IBM SPSS Modeler vs Weka comparison

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IBM SPSS Modeler

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM SPSS Modeler 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 Modeler vs. Weka Report (Updated: April 2025).

IBM SPSS Modeler vs. Weka

April 2025

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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 Modeler

Ranking in Data Mining

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Science Platforms (13th)

Weka

Ranking in Data Mining

2nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Anomaly Detection Tools (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Modeler is 17.6%, up from 16.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Weka is 18.9%, down from 20.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Mining

Featured Reviews

PeterHuo

Application Architect at Canada Border Services Agency

Good tool for extracting data from data warehouses, creating streams, and manipulating logic to extract final data

There are performance issues. Extracting data from many combined tables can take hours and occasionally crash the server due to memory leaks. This performance problem bothers people. The performance issue seems to be related to the server. We design streams on the client and submit them to the server, which generates a large SQL statement. There are two potential bottlenecks: one in the server and another in data extraction. I'm unsure about the exact mechanics of data splitting when fetching from the database. When streams become larger, performance bottlenecks may occur in the IBM SPSS Modeler server or the database. Sometimes the server crashes and needs to be restarted to release memory on both sides. I'm not sure exactly where the problem is caused, as I focus on stream design rather than server issues. The problem could be on the IBM SPSS Modeler server and database.

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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

"New algorithms are added into every version of Modeler, e.g., SMOTE, random forest, etc. The Derive node is used for the syntax code to derive the data."

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

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

"It is just a lot faster. So you do not have to write a bunch of code, you can throw that stuff on there pretty quickly and do prototyping quickly."

"The ease of use in the user interface is the best part of it. The ability to customize some of my streams with R and Python has been very useful to me, I've automated a few things with that."

"The supervised models are valuable. It is also very organized and easy to use."

"The most valuable features of the IBM SPSS Modeler are visual programming, you don't have to write any code, and it is easy to use. 90 to 95 percent of the use cases, you don't have to fine-tune anything. If you want to do something deeper, for example, create a better neural network, then you have to go into the features and try to fine-tune them. However, the default selection which is made by the tool, it's very practical and works well."

"Automated modelling, classification, or clustering are very useful."

More IBM SPSS Modeler pros

"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."

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

"In Weka, anyone can access the program without being a programmer, which is a good feature since the entry cost is very low."

"It doesn’t cost anything to use the product."

"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."

"Working with complicated algorithms in huge datasets is really easy in Weka."

"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."

"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."

More Weka pros

Cons

"It would be good if IBM added help resources to the interface."

"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."

"The time series should be improved."

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

"The challenge for the very technical data scientists: It is constraining for them."

"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."

"The biggest issue with the visual modeling capability is that we can't extract the SQL code under the hood."

More IBM SPSS Modeler cons

"A few people said it became slow after a while."

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

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

"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."

"The product is good, but I would like it to work with big data. I know it has a Spark integration they could use to do analysis in clusters, but it's not so clear how to use it."

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

"Not particularly user friendly."

"I believe is there are a few newer algorithms that are not present in the Weka libraries. Whereas, for example, if I want to have a solution that involves deep learning, so I don't think that Weka has that capability. So in that case I have to use Python for ... predict any algorithms based on deep learning."

More Weka cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"It is a huge increase to time savings."

"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."

"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."

"Having in mind all four tools from Garner’s top quadrant, the pricing of this tool is competitive and it reflects the quality that it offers."

More IBM SPSS Modeler pricing and cost advice

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

"The solution is free and open-source."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Educational Organization

11%

University

Computer Software Company

University

18%

Educational Organization

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

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 Modeler?

Compared to other tools, the product works much easier to analyze data without coding.

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...

What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Modeler?

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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Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Download IBM SPSS Modeler product report

IBM SPSS Modeler

May 2025

Download Weka product report

April 2025

Also Known As

SPSS Modeler

No data available

Overview

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.

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

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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

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

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