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Databricks vs IBM SPSS Statistics 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Users experience mixed returns with Databricks, noting cost efficiency and scalability but facing challenges with measuring monetary gains.
Sentiment score
5.0
IBM SPSS Statistics delivers 50% ROI with its user-friendly interface, saving time and costs for diverse organizations.
For a lot of different tasks, including machine learning, it is a nice solution.
Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
When it comes to big data processing, I prefer Databricks over other solutions.
Head CEO at bizmetric
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Databricks customer service is praised for prompt, professional support, though some report delays; documentation helps many users.
Sentiment score
6.1
IBM SPSS Statistics offers variable customer support quality, with multiple help channels, but some users experience delays in response.
Whenever we reach out, they respond promptly.
Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
As of now, we are raising issues and they are providing solutions without any problems.
Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA
I rate the technical support as fine because they have levels of technical support available, especially partners who get really good support from Databricks on new features.
Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Databricks is praised for its scalability, elasticity, and auto-scaling, providing high performance and flexibility across industries.
Sentiment score
6.1
IBM SPSS Statistics handles moderate data efficiently, though limitations exist for large datasets, with scalability impacted by resources and licensing.
The sky's the limit with Databricks.
Governance And Engagement Lead
The patches have sometimes caused issues leading to our jobs being paused for about six hours.
Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
Databricks is an easily scalable platform.
Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Databricks is highly rated for reliability and efficiency, with minor issues quickly resolved, boasting strong user stability scores.
Sentiment score
7.4
IBM SPSS Statistics is reliable and stable, performing well under moderate data loads, with occasional issues in newer versions.
They release patches that sometimes break our code.
Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
Although it is too early to definitively state the platform's stability, we have not encountered any issues so far.
Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA
Databricks is definitely a very stable product and reliable.
Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Databricks needs better visualization, integration, clearer errors, UI enhancements, wider platform support, and improved documentation and usability.
IBM SPSS Statistics needs improved visualization, integration, user interface, documentation, pricing, and licensing to meet user demands effectively.
Adjusting features like worker nodes and node utilization during cluster creation could mitigate these failures.
Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We prefer using a small to mid-sized cluster for many jobs to keep costs low, but this sometimes doesn't support our operations properly.
Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
We use MLflow for managing MLOps, however, further improvement would be beneficial, especially for large language models and related tools.
Solution Architect at Mercedes-Benz AG
I believe that the owners of IBM SPSS Statistics should think about improving the package itself to be able to treat unstructured data.
Associate Professor Of Statistics at a university with 10,001+ employees
I'm unsure if SPSS has a commercial offering for big servers, unlike KNIME, which does.
Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at University of South Wales
 

Setup Cost

Databricks' pricing varies widely based on usage and data volume, making it cost-effective yet potentially expensive for large-scale use.
IBM SPSS Statistics is costly but justified by comprehensive features, with pricing concerns and special deals for universities noted.
It is not a cheap solution.
Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA
I believe that in terms of credits for Databricks, we're spending between £15,000 and £20,000 a month.
Governance And Engagement Lead
 

Valuable Features

Databricks excels in ease of use, scalability, integration, and data governance, enhancing productivity and collaboration for data engineering.
IBM SPSS Statistics provides comprehensive statistical analysis, modeling, and data handling, featuring user-friendly interface and Python integration.
Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed.
Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The platform allows us to leverage cloud advantages effectively, enhancing our AI and ML projects.
Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA
The Unity Catalog is for data governance, and the Delta Lake is to build the lakehouse.
Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech
Predictive analytics is the most important part of analytics.
Associate Professor Of Statistics at a university with 10,001+ employees
I mainly used it for cross tabs, correlation, regression, chi-squared tests, and similar analyses often seen in published papers.
Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at University of South Wales
 

Categories and Ranking

Databricks
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)
IBM SPSS Statistics
Ranking in Data Science Platforms
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (2nd), AI Data Analysis (13th), AI Research (1st)
 

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 Statistics is 4.0%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Science Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Databricks9.6%
IBM SPSS Statistics4.0%
Other86.4%
Data Science Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

SimonRobinson - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
EzzAbdelfattah - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Professor Of Statistics at a university with 10,001+ employees
Advanced predictive analytics have supported my research and student projects across many methods
The only function I may need to be added or hope to be added to IBM SPSS Statistics is how to treat unstructured data. This mainly exists with IBM SPSS Modeler, but I do not think it is able to treat something like videos and similar content unless you are using languages like Python inside IBM SPSS Modeler or inside IBM SPSS Statistics. For the menu itself, for the selection, it does not exist. Thinking of the future, I believe that the owners of IBM SPSS Statistics should think about improving the package itself to be able to treat unstructured data.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise56
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise20
 

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 ...
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...
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...
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?
I think the price of the solution is very reasonable. The cost depends; you have the option for subscription or you can purchase the license. Most of our customers are paying every year for a type ...
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?
I have faced some challenges with IBM SPSS Statistics; you need to know what you're doing because it's not very user-friendly. It's not something a person can come and intuitively work with. The ba...
 

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
SPSS Statistics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks vs. IBM SPSS Statistics and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.