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

IBM SPSS Statistics vs Weka comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (8th)
Weka
Ranking in Data Mining
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Anomaly Detection Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 16.5%, up from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Weka is 18.9%, down from 20.9% 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

"SPSS is quite robust and quicker in terms of providing you the output."
"I've found the descriptive statistics and cross-tabs valuable. The very simple correlations and regressions are as well."
"The learning curve to using this product is not steep. The program is appropriate for those who do not have a lot of background in programming, yet have to perform basic statistical analysis."
"SPSS is perfectly adequate if all you want are some results."
"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the Bayesian statistics and descriptive statistics."
"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."
"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."
"It doesn’t cost anything to use the product."
"I mainly use this solution for the regression tree, and for its association rules. I run these two methodologies for Weka."
"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."
"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."
"There are many options where you can fill all of the data pre-processing options that you can implement when you're importing the data. You can also normalize the data and standardize it in an easier way."
"The interface is very good, and the algorithms are the very best."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve by providing a visual network for predictions and a self-organizing map for clustering."
"Better documentation on how to use macros."
"I'm unsure if SPSS has a commercial offering for big servers, unlike KNIME, which does."
"It could allow adding color to data models to make them easier to interpret."
"I'd like to see them use more artificial intelligence. It should be smart enough to do predictions and everything based on what you input."
"The reports could be better."
"The solution needs more planning tools and capabilities."
"One of the areas that should be similar to Minitabs is the use of blogs. The Minitabs blog helps users understand the tools and gives lots of practical examples. Following the SPSS manual is cumbersome. It's a good, exhaustive manual, but it's not practical to use. With Minitabs, you can go to the blogs and find specific articles written about various components and it's very helpful. Without blogs, we find SPSS more complicated."
"A few people said it became slow after a while."
"The product is good, but I would like it to work with big data. I know it has a Spark integration they could use to do analysis in clusters, but it's not so clear how to use it."
"In terms of scalability, I think Weka is not prepared to handle a large number of users."
"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."
"Within the basic Weka tool, I don't see many tools that are available where we can analyze and visualize the data that well."
"Not particularly user friendly."
"I believe is there are a few newer algorithms that are not present in the Weka libraries. Whereas, for example, if I want to have a solution that involves deep learning, so I don't think that Weka has that capability. So in that case I have to use Python for ... predict any algorithms based on deep learning."
"Weka could be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."
"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."
"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"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."
"The solution is free and open-source."
"We use the free version now. My faculty is very small."
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.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
University
19%
Educational Organization
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Statistics vs. Weka and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.