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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
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Alteryx is 6.2%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 2.4%, down from 2.7% 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

"Alteryx is a low-code platform, and that's the biggest reason why we chose it."
"Data processing is most valuable. It is one of the fastest data blockers out there in the market, which is a fascinating thing about Alteryx."
"Alteryx has made us more agile and increased the speed and effectiveness of decision making."
"The filtering is fast, and it provides a search tool that is great."
"I found Alteryx's ability to modify data on the fly, using in-memory processing, very useful."
"Once we got it in-house, I knew its value."
"The tools are built-in. You just plug and play, drag and drop, once you understand how to use the tools, it is easy."
"Alteryx has a good UI. We use it frequently in our projects. The tool comes with drag-and-drop features and is easy to understand for business needs. One situation where Alteryx's advanced analytics capabilities were particularly beneficial for us was during a forecasting project. Unlike Python, which requires coding, Alteryx simplifies the process significantly. With Alteryx, users can adjust parameters within the user interface without writing any code."
"It gives you a GUI interface, which is a lot more user-friendly and easier to use compared to writing R scripts or Python."
"We are using it either for workforce deployment or to improve our operations."
"It scales. I have not run into any challenges where it will not perform.​"
"New algorithms are added into every version of Modeler, e.g., SMOTE, random forest, etc. The Derive node is used for the syntax code to derive the data."
"In the solution, I like the virtualization of data flow since it shows what goes where, which is mostly the strength of the tool."
"The ease of use in the user interface is the best part of it. The ability to customize some of my streams with R and Python has been very useful to me, I've automated a few things with that."
"The most valuable features of the IBM SPSS Modeler are visual programming, you don't have to write any code, and it is easy to use. 90 to 95 percent of the use cases, you don't have to fine-tune anything. If you want to do something deeper, for example, create a better neural network, then you have to go into the features and try to fine-tune them. However, the default selection which is made by the tool, it's very practical and works well."
"Extremely easy to use, it offers a generous selection of proprietary machine learning algorithms."
 

Cons

"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."
"It would be nice if they can provide Alteryx with more options for In-DB connectivity. That functionality is there, but it doesn't include all software we are connecting."
"Deep learning models are not currently supported."
"Lacks an open source edition which would be helpful."
"They should make the solution user-friendly for nontechnical people by giving specific names to the options."
"Even when it already includes some AI models, this area could be improved."
"There could be a bit of improvement related to performance. Sometimes it demands a lot of resources for running it, like memory and search."
"I think sometimes the solution doesn't load properly or takes so much time for the workflows. Though the workflow runs and completes the file in Excel, if you use the same formula, it's a bit slow. Also, the image processing is not so good because I tried to do some image processing and they were like, sometimes they put two to eight. In the document, it was two, but the OCR predicted it as eight."
"It is very good, but slow. The slowness may be because we have not finalized all the background information in SPSS. It still needs some tweaking."
"I would not rate the technical support very well. The technicians have accents. When you do find someone, it is very hard to get somebody able to answer the technical questions."
"It would be beneficial if the tool would include more well-known machine learning algorithms."
"The standard package (personal) is not supported for database connection."
"I can say the solution is outdated."
"The integration with sources and visualisation needs some improvement. The scalability needs improvement."
"The platform's cloud version needs improvements."
"The biggest issue with the visual modeling capability is that we can't extract the SQL code under the hood."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My organization pays for it, and I do not look into the financial aspect of the licensing, but I know it is pretty expensive."
"The price for Alteryx Designer is reasonable but the price for Alteryx Server for universal collaborations is too expensive."
"In order to have designers, and, if you want to collaborate, you have to buy a server. If the designer is $5,000, and if you want a server, you have to pay $80,000."
"While it offers extensive features, including predictive analytics, for those who mainly use it for data preparation and blending, the cost can be prohibitive."
"The price could be better."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"A designer and scheduler for $13K/year in total is pretty much earning you the money back in time and in other resources."
"There are some implementation services and internal effort costs at the beginning but there is nothing else."
"Its price is okay for a company, but for personal use, it is considered somewhat 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 scalability was kind of limited by our ability to get other people licenses, and that was usually more of a financial constraint. It's expensive, but it's a good tool."
"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."
"It is a huge increase to time savings."
"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty expensive."
"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."
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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%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
12%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

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: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.