploy and can be used for structured and unstructured data mining
We use the solution for predictive analytics to do structured and unstructured data mining I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline. The product must provide better integration with cloud-native technologies. I have been using the solution for 20 years. The product is very…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has numerous valuable features. We particularly like custom tabs. It's very useful. We end up analyzing a lot of software data, so features related to custom tabs are really helpful."
"The most valuable feature is the user interface because you don't need to write code."
"It has helped our analyst unit deliver work with more transparency and confidence, given that we can always view the dataset in totality, after each step of data transformation."
"It offers very good visualization."
"The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important."
"You can quickly build models because it does the work for you."
"SPSS is quite robust and quicker in terms of providing you the output."
"The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can into multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."
"I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline."
"The solution is very good for data mining or any mining issues."
"I found the ease of use of the solution the most valuable. Additionally, other valuable features include: the user interface, power to extract data, compatibility with other technologies (specifically with PS400), and automation of several tasks."
"The technical support is very good."
"The most valuable feature is that you can use multiple algorithms for creating models and then you can compare the results between them."
"The most valuable feature is the decision tree creation."
"he solution is scalable."
"The solution is able to handle quite large amounts of data beautifully."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful if there was better documentation on how to properly use the solution. A beginner's guide on how to use the various programming functions within the product would be so useful to a lot of people. I found that everything was very confusing at first. Having clear documentation would help alleviate that."
"I'm unsure if SPSS has a commercial offering for big servers, unlike KNIME, which does."
"The reports could be better."
"I would like SPSS to improve its integration with other data-filing IBM tools. I also think its duration with data, utilization, and graphics could be better."
"If there is any self-generation data collection plan (DCP), it would be helpful in gathering data. It would also be useful if there is a function to scale it up to, let's say, UiPath and have it consolidate and integrate into a UiPath solution."
"Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like."
"The technical support should be improved."
"Improvements are needed in the user interface, particularly in terms of user-friendliness."
"The user interface of the solution needs improvement. It needs to be more visual."
"The visualization of the models is not very attractive, so the graphics should be improved."
"The solution is very stable, but we do have some problems with discrepancies involving SAS not matching with the latest Java versions. It's not stable in cases where SAS tries to run on a different version because SAS doesn't connect with the latest Java update. Once a month we need to restart systems from scratch."
"The initial setup is challenging if doing it for the first time."
"Virtualization could be much better."
"Technical support could be improved."
"The solution is much more complex than other options."
"While I don't personally need tutorials, I can't say that it wouldn't be helpful for others to have some to help them navigate and operate the system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."
"SPSS is an expensive piece of software because it's incredibly complex and has been refined over decades, but I would say it's fairly priced."
"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"The price of IBM SPSS Statistics could improve."
"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."
"More affordable training for new staff members."
"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"The solution must improve its licensing models."
"The solution is expensive for an individual, but for an enterprise/institution (purchasing bulk licenses), it is not a high price for the use that will come from it."
"This solution is for large corporations because not everybody can afford it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
28%
University
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What do you like most about SAS Enterprise Miner?
I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Enterprise Miner?
The solution must improve its licensing models. It bundles all the products into smaller products. We can only have a subset of the functionality available according to our license. I rate the pric...
What needs improvement with SAS Enterprise Miner?
The product must provide better integration with cloud-native technologies.
 

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics
Enterprise Miner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Generali Hellas, Gitanjali Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, GS Home Shopping, HealthPartners, IAG New Zealand, iJET, Invacare
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Statistics vs. SAS Enterprise Miner and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.