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IBM SPSS Statistics vs Weka 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 Statistics
Ranking in Data Mining
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (8th)
Weka
Ranking in Data Mining
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Anomaly Detection Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 16.6%, up from 12.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Weka is 18.2%, down from 20.8% 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.
AwaisAnwar - PeerSpot reviewer
Open source, good for basic data mining use cases except for the visualization results
I haven't found it particularly useful. It lacks state-of-the-art algorithms and impressive outcomes. While it might offer insights for basic warehouse tasks, it falls short of deeper understanding and results. Moreover, a new user interface would be great, especially for beginners. Something that guides them through the available tools and helps them achieve their goals. I haven't seen anything like that myself, though maybe it's there and I missed it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the Bayesian statistics and descriptive statistics."
"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."
"SPSS is perfectly adequate if all you want are some results."
"You can find a complete algorithm in the solution and use it. You don't need to write your own algorithms for predictive analytics. That's the most valuable feature and the main one we use."
"I've found the descriptive statistics and cross-tabs valuable. The very simple correlations and regressions are as well."
"The most valuable features mainly include factor analysis, correlation analysis, and geographic analysis."
"One feature I found very valuable was the analysis of variance (ANOVA)."
"It doesn’t cost anything to use the product."
"Weka's best features are its user-friendly graphic interface interpretation of data sets and the ease of analyzing data."
"I like the machine algorithm for clustering systems. Weka has larger capabilities. There are multiple algorithms that can be used for clustering. It depends upon the user requirements. For clustering, I've used DBSCAN, whereas for supervised learning, I've used AVM and RFT."
"The path of machine learning in classification and clustering is useful. The GUI can get you results. No programming is needed. No need to write down your script first or send to your model or input your data."
"I mainly use this solution for the regression tree, and for its association rules. I run these two methodologies for Weka."
"Weka is a very nice tool, it needs very small requirements. If I want to implement something in Python, I need a lot of memory and space but Weka is very lightweight. Anyone can implement any kind of algorithm, and we can show the results immediately to the client using the one-page feature. The client always wants to know the story. They want the result."
"In Weka, anyone can access the program without being a programmer, which is a good feature since the entry cost is very low."
"It is a stable product."
 

Cons

"In some cases, the product takes time to load a large dataset. They could improve this particular area."
"The statistics should be more self-explanatory with detailed automated reports."
"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."
"This solution is not suitable for use with Big Data."
"The technical support should be improved."
"I'm unsure if SPSS has a commercial offering for big servers, unlike KNIME, which does."
"SPSS is a tool that's been around since the late 60s, and it's the universal worldwide standard for quantitative social science data analysis. That said, it does seem a bit strange to me that the graphical output functions are so clunky after all these years. The output of charts and graphs that SPSS produces is hideous."
"Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like."
"A few people said it became slow after a while."
"The filter section lacks some specific transformation tools. If you want to change a variable from a numeric variable to a categorical variable, you don't have a feature that can enable you to change a variable from a numeric variable to a categorical variable."
"Weka could be more stable."
"Weka is a little complicated and not necessarily suited for users who aren't skilled and experienced in data science."
"The visualization of Weka is subpar and could improve. Machine learning and visualization do not work well together. For example, we want to know how we can we delete empty cells or how can we fill in the empty cells without cleaning the data system and putting it together."
"If you have one missing value in your dataset and this missing value belongs to a specific attribute and the attribute is a numeric attribute and there is only one missing data, whenever you import this data, the problem is that Weka cannot understand that this is a numeric field. It converts everything into a string, and there is no way to convert the string into numerical math. It's really very complicated."
"Not particularly user friendly."
"If there are a lot more lines of code, then we should use another language."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"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."
"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."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."
"More affordable training for new staff members."
"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."
"We use the free version now. My faculty is very small."
"The solution is free and open-source."
"As far as I know, Weka is a freeware tool, and I am not aware if they have an online solution or if it is a commercial product."
"Currently, I am using an open-source version so I don't know much about the price of this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
University
17%
Educational Organization
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Weka?
Weka is free and open-source software. That is why I used it over KNIME.
What needs improvement with Weka?
I haven't found it particularly useful. It lacks state-of-the-art algorithms and impressive outcomes. While it might offer insights for basic warehouse tasks, it falls short of deeper understanding...
 

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics
No data available
 

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Statistics vs. Weka and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,874 professionals have used our research since 2012.