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IBM SPSS Modeler vs Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio 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 Science Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (4th)
Microsoft Azure Machine Lea...
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
AI Development Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is 5.5%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms
 

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.
Takayuki Umehara - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined workflows with drag and drop convenience but needs enhancements in AI
I use Machine Learning Studio for system reselling and integration Machine Learning Studio is easy to use, with a significant feature being the drag and drop interface that enhances workflow without any complaints. It provides a return on investment and cost savings, proving beneficial for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Stability is good."
"Some basic form of feature engineering for classification models. This really quickens the model development process."
"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."
"It is just a lot faster. So you do not have to write a bunch of code, you can throw that stuff on there pretty quickly and do prototyping quickly."
"So far, the stability has been rock solid."
"The visual modeling capability is one of its attractive features."
"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."
"​It has helped in reducing the time involved for coding using R and/or Python."
"Scalability, in terms of running experiments concurrently is good. At max, I was able to run three different experiments concurrently."
"Machine Learning Studio is easy to use."
"It's a great option if you are fairly new and don't want to write too much code."
"It is a scalable solution…It is a pretty stable solution…The solution's initial setup process was pretty straightforward."
"Regarding the technical support for the solution, I find the documentation provided comprehensive and helpful."
"The platform as a service provides user-friendly instruments, making the experience easy."
"Azure Machine Learning Studio provides a platform to integrate with large language models."
 

Cons

"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."
"It's not as user friendly as it could be."
"The integration with sources and visualisation needs some improvement. The scalability needs improvement."
"I can say the solution is outdated."
"The platform's cloud version needs improvements."
"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."
"Regarding visual modeling, it is not the biggest strength of the product, although from what I hear in the latest release it's going to be a lot stronger. That, to me, has always been the biggest flaw in using this. It's very difficult to get good visualization."
"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."
"We can create a label job, but we still have to use the Azure Machine Learning REST APIs, which are not yet supported in the Python SDK version 2."
"Overall, the icons in the solution could be improved to provide better guidance to users. Additionally, the setup process for the solution could be made easier."
"There's room for improvement in terms of binding the integration with Azure DevOps."
"Technical support could improve their turnaround time."
"One problem I experience is that switching between multiple accounts can be difficult. I don't think there are any major issues. Mostly, the biggest challenge is to identify business solutions to this. The tool should keep on updating new algorithms and not stay static."
"n the solution, there is the concept of workspaces, and there is no means to share the computing infrastructure across those workspaces."
"In the Machine Learning Studio, particularly the Designer part, which is essentially Azure's demo designer, there is room for improvement. Many customers and users tend to switch to Microsoft Azure Multi-Joiners, which is a more basic version, but they do so internally. One area that could use enhancement is the process of connecting components. Currently, every time you want to connect a component, such as linking it to your storage or an instance like EC2, you have to input your username and password repeatedly. This can be quite cumbersome. Google, for instance, has made it more user-friendly by allowing easy access for connecting services within a workspace. In a workspace, you can set up various resources like storage, a database cluster, machine learning studio, and more. When connecting these services, there's no need to enter your username and password each time, making it a more efficient process. Another aspect to consider is the role of the designer, and they were to integrate a large language model to handle various tasks, it could significantly enhance the overall scalability and usability of the platform."
"It would be great if the solution integrated Microsoft Copilot, its AI helper."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."
"It got us a good amount of money with quick and efficient modeling."
"It is a huge increase to time savings."
"$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."
"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."
"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."
"On a scale from one to ten, with ten being overpriced, I would rate the price of this solution at six."
"I used the free student license for a few months to operate the solution, but I'll have to pay for it if I want to do more now."
"ML Studio's pricing becomes a numbers game."
"From a developer's perspective, I find the price of this solution high."
"In terms of pricing, for any cloud solution, you should know the tricks of the trade and how to use it, otherwise, you'll end up paying a lot of money irrespective of the cloud provider, so at least for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio pricing versus AWS, I would rate it three out of five, with one being the most expensive, and five being the cheapest. It could be cheaper, but you also have to be careful when choosing the plans, for example, consider the architecture and a lot of other factors before choosing your plan, if you don't want to end up paying more. If your cloud provider has an optimizer that seems to be available in every provider, that would keep alerting you in terms of resources not being used as much, then that would help you with budgeting."
"It is less expensive than one of its competitors."
"The product is not that expensive."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being very expensive. Not very expensive, not very cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
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...
Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
The learning curve is very low. Operationalizing the model is also very easy within the Azure ecosystem.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Pricing is considered to be top-segment and should be improved. I rate the pricing as three or four on a scale of one to ten in terms of affordability.
 

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler
Azure Machine Learning, MS Azure Machine Learning Studio
 

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
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Schneider Electric, BP
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Modeler vs. Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
839,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.