No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Watson Explorer vs SAS Enterprise Miner 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 Enterprise Miner
Ranking in Data Mining
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (23rd)
 

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 Enterprise Miner is 7.8%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Mining Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAS Enterprise Miner7.8%
IBM Watson Explorer3.3%
Other88.9%
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…
reviewer1352853 - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Head of analytics at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
A stable product that is easy to deploy and can be used for structured and unstructured data mining
We use the solution for predictive analytics to do structured and unstructured data mining I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline. The product must provide better integration with cloud-native technologies. I have been using the solution for 20 years. The product is very…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Ease of use is pretty good as is the standardization of not actually having to have my own natural learning algorithms, just to use the Watson APIs."
"Implementing the solution really helped with manual labor, it takes care of a lot of FT work."
"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and being able to see hidden insights from within unstructured data."
"For me, as a user, the most valuable feature is the ability to ingest and then retrieve information from a range of separate sources; the ability to dissect questions in context and actually answer them."
"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."
"What impressed me more about Watson is that it is easy to use it, not for the technical people, but for business people."
"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."
"The data processing of the solution is very good, easy to use, both for enterprise and personal use."
"The technical support is very good."
"I like the way the product visually shows the data pipeline."
"he solution is scalable."
"It enables statistical modeling of data using Base SAS (another product from the same vendor) as the backbone."
"The solution is able to handle quite large amounts of data beautifully."
"Good data management and analytics."
"I found the ease of use of the solution the most valuable."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the service stops."
"It is a little bit tricky to get used to the workflow of knowing how to train Watson, what can be provided, what can't be, how to provide it, how to import, export, and what it means every time you have to add a new dictionary or something of the like."
"No, it's not yet stable."
"We haven't used it in production yet so I can't answer this."
"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."
"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 quite expensive. The pricing is too high."
"The initial setup is challenging if doing it for the first time."
"While I don't personally need tutorials, I can't say that it wouldn't be helpful for others to have some to help them navigate and operate the system."
"The solution is very stable, but we do have some problems with discrepancies involving SAS not matching with the latest Java versions. It's not stable in cases where SAS tries to run on a different version because SAS doesn't connect with the latest Java update. Once a month we need to restart systems from scratch."
"The user interface of the solution needs improvement. It needs to be more visual."
"Price of the product"
"Technical support could be improved."
"The solution needs an easier interface for the user. The user experience isn't so easy for our clients."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"The solution is expensive for an individual, but for an enterprise/institution (purchasing bulk licenses), it is not a high price for the use that will come from it."
"The solution must improve its licensing models."
"This solution is for large corporations because not everybody can afford it."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Mining solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Performing Arts
10%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Construction Company
12%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing 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 Business3
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
 

Also Known As

IBM WEX
Enterprise Miner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RIMAC, Westpac New Zealand, Toyota Financial Services, Swiss Re, Akershus University Hospital, Korean Air Lines, Mizuho Bank, Honda
Generali Hellas, Gitanjali Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, GS Home Shopping, HealthPartners, IAG New Zealand, iJET, Invacare
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Enterprise Miner and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.