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SAS Access vs SAS Viya Platform 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

SAS Access
Ranking in Data Integration
61st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAS Viya Platform
Ranking in Data Integration
28th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (9th), Data Governance (20th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of SAS Access is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Viya Platform is 0.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAS Viya Platform0.4%
SAS Access0.8%
Other98.8%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Heck - PeerSpot reviewer
Co Owner at Hecht und Heck GmbH
The solution is stable, scalable, and flexible
I rate the solution eight out of ten. The number of people required to maintain the solution is dependent on the other applications running. The solution in itself does not require a lot of maintenance. The solution is flexible and I recommend it when you have more complex applications with special requirements.
KK
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
Modern analytics has transformed large data into faster insights and streamlined reporting
There are some areas of improvement I would mention regarding SAS Viya Platform. New users may find it complex initially, as its learning curve can be steep. Understanding CAS and different components is very challenging for a new user. The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives. There are also some limitations in Visual Analytics. While it is easy to use, it could be more flexible compared to Power BI or Tableau. These are the main improvement areas where SAS Viya Platform should focus. I would add some additional pointers about needed improvements in SAS Viya Platform. Regarding customer support, it is good, but the response time for complex issues can sometimes be slower than expected. The documentation and learning resources are not very beginner-friendly, making it challenging for beginners to navigate. Regarding integration, it could be smoother with Databricks, Snowflake, and Power BI, but it is more complex than it should be. Since updates are automatic, users are sometimes not fully aware of changes or new features that are being updated, as compared to Power BI, which publishes updates on its website. SAS Viya Platform should work on these aspects.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable part of SAS/ACCESS is what it is made for: connecting to remote systems that are not part of your physical SAS environment."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the ease of access to the data in those databases."
"The most valuable feature is you have native access to the external databases."
"The SAS/ACCESS ability to connect creates an elegant simplicity."
"SAS Viya Platform has positively impacted my organization, as previously I was using SAS 9.4, and after migrating to SAS Viya Platform, we are able to present the data in useful ways that save our time and give sponsors a new opportunity to look at the data, which is a very good thing."
"Since starting to work with SAS Viya Platform, the positive impact we have seen includes improvements in distributing data sets for better analytics and machine learning."
"In my experience, the best feature of SAS Viya Platform is that it is very quick in doing the analysis, does the job very quickly and very well without any issues, and I was able to do multiple analyses at the same time."
"Eliminating the need for separate visualization tools has greatly affected my team's workflow because it is just one integrated tool, one integrated platform."
"SAS Viya Platform brought several positive outcomes to my project: the centralized investigation platform, real-time fraud detection with Kafka streams scored in real time, improved reporting via SAS Visual Analytics, and the ability to scale for larger businesses."
"SAS Viya Platform is a great tool for our data analytics purpose, particularly how data profiling stands out compared to other tools impressed me."
"Using SAS Viya Platform, I saw approximately a thirty to forty percent reduction in data processing time due to CAS in-memory computing, and I also reduced manual reporting efforts by approximately forty to fifty percent through automation and self-service dashboards, which definitely saved resources for my organization."
"SAS Viya Platform has positively impacted my organization by saving time compared to when we were using SAS 9.4, as we can now work on two to three projects simultaneously within one hour, which is a significant improvement."
 

Cons

"The solution can provide access to the newer databases that come out sooner."
"The solution's pricing and licensing are expensive."
"The primary way that this product can be improved is by adjusting their pricing model."
"I can't really recall any missing feature or general improvement that is needed. We don't really add too many new kinds of databases and therefore our needs are already met."
"The pricing model needs to be reconsidered and adjusted."
"I have one complaint about SAS Viya Platform: it offers so many options in each application that someone new who is not familiar with SAS functionality might have trouble, as the learning curve can be very hard for a new learner."
"I would advise others looking into using SAS Viya Platform to go ahead if their budget allows."
"I think SAS Viya Platform could be improved as it is a little bit limited; for instance, you have to purchase specific features such as charts and quality control, so it is not a full analytics product."
"The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives."
"SAS Viya Platform has a bit of a learning curve. It was not easy to start with."
"It was very difficult to build the required calculations directly on the reporting side, and we sometimes struggled."
"On the integration side, the PROC HTTP-based indexing is fragile."
"I rate it a nine because for a fresher, the platform might not be entirely intuitive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing and licensing are expensive."
"The pricing model is complex and is based on modular packages as well as the size of the applicable environment."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
26%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Viya Platform?
I am not much aware of the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SAS Viya Platform because that was handled by the administrator. However, I do not think it is too costly to use. I never did a comp...
What needs improvement with SAS Viya Platform?
One thing I expect more from SAS Viya Platform, specifically on the report side, is how the calculations work. It is not that strong in that sense. It was very difficult to build the required calcu...
What is your primary use case for SAS Viya Platform?
I have used SAS Viya Platform for almost three years in various ways, including preparing data, using it, generating extracts, and sending them through email to users. We also built an internal das...
 

Also Known As

SAS/Access
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles County, West Midlands Police, Credit Guarantee Corporation, Canada Post, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAS Access vs. SAS Viya Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.