IBM SPSS Statistics vs Weka comparison

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IBM SPSS Statistics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM SPSS Statistics and Weka based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Mining solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SPSS Statistics vs. Weka Report (Updated: March 2025).

IBM SPSS Statistics vs. Weka

March 2025

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Helped 839,422 peers since 2012

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 Statistics

Ranking in Data Mining

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Science Platforms (9th)

Weka

Ranking in Data Mining

2nd

Average Rating

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Anomaly Detection Tools (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 16.5%, up from 12.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Weka is 21.1%, up from 20.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Mining

Featured Reviews

Md Masudul Hassan

Agricultural Finance and IT Researcher at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Comprehensive data analysis capabilities with a user-friendly interface, providing an efficient and reliable platform for researchers and analysts

I believe that offering short-term SPSS licenses, perhaps when customer sourcing is available, could make it more affordable. These licenses shouldn't include features tailored for universities or large sales organizations. Instead, they could offer discounts or additional facilities for smaller entities to access the software. In developing countries, it would be beneficial to provide certain features to users at no cost initially, while also customizing pricing options. For example, offering basic features to the first hundred users can help them become familiar with the software and its capabilities. This approach encourages users to upgrade to higher tiers as they become more experienced and require additional functionality.

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AwaisAnwar

Treasury Management in Finance Department at National University of Pakistan

Open source, good for basic data mining use cases except for the visualization results

I haven't found it particularly useful. It lacks state-of-the-art algorithms and impressive outcomes. While it might offer insights for basic warehouse tasks, it falls short of deeper understanding and results. Moreover, a new user interface would be great, especially for beginners. Something that guides them through the available tools and helps them achieve their goals. I haven't seen anything like that myself, though maybe it's there and I missed it.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."

"The most valuable features are the solution is easy to use, training new users is not difficult, and our usage is comprehensive because the whole service is beneficial."

"Capability analysis is one of the main and valuable functions. We also do some hypothesis testing in Minitab and summary stats. These are the functions that we find very useful."

"It is perfectly adequate if all you need are the results and not the trail of evidence."

"Most of the product features are good but I particularly like the linear regression analysis."

"The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can into multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."

"You can quickly build models because it does the work for you."

"Some of the most valuable features that we are using with some business models are machine learning algorithms, statistical models given to us by the business, and getting data from the database or text files."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pros

"Weka's best features are its user-friendly graphic interface interpretation of data sets and the ease of analyzing data."

"Weka eliminates the need for coding, allowing you to easily set parameters and complete the majority of the machine learning task with just a few clicks."

"The path of machine learning in classification and clustering is useful. The GUI can get you results. No programming is needed. No need to write down your script first or send to your model or input your data."

"I mainly use this solution for the regression tree, and for its association rules. I run these two methodologies for Weka."

"I like the machine algorithm for clustering systems. Weka has larger capabilities. There are multiple algorithms that can be used for clustering. It depends upon the user requirements. For clustering, I've used DBSCAN, whereas for supervised learning, I've used AVM and RFT."

"The interface is very good, and the algorithms are the very best."

"With clustering, if it's a yes, it's a yes, if it's a no, it's a no. It gives you a 100% level of accuracy of a model that has been trained, and that is in most cases, usually misleading. Classification is highly valuable when done as opposed to clustering."

"There are many options where you can fill all of the data pre-processing options that you can implement when you're importing the data. You can also normalize the data and standardize it in an easier way."

More Weka pros

Cons

"I'd like to see them use more artificial intelligence. It should be smart enough to do predictions and everything based on what you input."

"One of the areas that should be similar to Minitabs is the use of blogs. The Minitabs blog helps users understand the tools and gives lots of practical examples. Following the SPSS manual is cumbersome. It's a good, exhaustive manual, but it's not practical to use. With Minitabs, you can go to the blogs and find specific articles written about various components and it's very helpful. Without blogs, we find SPSS more complicated."

"The product should provide more ways to import data and export results that are user-friendly for high-level executives."

"I recently moved away from SPSS and started using KNIME since it is particularly easier for students."

"There is a learning curve; it's not very steep, but there is one."

"SPSS is a tool that's been around since the late 60s, and it's the universal worldwide standard for quantitative social science data analysis. That said, it does seem a bit strange to me that the graphical output functions are so clunky after all these years. The output of charts and graphs that SPSS produces is hideous."

"I think the visualization and charting should be changed and made easier and more effective."

"This solution is not suitable for use with Big Data."

More IBM SPSS Statistics cons

"Weka could be more stable."

"The filter section lacks some specific transformation tools. If you want to change a variable from a numeric variable to a categorical variable, you don't have a feature that can enable you to change a variable from a numeric variable to a categorical variable."

"If you have one missing value in your dataset and this missing value belongs to a specific attribute and the attribute is a numeric attribute and there is only one missing data, whenever you import this data, the problem is that Weka cannot understand that this is a numeric field. It converts everything into a string, and there is no way to convert the string into numerical math. It's really very complicated."

"Weka is a little complicated and not necessarily suited for users who aren't skilled and experienced in data science."

"Within the basic Weka tool, I don't see many tools that are available where we can analyze and visualize the data that well."

"Not particularly user friendly."

"While it might offer insights for basic warehouse tasks, it falls short of deeper understanding and results."

"In terms of scalability, I think Weka is not prepared to handle a large number of users."

More Weka cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."

"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."

"The pricing of the modeler is high and can reduce the utility of the product for those who can not afford to adopt it."

"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."

"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."

"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."

"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."

"More affordable training for new staff members."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pricing and cost advice

"We use the free version now. My faculty is very small."

"As far as I know, Weka is a freeware tool, and I am not aware if they have an online solution or if it is a commercial product."

"Currently, I am using an open-source version so I don't know much about the price of this solution."

"The solution is free and open-source."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

University

Manufacturing Company

University

19%

Educational Organization

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?

The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?

SPSS is horrendously expensiver. On a laptop Knime is free of charge (Windows, Mac, Linux)

What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?

Better guidance both in producing programs and interpreting their output.

What do you like most about Weka?

It is a stable product.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Weka?

Weka is free and open-source software. That is why I used it over KNIME.

What needs improvement with Weka?

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Product Reports

Download IBM SPSS Statistics product report

IBM SPSS Statistics

February 2025

Download Weka product report

February 2025

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics

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Overview

IBM SPSS Statistics is a powerful data mining solution that is designed to aid business leaders in making important business decisions. It is designed so that it can be effectively utilized by organizations across a wide range of fields. SPSS Statistics allows users to leverage machine learning algorithms so that they can mine and analyze data in the most effective way possible.

IBM SPSS Statistics Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy IBM SPSS Statistics include:

Ease of use. SPSS Statistics enables users to simply and intuitively take control of their statistical needs. The solution is designed so that analysts who do not know how to code can easily make full use of the various tools and capabilities that SPSS Statistics has to offer. Its command language is so straightforward that it does not require users to undergo special training before they use it.

Comprehensive and flexible build. SPSS Statistics is designed to be both a comprehensive and highly flexible analytics solution. It enables users to utilize a variety of integrations that make it easy for users to add features that they might feel they are missing.

Automation. SPSS Statistics makes it simple for users to automate basic tasks that they might otherwise devote too much time worrying about. Tasks like calculation or data gathering can be delegated to the system while more conceptual tasks like data analysis are given to an organization’s analysts to handle.

IBM SPSS Statistics Features

Intuitive user interface. SPSS Statistics enables users to deploy an intuitive interface that makes the process of system management simple. Among the other components of this interface is a drag-and-drop feature that makes analysis and management possible for anyone who wants to use it.

Advanced data visualizations. Analysts that employ SPSS Statistics gain access to tools that empower them to create and export data visualizations. These visualizations can be formatted in many different ways depending on what the user needs.

Local data storage. SPSS Statistics has the ability to securely store data on a user’s computer. This enables them to add layers of security that would not necessarily be present if the data was stored in the cloud.

Reviews from Real Users

IBM SPSS Statistics is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are the wealth of functionalities that it provides and its high level of accessibility.

An Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at a university writes, "The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can in a multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."

A Director of Systems Management & MIS Operations at a university, says, “The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information from it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it.”

IBM

Weka is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks. The algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset or called from your own Java code. Weka contains tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization. It is also well-suited for developing new machine learning schemes.

Sample Customers

LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA

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