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IBM Watson Explorer vs SAS Analytics comparison

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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
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAS Analytics
Ranking in Data Mining
5th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Explorer is 3.6%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Analytics is 7.8%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAS Analytics7.8%
IBM Watson Explorer3.6%
Other88.6%
Data Mining
 

Featured Reviews

it_user1319820 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
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…
SC
Student at Rochester Institute of Technology
Data management has become faster and clearer but integration and large data handling still need work
SAS Analytics needs to improve for entry-level people in my college because buying licenses is somewhat costly for small businesses. SAS Analytics is also somewhat complex for students who are entering the data field. Additionally, SAS Analytics is not good at integration with other environments, so it should improve on that, and some syntaxes are not good. SAS Analytics has an older architecture in some areas, so it should enhance the UX side and performance in some aspects. SAS Analytics documentation should improve to be clearer for students who are currently using or trying to use SAS Analytics, so the documentation should be simplified. Customer service is pretty good as of now, as they respond in two to four hours on business days, but faster response times may solve many problems and attract more users. I rate SAS Analytics seven or eight out of ten. SAS Analytics should improve in massive data handling, as I mentioned earlier. SAS Analytics struggles when it handles massive data, and it should also get top-tier support. The support should improve from two to four hours down to one hour or even thirty minutes. SAS Analytics should also offer more low-code options for those who do not know how to code or to save more time, and they should consider reducing their pricing. Currently, SAS Analytics has limited flexibility and very limited integration, so improvements in those areas are necessary. SAS Analytics student version does not handle long or lengthy data well right now, so it should improve on that point. As I have mentioned, it struggles with larger data sets, but for current small or medium data sets, it is very good. Customer support should improve to fifteen to thirty minutes or immediate live agents during business hours. The two to four hours wait can sometimes take more than one day, and that does not make sense. We have to stop all our work until they reply if we encounter critical problems, so they should improve for certain.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and being able to see hidden insights from within unstructured 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."
"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."
"Previously we'd have a set of health and safety analysts who would be the key focal points for doing work to understand health and safety risks; so a very small number of people, but through WEX and through our Watson HSEQ solution, we've managed to get engagement across at least one-third of our workforce, so over 1,300 people, and a 25% reduction in health and safety incidents."
"What impressed me more about Watson is that it is easy to use it, not for the technical people, but for business people."
"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."
"IBM has been working with Bradesco since 1968, I think, and the support is very good, with a team of 10 IBM employees working every day, 24 hours, inside the bank in Sao Paolo."
"I really can't talk enough about the team."
"SAS Business Intelligence is well-suited for our large corporation, as we have demand for scalable and reliable insights into information which is housed in our large systems."
"It has facilitated timely analysis results with quality work, meaningful output, and consistent data use."
"This solution has helped us materially grow multiple business categories."
"The team immediately resolves the issues."
"I use it to replicate our entire financial system to verify/duplicate calculations."
"We have noticed at least a thirty to forty percent saving in time and a thirty to forty percent increase in the efficiency of our work."
"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay, it is the right balance."
"The most valuable aspect of SAS Analytics is the ability to automate work using macros without heavily relying on technology teams, allowing me to create functions that operate independently and streamline workflows efficiently."
 

Cons

"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."
"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 or something of the like."
"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."
"No, it's not yet stable."
"We haven't used it in production yet so I can't answer this."
"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"
"Sometimes the service stops."
"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."
"​Support at universities used to be limited, but I hear this is changing.​"
"The training for SAS Business Intelligence is often difficult to arrange. It is often cancelled due to not enough people being enrolled."
"One of the things that can be simplified is self-service analytics, especially for a citizen developer or a citizen data scientist."
"The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved."
"It is relatively expensive."
"SAS Analytics struggles when it handles massive data, and it should also get top-tier support."
"The graphing and visualization features could be enhanced, in my opinion. I would especially stress improving the visualization capabilities."
"I would like to see their interface to R added to either Base SAS or SAS Analytics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"Our licensing covers the usage for around 50 data analysts."
"Licensing was rather straightforward."
"It is relatively expensive. It is not an easy software to afford."
"I rate the product’s pricing a one out of ten."
"Prices were comparable with alternative solutions."
"​The cost for SAS Business Intelligence can prove to be a little prohibitive.​"
"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay."
"SAS is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Healthcare Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Performing Arts
10%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Outsourcing Company
12%
University
11%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with SAS Analytics?
With SAS Analytics, I find that the graphs are very poor, and since I use Power BI, I think SAS Analytics needs to enhance the visualization options to do better visualizations. Many other software...
What is your primary use case for SAS Analytics?
I work with SAS Analytics solutions, specifically with SAS Data Mining, because I extract information from the core system of the bank via ODBC connections and use SAS Base on the servers. I am the...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Analytics?
As a student, I do not pay anything for pricing; my college gives me credentials, and SAS Analytics is free for students, so the licensing is also free. Thus, SAS Analytics for students is very good.
 

Also Known As

IBM WEX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RIMAC, Westpac New Zealand, Toyota Financial Services, Swiss Re, Akershus University Hospital, Korean Air Lines, Mizuho Bank, Honda
Aegon, Alberta Parks, Amway China, Axel Springer, Bank of America, Belgium Special Tax, CAP Index, CareSource, CBE Group, Cemig, Center for Responsible Lending, CESCE, Ceska sporitelna, Chantecler, Chico's, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, CIGNA Thailand, City of Wiesbaden, Germany, Confused.com, Creditreform, Des Moines Area Community College, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DIRECTV, Dow Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, Dun & Bradstreet, EDF Energy, Electrabel GDF SUEZ, ERGO Insurance Group, Erste Bank Croatia, Farmers Mutual Group, Finnair, Florida Department of Corrections, Geneia, Generali Hellas, Genting Malaysia Berhad, Grameenphone, Grandi Salumifici Italiani, HealthPartners, Highmark, Hong Kong Efficiency Unit, HP, Hyundai Securities, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family ServicesInc Research, ING-DiBa, Institut Pertanian Bogor, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), IOM, Kelley Blue Book, Lenovo, Lillebaelt Hospital, Los Angeles County, Maspex Wadowice Group, National Bank of Greece, New Zealand Ministry of Health, New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, Nippon Paper, NMIMS, North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), Oberweis Dairy, ODEC, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, Oklahoma State University, OneBeacon, Orange Business Services, Orange County Child Support Services, Organic, Orlando Magic, OTP Bank, Plano Independent School District, Project Odyssey, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RSA Canada, SCAD, Scotiabank, Singapore National Library Board, Sobeys Inc., SRA International, Staples, Statistics Estonia, Swisscom, SymphonyIRI Group, Telecom Italia, Telef‹nica O2, Town of Cary, Transitions Optical, TrueCar, Turkcell Superonline, UniCredit Bank Serbia, University of Alabama, University of Missouri, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
912,788 professionals have used our research since 2012.