Databricks vs IBM SPSS Modeler comparison

Databricks and IBM are both solutions in the Data Science Platforms category. Databricks is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Databricks holds a 9.6% mindshare in Data Science Platforms, compared to IBM’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 92 Databricks reviews

18,651 Views
8,020 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM SPSS Modeler

Read 40 IBM SPSS Modeler reviews

2,486 Views
1,790 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Databricks

IBM SPSS Modeler

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

IBM SPSS Modeler and Databricks are data analytics competitors. Databricks has the upper hand due to its scalability and real-time processing for large-scale operations.

Features: IBM SPSS Modeler offers robust statistical tools, intuitive flowchart modeling, and effective predictive analytics. Databricks provides strong integration with big data technologies, advanced machine learning workflows, and collaboration through its notebook interface.

Room for Improvement: IBM SPSS Modeler could enhance its cloud capabilities and collaboration features. It may also benefit from more advanced machine learning tools. Databricks can improve by simplifying its initial adaptation to cloud environments, optimizing cost for smaller operations, and streamlining complex workflows for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM SPSS Modeler is straightforward to deploy on-premise with minimal cloud infrastructure and offers attentive customer service. Databricks supports quick, cloud-native deployments with strong team collaboration but may require additional training for cloud acclimation.

Pricing and ROI: IBM SPSS Modeler generally presents lower initial setup costs with good ROI for small and mid-sized statistical analyses. Databricks, while involving higher upfront investment, often yields a higher long-term ROI through its scalability and big data capabilities, justifying the initial expense for extensive data operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 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

Databricks

Ranking in Data Science Platforms

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)

IBM SPSS Modeler

Ranking in Data Science Platforms

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Mining (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Science Platforms category, the mindshare of Databricks is 9.6%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 3.7%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Science Platforms Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Databricks	9.6%
IBM SPSS Modeler	3.7%
Other	86.7%

Data Science Platforms

Featured Reviews

SimonRobinson

Governance And Engagement Lead

Improved data governance has enabled sensitive data tracking but cost management still needs work

I believe we could improve Databricks integration with cloud service providers. The impact of our current integration has not been particularly good, and it's becoming very expensive for us. The inefficiencies in our implementation, such as not shutting down warehouses when they're not in use or reserving the right number of credits, have led to increased costs. We made several beginner mistakes, such as not taking advantage of incremental loading and running overly complicated queries all the time. We should be using ETL tools to help us instead of doing it directly in Databricks. We need more experienced professionals to manage Databricks effectively, as it's not as forgiving as other platforms such as Snowflake. I think introducing customer repositories would facilitate easier implementation with Databricks.

Read full review

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Bisping

Business Owner at SASS GmbH

Support and flexibility enable effective project initiation and meet customer needs but deployment requires enhancement

The customer comes to you and says they want to deploy it and make a production out of this, which is very difficult and expensive with IBM SPSS Modeler. With MATLAB, there is no problem. I have a solution, and then I convert my MATLAB solution to C programming language. This I can deploy, and I can check it, and it is MISRA compatible. It is very easy to deploy it, to go from MATLAB to C or C++, which is actually needed in the car industry. In the car industry, they want to have it in the hardware. You cannot put MATLAB or IBM SPSS Modeler in the hardware of a car, but with C, there is no problem with a microcontroller. They can shoot it into the microcontroller, and I can check it with Polyspace, and it is MISRA compatible, which is an industrial standard. There is nothing similar in IBM SPSS Modeler. I made solutions with IBM SPSS Modeler, and then the customer said they wanted to make a production out of it, and it was not possible. I stopped with IBM SPSS Modeler 18. It is now 18.6 from what I know at the moment. I do not believe that there is a possibility to design a graphic user interface with it. It is itself a graphic user interface, where you put all sorts of little icons into the display.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The built-in optimization recommendations halved the speed of queries and allowed us to reach decision points and deliver insights very quickly."

"Imageflow is a visual tool that helps make it easier for business people to understand complex workflows."

"Ability to work collaboratively without having to worry about the infrastructure."

"Specifically for data science and data analytics purposes, it can handle large amounts of data in less time. I can compare it with Teradata. If a job takes five hours with Teradata databases, Databricks can complete it in around three to three and a half hours."

"The solution is very easy to use."

"It's very simple to use Databricks Apache Spark."

"The capacity of use of the different types of coding is valuable. Databricks also has good performance because it is running in spark extra storage, meaning the performance and the capacity use different kinds of codes."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to use SQL directly with Databricks."

More Databricks pros

"Very good data aggregation."

"We have been able to do some predictive modeling with it"

"We have a local representative who specializes in SPSS. He will help us do the PoC."

"It gives you a GUI interface, which is a lot more user-friendly and easier to use compared to writing R scripts or Python."

"The quality is very good."

"We have full control of the data handling process."

"It's a very organized product. It's easy to use."

"We are using it either for workforce deployment or to improve our operations."

More IBM SPSS Modeler pros

Cons

"The product could be improved by offering an expansion of their visualization capabilities, which currently assists in development in their notebook environment."

"There is room for improvement in visualization."

"Support for Microsoft technology and the compatibility with the .NET framework is somewhat missing."

"The solution has some scalability and integration limitations when consolidating legacy systems."

"The product could be improved regarding the delay when switching to higher-performing virtual machines compared to other platforms."

"The pricing of Databricks could be cheaper."

"If I want to create a Databricks account, I need to have a prior cloud account such as an AWS account or an Azure account. Only then can I create a Databricks account on the cloud. However, if they can make it so that I can still try Databricks even if I don't have a cloud account on AWS and Azure, it would be great. That is, it would be nice if it were possible to create a pseudo account and be provided with a free trial. It is very essential to creating a workforce on Databricks. For example, students or corporate staff can then explore and learn Databricks."

"The product should provide more advanced features in future releases."

More Databricks cons

"Requires more development."

"I think mapping for geographic data would also be a really great thing to be able to use."

"Initial setup of the software was complex, because of our own problems within the government."

"I would not rate the technical support very well. The technicians have accents. When you do find someone, it is very hard to get somebody able to answer the technical questions."

"Formula writing is not straightforward for an Excel user. Totally new set of functions, which takes time to learn and teach."

"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."

"Dimension reduction should be classified separately."

"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."

More IBM SPSS Modeler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product pricing is moderate."

"We only pay for the Azure compute behind the solution."

"I would rate the tool’s pricing an eight out of ten."

"Databricks is a very expensive solution. Pricing is an area that could definitely be improved. They could provide a lower end compute and probably reduce the price."

"The solution is based on a licensing model."

"I rate the price of Databricks as eight out of ten."

"The solution is affordable."

"I'm not involved in the financing, but I can say that the solution seemed reasonably priced compared to the competitors. Similar products are usually in the same price range. With five being affordable and one being expensive, I would rate Databricks a four out of five."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"I am using the free version of IBM SPSS Modeler, it is the educational edition version."

"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."

"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."

"$5,000 annually."

"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."

"It got us a good amount of money with quick and efficient modeling."

"Its price is okay for a company, but for personal use, it is considered somewhat expensive."

"This tool, being an IBM product, is pretty expensive."

More IBM SPSS Modeler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Science Platforms solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	56

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	32

Questions from the Community

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 ...

See all answers

How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?

We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designed to accelerate innovation projects. It is based on Spark so it is very fast. It...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?

Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Modeler?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM SPSS Modeler?

I have been using IBM SPSS Modeler for a long time. I am using IBM SPSS Modeler mainly for ETL. Sometimes I use it to compare the results of the modeling as compared to MATLAB. MATLAB is the main t...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Databricks

Compared 3% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

IBM SPSS Statistics vs IBM SPSS Modeler

Compared 49% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM SPSS Modeler

Compared 9% of the time

KNIME Business Hub vs IBM SPSS Modeler

Compared 7% of the time

Altair RapidMiner vs IBM SPSS Modeler

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Watson Explorer vs IBM SPSS Modeler

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM SPSS Modeler Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

January 2026

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM SPSS Modeler

January 2026

Download IBM SPSS Modeler product report

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

SPSS Modeler

Overview

Databricks offers a scalable, versatile platform that integrates seamlessly with Spark and multiple languages, supporting data engineering, machine learning, and analytics in a unified environment.

Databricks stands out for its scalability, ease of use, and powerful integration with Spark, multiple languages, and leading cloud services like Azure and AWS. It provides tools such as the Notebook for collaboration, Delta Lake for efficient data management, and Unity Catalog for data governance. While enhancing data engineering and machine learning workflows, it faces challenges in visualization and third-party integration, with pricing and user interface navigation being common concerns. Despite needing improvements in connectivity and documentation, it remains popular for tasks like real-time processing and data pipeline management.

What features make Databricks unique?

Notebook: Enables collaborative work among team members.
Delta Lake: Optimizes data management operations.
Unity Catalog: Provides governance over data assets.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly connects with major cloud platforms.

What benefits can users expect from Databricks?

Versatility: Supports diverse applications in data science and engineering.
Performance: Delivers efficient handling of large-scale analytics tasks.
Collaboration: Enhances teamwork in data projects.
Unified Environment: Centralizes machine learning and analytics activities.

In the tech industry, Databricks empowers teams to perform comprehensive data analytics, enabling them to conduct extensive ETL operations, run predictive modeling, and prepare data for SparkML. In retail, it supports real-time data processing and batch streaming, aiding in better decision-making. Enterprises across sectors leverage its capabilities for creating secure APIs and managing data lakes effectively.

Databricks

IBM SPSS Modeler is an extensive predictive analytics platform that is designed to bring predictive intelligence to decisions made by individuals, groups, systems and the enterprise. By providing a range of advanced algorithms and techniques that include text analytics, entity analytics, decision management and optimization, SPSS Modeler can help you consistently make the right decisions from the desktop or within operational systems.

Buy
https://www.ibm.com/products/spss-modeler/pricing

Sign up for the trial
https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/us-en/signup?formid=urx-19947

IBM

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware

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

Buyer's Guide

Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler

December 2025

Free Report: Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Modeler report.

See our list of best Data Science Platforms vendors.

We monitor all Data Science Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.