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IBM SPSS Statistics vs Weka 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 SPSS Statistics
Ranking in Data Mining
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (10th), AI Data Analysis (12th), AI Research (2nd)
Weka
Ranking in Data Mining
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Anomaly Detection Tools (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 18.3%, up from 16.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Weka is 8.8%, down from 21.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM SPSS Statistics18.3%
Weka8.8%
Other72.9%
Data Mining
 

Featured Reviews

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.
AwaisAnwar - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the user interface because you don't need to write code."
"The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can into multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."
"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is its robust statistical analysis capabilities."
"The solution is very comprehensive, especially compared to Minitabs, which is considered more for manufacturing. However, whatever data you want to analyze can be handled with SPSS."
"SPSS is perfectly adequate if all you want are some results."
"I've found the descriptive statistics and cross-tabs valuable. The very simple correlations and regressions are as well."
"The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important."
"Working with complicated algorithms in huge datasets is really easy in Weka."
"In Weka, anyone can access the program without being a programmer, which is a good feature since the entry cost is very low."
"The interface is very good, and the algorithms are the very best."
"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."
"Weka's best features are its user-friendly graphic interface interpretation of data sets and the ease of analyzing data."
"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."
"The path of machine learning in classification and clustering is useful. The GUI can get you results. No programming is needed. No need to write down your script first or send to your model or input your data."
"Weka is a very easy to use Data Mining solution, great for learning and for doing small experiments before exploring the data deeper, with a large number and diversity of algorithms that make it an excellent solution for rapid testing."
 

Cons

"Most of the package will give you the fixed value, or the p-value, without an explanation as to whether it it significant or not. Some beginners might need not just the results, but also some explanation for them."
"In developing countries, it would be beneficial to provide certain features to users at no cost initially, while also customizing pricing options."
"The product should provide more ways to import data and export results that are user-friendly for high-level executives."
"The reports could be better."
"IBM SPSS Statistics does not keep you close to your data like KNIME."
"I think the visualization and charting should be changed and made easier and more effective."
"I recently moved away from SPSS and started using KNIME since it is particularly easier for students."
"The solution could improve by providing a visual network for predictions and a self-organizing map for clustering."
"If there are a lot more lines of code, then we should use another language."
"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."
"Not particularly user friendly."
"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."
"A few people said it became slow after a while."
"The visualization of Weka is subpar and could improve. Machine learning and visualization do not work well together. For example, we want to know how we can we delete empty cells or how can we fill in the empty cells without cleaning the data system and putting it together."
"Weka could be more stable."
"Within the basic Weka tool, I don't see many tools that are available where we can analyze and visualize the data that well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"More affordable training for new staff members."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."
"SPSS is an expensive piece of software because it's incredibly complex and has been refined over decades, but I would say it's fairly priced."
"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."
"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."
"Currently, I am using an open-source version so I don't know much about the price of this solution."
"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."
"We use the free version now. My faculty is very small."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
7%
Educational Organization
15%
University
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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?
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 tre...
What is your primary use case for IBM SPSS Statistics?
I do use IBM SPSS Statistics, and even my students are using it for their projects and reports while working on PhD or Master's degrees. They are analyzing data using it. In comparison with other s...
Ask a question
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SPSS Statistics vs. Weka and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.