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IBM Watson Explorer vs KNIME comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

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 Watson Explorer
Ranking in Data Mining
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
KNIME
Ranking in Data Mining
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Explorer is 1.4%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KNIME is 24.6%, down from 27.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining
 

Featured Reviews

it_user1319820 - PeerSpot reviewer
A data analysis tool that is scalable and includes keyword search functionality
The solution is used for a government company for data collection and analysis I have found the auto-generated document very useful as well as the main keywords that are highlighted, which are used for the search functionality within IBM Watson Explorer. I have been using the solution for five…
Laurence Moseley - PeerSpot reviewer
Has a drag-and-drop interface and AI capabilities
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. Next, you can clean the data by handling missing values, selecting specific columns you want to analyze, and then proceeding with your analysis, such as regression or correlation. KNIME has over 4,500 nodes available for download. In addition, KNIME offers various extensions. For instance, the text processing extension allows you to process text data efficiently. It's more powerful than other tools like NVivo and Palantir. KNIME also has AI capabilities. If you're unsure about the next step, the AI assistant can suggest the most frequently used nodes based on your previous work. Another valuable feature is the integration with Python. If you need to perform a task that requires Python, you can simply add a Python node, write the necessary code,

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Ease of use is pretty good as is the standardization of not actually having to have my own natural learning algorithms, just to use the Watson APIs."
"The ability to easily pull together lots of different pieces of information and drill down in a smarter way than has been possible with other analytics tools is key. Watson is all based on a set of AI and deep learning, machine-learning capabilities, and it is looking behind the scenes at some relationships that you likely would not have spotted on your own. It's pulling things together, categorizing some things, that are not something that you might have seen on your own."
"We take natural language that was happening in our repositories and our application and then feed it to the Watson APIs. We receive JSON payloads as an API response to get cognitive feedback from the repository data."
"I have found the auto-generated document very useful as well as the main keywords that are highlighted, which are used for the search functionality within IBM Watson Explorer."
"For me, as a user, the most valuable feature is the ability to ingest and then retrieve information from a range of separate sources; the ability to dissect questions in context and actually answer them."
"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and to see the hidden insights from within unstructured data."
"It's a huge tool with machine learning features as well."
"We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics."
"The product is user-friendly."
"It offers a node-based data integration and processing system connected through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. This makes it an excellent choice for data analytics and engineering tasks."
"Overall KNIME serves its purpose and does a good job."
"The solution allows for sharing model designs and model operations with other data analysts."
"I was able to apply basic algorithms through just dragging and dropping."
"I am impressed by the modularity and reusability in KNIME, especially the ability to make small adjustments to object configurations."
 

Cons

"I would say, give some kind of a community edition, a free edition. A lot of companies do, even Amazon gives you some kind of trial and error opportunities. If they could provide something like that, it would be good."
"Much of IBM operates this way, where they have sets of tools that are in the middleware space, and it becomes the customer's responsibility or the business partner's responsibility to develop full solutions that take advantage of that middleware. I think IBM's finding itself in that spot with Watson-related technologies as well, where the capabilities to do really interesting and useful things for customers is there, but somebody still has to build it. Is that going to be the customer? Are they going to be willing to take on that responsibility themselves"
"Stability is actually one of the areas that could use improvement. Setting it up is always tough. Setting Explorer requires experts, but also the underlying platform is not that stable. So it really needs a good expert to keep it running."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is a little bit tricky to get used to the workflow of knowing how to train Watson, what can be provided, what can't be, how to provide it, how to import, export, and what it means every time you have to add a new dictionary"
"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."
"Small businesses will probably have a little harder time getting into it, just because of the amount of resources that they have available, both financial and time, but it really is a solution that should work for them."
"More cognitive feedback would be good. The natural language analysis is great, the sentiment analyzers are great. But I would just like to see more... innovation done with the Watson platform."
"One area that could be improved is increasing awareness and adoption of KNIME among organizations. Despite its capabilities, it is not as well-known as other tools. The advertising and marketing efforts to reach out to companies and universities have not been very successful."
"From the point of view of the interface, they can do a little bit better."
"For graphics, the interface is a little confusing. So, this is a point that could be improved."
"I would like it to have data visualitation capabilities. Today I'm still creating my own data visualtions tools to present my reports."
"They should look at other vendors like Alteryx that are more user friendly and modern."
"It's difficult to provide input on the improvement area because it's more of self-learning. However, there are times when I am not able to do certain things. I don't know if it's because the solution doesn't allow me or if it's because of the lack of knowledge."
"KNIME's licensing and data management aren't as straightforward relative to Alteryx. Alteryx's tools are more sophisticated, so you need fewer to use it compared to KNIME. I think tab implementation could be easier, too."
"The solution is inconvenient when it comes to wrangling data that includes multiple steps or features because each step or feature requires its own icon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"This is an open-source solution that is free to use."
"KNIME offers a free version"
"KNIME Business Hub is expensive for small companies."
"KNIME assets are stand alone, as the solution is open source."
"Scaling to the on-premises version requires a licensing fee per user that is a bit expensive in comparison to R, Python, and SAS."
"KNIME is free and open source."
"KNIME desktop is free, which is great for analytics teams. Server is well priced, depending on how much support is required."
"KNIME is a cheap product. I currently use KNIME's open-source version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
14%
Performing Arts
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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?
I have seen the potential to interact with Python, which is currently a bit limited. I am interested in the newer version, 5.4, when it becomes available. The machine learning and profileration asp...
 

Also Known As

IBM WEX
KNIME Analytics Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RIMAC, Westpac New Zealand, Toyota Financial Services, Swiss Re, Akershus University Hospital, Korean Air Lines, Mizuho Bank, Honda
Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Explorer vs. KNIME and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.