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IBM Watson Explorer vs SAS Analytics 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 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 June 2026, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Explorer is 3.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Analytics is 8.0%, up from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAS Analytics8.0%
IBM Watson Explorer3.3%
Other88.7%
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

"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."
"The main use case is FAQ for the user; it works for almost 80% of the use case coverage."
"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and being able to see hidden insights from within unstructured data."
"I really can't talk enough about the team."
"The ability to easily pull together lots of different pieces of information and drill down in a smarter way than has been possible with other analytics tools is key. Watson is all based on a set of AI and deep learning, machine-learning capabilities, and it is looking behind the scenes at some relationships that you likely would not have spotted on your own. It's pulling things together, categorizing some things, that are not something that you might have seen on your own."
"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."
"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."
"The team immediately resolves the issues."
"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."
"This solution has helped us materially grow multiple business categories."
"It has improved the level of efficacy and validity of our reports, and this has also extended to the area of customer service and relations."
"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."
"I use SAS daily to analyze data, produce reports, and other outputs."
"I like that it is quickly embedding interactive reports and dashboards into a website, Outlook Mail, or even a mobile app."
"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay, it is the right balance."
 

Cons

"I think we'll get it to a 10, but I think at the moment it's got to be a good eight or nine out of 10 at least."
"More cognitive feedback would be good. The natural language analysis is great, the sentiment analyzers are great. But I would just like to see more... innovation done with the Watson platform."
"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"Sometimes the service stops."
"We haven't used it in production yet so I can't answer this."
"I would like to see their interface to R added to either Base SAS or SAS Analytics."
"SAS Analytics struggles when it handles massive data, and it should also get top-tier support."
"This solution should be made more user-friendly. It needs a better visual output to explain logic to senior executives."
"One of the things that can be simplified is self-service analytics, especially for a citizen developer or a citizen data scientist."
"This solution should be made more user-friendly."
"The training for SAS Business Intelligence is often difficult to arrange. It is often cancelled due to not enough people being enrolled."
"The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved."
"The graphing and visualization features could be enhanced, in my opinion. I would especially stress improving the visualization capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Performing Arts
10%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
25%
University
13%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

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: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.