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Alteryx vs IBM SPSS Modeler 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

Alteryx
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Predictive Analytics (1st), Data Preparation Tools (1st)
IBM SPSS Modeler
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Alteryx is 5.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 2.5%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms
 

Q&A Highlights

SI
Nov 02, 2020
 

Featured Reviews

Theresa McLaughlin - PeerSpot reviewer
Quick development enables seamless data processing despite occasional support issues
There were times when the product would fail during development without an apparent reason. The support structure changed; initially, we received great support, however, it later became less reliable due to licensing issues and a tiered support system. Licensing negotiations were problematic, affecting our product usage. For instance, our licenses were temporarily lost during negotiations when an agreement couldn't be reached.
PeterHuo - PeerSpot reviewer
Good tool for extracting data from data warehouses, creating streams, and manipulating logic to extract final data
There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performance issue seems to be related to the server. We design streams on the client and submit them to the server, which generates a large SQL statement. There are two potential bottlenecks: one in the server and another in data extraction. I'm unsure about the exact mechanics of data splitting when fetching from the database. When streams become larger, performance bottlenecks may occur in the IBM SPSS Modeler server or the database. Sometimes the server crashes and needs to be restarted to release memory on both sides. I'm not sure exactly where the problem is caused, as I focus on stream design rather than server issues. The problem could be on the IBM SPSS Modeler server and database.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The design portion of this tool is easy to use without code, which his something that something we can appreciate."
"The scheduling within the solution is excellent."
"Once we got it in-house, I knew its value."
"Predictive models, which are easy to use, and help a lot with fast design and deployment​."
"I think the most valuable feature for Alteryx in a health facility is that it permits cleaning, organizing, and merging of databases such as Excel and Access."
"The connectors are a very good feature."
"Shortens the time required to start analyzing data and looking for insights, minimizing the tasks that do not add value to the business and maximizing the analysis phase."
"Alteryx makes it easy for the end customer to see clean data in a structured form."
"I was familiar with using IBM SPSS Modeler separately in the private sector before that. It's a good tool for extracting data from data warehouses, creating streams, and manipulating logic to extract final data."
"It will scale up to anything we need."
"It gives you a GUI interface, which is a lot more user-friendly and easier to use compared to writing R scripts or Python."
"Some basic form of feature engineering for classification models. This really quickens the model development process."
"It’s definitely scalable, it’s all on the same platform, it’s well integrated. I think the integration is important in terms of scalablility because essentially, having the entire suite helps a lot to scale it"
"I think it is the point and drag features that are the most valuable. You can simply click at the windows, and then pull up the functions."
"It is pretty scalable."
"We are creating models and putting them into production much faster than we would if we had just gone with a strict, code-based solution, like R or Python."
 

Cons

"The workflow and pipeline need to improve."
"They should make the solution user-friendly for nontechnical people by giving specific names to the options."
"There are a few hiccups with specific data sets and languages or formats that the data comes in. That may be a minor problem, but we can work through it. We had some issues looking at XML format in added data, but it wasn't significant."
"The solution could improve in the visualization."
"They can provide some pre-built tools for predictive analytics instead of us having to build all the tools. It should also be improved from the visualization aspect. It should have better visualization capabilities. There are tools out there that have better visualization capabilities, which Alteryx is lacking currently."
"When configuring target tables, it is difficult to see the full text when deciding on load operations."
"If there is any way to make the learning curve less steep, that would be ideal."
"There have been some issues with licensing, particularly with the increased prices. This has led some companies, including ours, to consider reducing the number of licenses or potentially discontinuing their use of Alteryx."
"We have run into a few problems doing some entity matching/analytics."
"I understand that it takes some time to incorporate some of the new algorithms that have come out in the last few months, in the literature. For example, there is an algorithm based on how ants search for food. And there are some algorithms that have now been developed to complement rules. So that's one of the things that we need to have incorporated into it."
"Customer support is hard to contact."
"When you are not using the product, such as during the pandemic where we had worldwide lockdowns, you still have to pay for the licensing."
"Requires more development."
"The platform that you can deploy it on needs improvement because I think it is Windows only. I do not think it can run off a Red Hat, like the server products. I am pretty sure it is Windows and AIX only."
"​Initial setup of the software was complex, because of our own problems within the government."
"I think mapping for geographic data would also be a really great thing to be able to use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better."
"The license is really expensive, we cannot afford to have two or three. It takes away all the budget of my area."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"ROI is huge. There are some secondary benefits, like analysts getting their post 5 PM time back or the ability to shorten all closing processes to a half or less."
"The designer has a list price of $5,995 USD."
"We use the free version of the solution. There are enterprise licenses available. It cost approximately $5,000 annually. It is an expensive solution and there are additional features that cost more money."
"The designer license costs 5000 euros. The server edition is 1000 euros."
"We have a yearly cost that we pay for the licensing. We do not pay any costs in addition to the licensing fees."
"It got us a good amount of money with quick and efficient modeling."
"Having in mind all four tools from Garner’s top quadrant, the pricing of this tool is competitive and it reflects the quality that it offers."
"$5,000 annually."
"When you are close to end of quarter, IBM and its partners can get you 60% to 70% discounts, so literally wait for the last day of the quarter for the best prices. You may feel like you are getting robbed if you can't receive a good discount."
"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty expensive."
"If you are in a university and the license is free then you can use the tool without any charges, which is good."
"The government has funds and a budget, it's hard to say if it's expensive or cheap. In Canada, they have a yearly budget. They used to encourage people to use the modeler for development. If ten users use the server with ten licenses, it runs faster. But if forty users use the same appliance, everything slows down. People then think it's not easy to do things and prefer using remote tools like Python to extract data from the database. It's not about being expensive or cheap, but about people's knowledge and experience in how to do the work."
"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
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Answers from the Community

SI
Nov 2, 2020
Nov 2, 2020
There are some important differences between both products. So probably, the first question I'll ask you is "for what use case are you evaluating these products?" Of course, there are some general differences, starting with the T.C.O. and functionalities. Alteryx is a code-free and code-friendly platform that allows you to tackle the whole cycle of your data, starting on the consumption from a...
2 out of 5 answers
AB
Nov 11, 2019
One of the differences is that with Alteryx you can use it as an ETL and analytics tool. Please connect with me directly if you want to know more.
MR
Nov 11, 2019
I am unfamiliar with the IBM SPSS Modeler but use KNIME and Alteryx for different projects. Alteryx is an excellent, very easy to get started with and get to results data cleansing, ETL, analytics, geospatial modeling, predictive analytics. I build reusable macros in Alteryx, use flexible inputs for what-if modeling, feed information to Power BI or Tableau. It seems price competitive against SPSS.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
11%
Government
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
One of the differences is that with Alteryx you can use it as an ETL and analytics tool. Please connect with me directly if you want to know more.
What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
Alteryx is an extremely easy and flexible data tool, flexible in terms of drag and drop toolset and also has python, R integrations if your team requires this. It can handle over 2 billion rows of...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Alteryx and IBM SPSS Modeler?
I am not familiar with IBM SPSS Modeler, therefore, I cannot compare these two products. Regarding Alteryx I can say the following: - An excellent desktop tool for Data Prep and analytics. - Featu...
What do you like most about IBM SPSS Modeler?
Compared to other tools, the product works much easier to analyze data without coding.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Modeler?
The government has funds and a budget, it's hard to say if it's expensive or cheap. In Canada, they have a yearly budget. They used to encourage people to use the modeler for development. If ten us...
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Modeler?
There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performanc...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SPSS Modeler
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AnalyticsIq Inc., belk, BloominBrands Inc., Cardinalhealth, Cineplex, Dairy Queen
Reisebªro Idealtours GmbH, MedeAnalytics, Afni, Israel Electric Corporation, Nedbank Ltd., DigitalGlobe, Vodafone Hungary, Aegon Hungary, Bureau Veritas, Brammer Group, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, InSites Consulting, Fortis Turkey
Find out what your peers are saying about Alteryx vs. IBM SPSS Modeler and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.