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IBM SPSS Modeler vs KNIME 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

IBM SPSS Modeler
Ranking in Data Mining
4th
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
KNIME
Ranking in Data Mining
1st
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 17.0%, up from 16.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KNIME is 24.9%, down from 27.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining
 

Q&A Highlights

EzzAbdelfattah - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 30, 2019
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Shyam_Sridhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for data analysis to model prediction and application but data load limitations
KNIME is very easy to handle and use. Anyone can use it, and it's easy to learn. You don't need a specific class. They're very good at model prediction. It has got everything. From data analysis to model prediction and application, it's very good. I only use the free community edition, not the enterprise one. I feel KNIME is really good. I haven't tried any other tool or platform yet, but KNIME is pretty good. The workflow is great. You drag and drop, and then you have the data explorer and charts that give results. The execution is also good – it's easy to identify where your model has gone wrong. It shows you the exact point of error within the workflow, so you don't have to execute the entire workflow to find it. For example, if your workflow has ten steps and the error is in the sixth step, it will show you the error at that step. You don't have to worry about the first five steps. The Data Explorer is very good, and the charts are great too. The accuracy charts for different models, like decision tree, K3, Naive Bayes, are all very good. KNIME is great at reporting, whether it's structured or unstructured data. These are all very good features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Compared to other tools, the product works much easier to analyze data without coding."
"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"
"We have been able to do some predictive modeling with it"
"Our go live process has been slightly enhanced compared to the previous programmatic process. There is now a faster time to production from the business end."
"So far, the stability has been rock solid."
"We have integration where you can write third-party apps. This sort of feature opens it up to being able to do anything you want."
"It scales. I have not run into any challenges where it will not perform.​"
"It handles large data better than the previous system that we were using, which was basically Excel and Access. We serve upwards of 300,000 parts over a 150 regions and we need to crunch a lot of numbers."
"Valuable features include visual workflow creation, workflow variables (parameterisation), automatic caching of all intermediate data sets in the workflow, scheduling with the server."
"I've never had any problems with stability."
"It is very fast to develop solutions."
"It has allowed us to easily implement advanced analytics into various processes."
"This open-source product can compete with category leaders in ELT software."
"Overall KNIME serves its purpose and does a good job."
"We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics."
"The ETL which helps me to collect, reformat, and load the data from multiple sources into one destination, a storage database."
 

Cons

"The integration with sources and visualisation needs some improvement. The scalability needs improvement."
"We would like to see better visualizations and easier integration with Cognos Analytics for reporting."
"Requires more development."
"The forecasting could be a bit easier."
"Neural networks are quite simple, and now neural networks are evolving to these architecture related to deep learning, etc. They didn't incorporate this in IBM SPSS Modeler."
"​I would like better integration into the Weather Company solution. I have raised a couple of concerns about this integration and having more time series capabilities.​"
"When I used it in the office, back in the day, we did have some stability issues. Sometimes it just randomly crashed and we couldn't get good feedback. But when I use it for my own stuff now I don't have any problems."
"We have run into a few problems doing some entity matching/analytics."
"I'd like something that would make it easier to connect/parse websites, although I will fully admit that I'm not as proficient in KNIME as I would like to be, so it could be I'm just missing something."
"Compared to the other data tools on the market, the user interface can be improved."
"​The data visualization part is the area most in need of improvement."
"The current UI is primarily in English. Analyzing data in local languages might present challenges or issues."
"Both RapidMiner and KNIME should be made easier to use in the field of deep learning."
"In my environment, I need to access a lot of servers with different characteristics and access methods. Some of my servers have to be accessed using proxy which is not supported by KNIME, so I still need to create the middleware to supply the source of my KNIME configurations."
"It needs more examples, use cases, and MOOC to learn, especially with respect to the algorithms and how to practically create a flow from end-to-end."
"It's difficult to pinpoint one single feature because KNIME has so many. For starters, it's very easy to learn. You can get started with just a one-hour video. The drag-and-drop interface makes it user-friendly. For example, if you want to read an Excel file, drag the "read Excel file" node from the repository, configure it by specifying the file location, and run it. This gives you a table with all your data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is okay for a company, but for personal use, it is considered somewhat expensive."
"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"It is an expensive product."
"It got us a good amount of money with quick and efficient modeling."
"If you are in a university and the license is free then you can use the tool without any charges, which is good."
"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."
"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."
"$5,000 annually."
"KNIME is a cost-effective solution because it’s free of cost."
"The client versions are mostly free, and we pay only for the KNIME server version. It's not a cheap solution."
"This is a free open-source solution."
"I use the open-source version."
"This is an open-source solution that is free to use."
"KNIME is free as a stand-alone desktop-based platform but if you want to get a KNIME server then you can find the cost on their website."
"There is no cost for using KNIME because it is an open-source solution, but you have to pay if you need a server."
"I use the tool's free version."
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Answers from the Community

EzzAbdelfattah - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 30, 2019
Dec 30, 2019
The main difference lies in the community that has KNIME because the additional modules serve a multitude of different jobs from image processing, management of ssh file systems to chemical molecule calculations.
2 out of 4 answers
ZW
Dec 27, 2019
KNIME. It free, open-source, and you can plug in Java, Python, R, and Matlab. The community is awesome.
JP
Dec 28, 2019
The main difference lies in the community that has KNIME because the additional modules serve a multitude of different jobs from image processing, management of ssh file systems to chemical molecule calculations.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about KNIME?
Since KNIME is a no-code platform, it is easy to work with.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KNIME?
I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with KNIME?
For graphics, the interface is a little confusing. So, this is a point that could be improved.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler
KNIME Analytics Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Modeler vs. KNIME and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.