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IBM Watson Studio vs SAS Visual Analytics 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
IBM Watson Studio boosts efficiency and accuracy, reduces staffing, enhances conversion rates, and offers integration benefits, despite its cost.
Sentiment score
6.3
Organizations saw varied ROI from SAS Visual Analytics, noting improved efficiency and financial tracking despite initial cost challenges.
The product offers a significant return on investment through its scalability and integration capabilities.
Process Automation Lead at CONDIACTOR
My customers have seen returns on investment through increased efficiency, automated calculations, improved accuracy in pricing, and reduced staffing needs due to the automation.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
The enterprise subscription offers more benefits, ensuring valuable outcomes.
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
IBM Watson Studio support is praised for responsiveness, but quality varies by plan and community access is limited.
Sentiment score
6.8
SAS Visual Analytics customer service is mixed, with praise for technical support but noted gaps in business needs and regional availability.
The community access is weak, which limits the ability to engage in discussions and find documentation and examples of similar cases effectively.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
The support quality depends on the SLA or the contract terms.
Process Automation Lead at CONDIACTOR
They provide callbacks to ensure clarity and resolution of any queries.
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
IBM Watson Studio is scalable and flexible, supporting diverse needs with high costs but seamless integration and comprehensive features.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAS Visual Analytics effectively scales for large datasets and users, though high resource demands and expenses may concern some.
Watson Studio is very scalable.
Process Automation Lead at CONDIACTOR
I rate IBM Watson Studio seven out of ten for scalability because while it scales, it requires significant resources to do so, making it expensive compared to some competitors.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Watson Studio is robust and reliable, performing well over time, particularly in private cloud environments, with consistent stability.
Sentiment score
7.1
SAS Visual Analytics is generally reliable but can face performance issues with large data, often due to user practices.
Expertise in optimization is necessary to manage such issues effectively.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
SAS Visual Analytics is stable and manages data effectively without crashing.
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Watson Studio users want improved web functionality, modular structure, better navigation, enhanced support, and adaptable pricing for enterprises.
SAS Visual Analytics is complex and costly, with challenges in integration, performance, user-friendliness, and external language support.
IBM should work on optimizing the user interface and enhancing the product's accessibility for medium and small enterprises.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration.
Process Automation Lead at CONDIACTOR
I wish learning IBM Watson Studio could be easier and more gradual, as it is a complex task.
Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
In terms of configuration, I would like to see AI capabilities since many applications are now integrating AI.
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

Setup Cost

IBM Watson Studio's pricing is seen as reasonable but can be expensive, affecting competitiveness and regional deployments.
SAS Visual Analytics is costly for small enterprises, but offers strong analytics and simplicity, though consulting and scaling add expenses.
IBM Watson Studio is considered rather expensive, with a rating of six or seven.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
 

Valuable Features

IBM Watson Studio offers automation, AI integration, scalability, and robust data modeling, ideal for large organizations with multi-cloud support.
SAS Visual Analytics excels in data visualization, advanced analytics, and user-friendly interface with rapid processing and seamless integration.
This capability saves a significant amount of time by automating processes that typically involve manual work, such as data cleaning, feature engineering, and predictive analytics.
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
The best features IBM Watson Studio offers are that it is good for big and complex organizations, it is multi-cloud, it has an on-prem facility, and it also has strong visual tools.
Software Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
It integrates well with other platforms and offers good scalability.
Process Automation Lead at CONDIACTOR
The ability to query information from our Excel data into SAS to view specific data is invaluable.
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Watson Studio
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (18th), AI Development Platforms (17th)
SAS Visual Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Watson Studio is designed for Data Science Platforms and holds a mindshare of 2.2%, up 2.1% compared to last year.
SAS Visual Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 2.1% mindshare, down 4.8% since last year.
Data Science Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Watson Studio2.2%
Databricks9.6%
KNIME Business Hub8.7%
Other79.5%
Data Science Platforms
Data Visualization Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAS Visual Analytics2.1%
Tableau Enterprise11.3%
Qlik Sense5.6%
Other81.0%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Director, Channel and Alliances at Akinon
Automated processes improve efficiency while user interface and accessibility need enhancements
IBM Watson Studio, while powerful, lacks user-friendliness. It is not easy to use, particularly for medium or small enterprises or less experienced staff. Another aspect that requires improvement is the complexity involved in computer vision tasks. The integration capabilities have not significantly impacted workflow since there are simpler tools like Alteryx and Nine. The platform is associated with a complicated setup process and demands heavy hardware, making it expensive to scale. IBM should work on optimizing the user interface and enhancing the product's accessibility for medium and small enterprises.
AN
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
Enables effective data management and reporting with a straightforward setup
SAS Visual Analytics is helpful as it allows us to perform any queries we need. The ability to query information from our Excel data into SAS to view specific data is invaluable. In terms of reporting, it is easy to extract quick reports and provides graphical representations of the data, which is a great feature.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Watson Studio?
IBM Watson Studio is considered rather expensive, with a rating of six or seven. The pricing could be optimized relative to the features and capabilities of the product.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Studio?
I think IBM Watson Studio can be improved. I wish learning IBM Watson Studio could be easier and more gradual, as it is a complex task. Also, I think pricing is a bit high.
What is your primary use case for IBM Watson Studio?
My main use case for IBM Watson Studio is the end-to-end ML life cycle. A specific example of a project where I used IBM Watson Studio for the end-to-end machine learning life cycle is that I built...
What do you like most about SAS Visual Analytics?
The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
In terms of configuration, I would like to see AI capabilities since many applications are now integrating AI. It may be that our current subscription does not include AI-enabled features, but I wo...
 

Also Known As

Watson Studio, IBM Data Science Experience, Data Science Experience, DSx
SAS BI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GroupM, Accenture, Fifth Third Bank
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Knime and others in Data Science Platforms. Updated: January 2026.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.