KNIME vs SAS Analytics comparison

Knime and SAS are both solutions in the Data Mining category. Knime is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0, while SAS is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0. Knime holds a 24.6% mindshare in DM, compared to SAS’s 7.3% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Knime users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of SAS users who would recommend it.

KNIME

Read 60 KNIME reviews

1,592 Views
1,137 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

SAS Analytics

Read 11 SAS Analytics reviews

555 Views
329 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

KNIME

SAS Analytics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

SAS Analytics and KNIME are both established competitors in the data analytics segment. KNIME has an advantage due to its open-source nature, offering flexibility and a better value for its pricing model.

Features: SAS Analytics provides enterprise-ready statistical analysis, advanced forecasting tools, and data visualization, ideal for large enterprises managing complex data. KNIME is noteworthy for its intuitive data blending, machine learning capabilities, and workflow automation, which benefit smaller businesses or those preferring customizable solutions.

Room for Improvement: SAS Analytics could enhance its user interface to be more intuitive and reduce the complexity of some statistical methods. It would also benefit from a streamlined integration process for quicker deployment and a more flexible pricing model. KNIME might improve in offering more direct enterprise support options, providing better documentation for advanced features, and enhancing its dataset handling for exceptionally large data volumes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAS Analytics offers extensive deployment options suitable for large-scale setups, though it may require more time to implement. Its well-established support infrastructure provides reliable customer assistance. KNIME offers a straightforward deployment model, being open-source, with an active community-based support system that enables faster integration of solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SAS Analytics has higher initial costs but justifies these with comprehensive features and potential returns for large-scale projects, albeit the investment can be considerable. KNIME's cost-effective model with less immediate expense and favorable ROI makes it particularly appealing to budget-conscious users who prioritize adaptability in analytics solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed KNIME vs. SAS Analytics Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

KNIME vs. SAS Analytics

June 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

KNIME

Ranking in Data Mining

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Science Platforms (2nd)

SAS Analytics

Ranking in Data Mining

5th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of KNIME is 24.6%, down from 27.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Analytics is 7.3%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Mining

Featured Reviews

Laurence Moseley

Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at University of South Wales

Has a drag-and-drop interface and AI capabilities

It's difficult to pinpoint one single feature because KNIME has so many. For starters, it's very easy to learn. You can get started with just a one-hour video. The drag-and-drop interface makes it user-friendly. For example, if you want to read an Excel file, drag the "read Excel file" node from the repository, configure it by specifying the file location, and run it. This gives you a table with all your data. Next, you can clean the data by handling missing values, selecting specific columns you want to analyze, and then proceeding with your analysis, such as regression or correlation. KNIME has over 4,500 nodes available for download. In addition, KNIME offers various extensions. For instance, the text processing extension allows you to process text data efficiently. It's more powerful than other tools like NVivo and Palantir. KNIME also has AI capabilities. If you're unsure about the next step, the AI assistant can suggest the most frequently used nodes based on your previous work. Another valuable feature is the integration with Python. If you need to perform a task that requires Python, you can simply add a Python node, write the necessary code,

Read full review

AltanAtabarut

Solution Consulting, Growth, Analytics at Akinon

Good interactive reports and dashboards but expensive to run

You need to constantly jump from data prep to visualization, then back to data for fixing quality, enriching, and visualizing again. Then you start modeling and need to switch back and forth again. Eventually, you have to democratize the results so that anyone can look and interactively question the underlying insights. For all of these purposes - data to BI or data to AI to BI - it is never a linear one way relationship; it's rather a closed loop for continuous analysis monitoring and sharing. If used this way, SAS Visual analytics can enable continuous improvement and innovation in a corporation.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This open-source product can compete with category leaders in ELT software."

"It's very convenient to write your own algorithms in KNIME. You can write it in Java script or Python transcript."

"I've tried to utilize KNIME to the fullest extent possible to replace Excel."

"The solution allows for sharing model designs and model operations with other data analysts."

"I would rate the stability of KNIME a ten out of ten."

"The product is user-friendly."

"It allows for a user-friendly approach where you can simply drag and drop elements to create your model, which is a convenient and effective idea."

"KNIME is easy to learn."

More KNIME pros

"It's very easy to use once you learn it."

"SAS Business Intelligence is well-suited for our large corporation. We have demand for scalable and reliable insights into information which is housed in our large systems."

"I use it to replicate our entire financial system to verify/duplicate calculations."

"It has also been around for an extremely long time, has a strong history, and good market penetration."

"All of the data analytics features in SAS Analytics are valuable to us since we're using them daily across our entire analytics team."

"It is able to connect to all major platforms, and all the smaller platforms that I have come across."

"It has improved the level of efficacy and validity of our reports."

"I use SAS daily to analyze data, produce reports, and other outputs."

More SAS Analytics pros

Cons

"It could be easier to use."

"KNIME's licensing and data management aren't as straightforward relative to Alteryx. Alteryx's tools are more sophisticated, so you need fewer to use it compared to KNIME. I think tab implementation could be easier, too."

"KNIME doesn't handle large datasets or a high number of records well."

"I'd like something that would make it easier to connect/parse websites, although I will fully admit that I'm not as proficient in KNIME as I would like to be, so it could be I'm just missing something."

"One area that could be improved is increasing awareness and adoption of KNIME among organizations. Despite its capabilities, it is not as well-known as other tools. The advertising and marketing efforts to reach out to companies and universities have not been very successful."

"The solution is inconvenient when it comes to wrangling data that includes multiple steps or features because each step or feature requires its own icon."

"For graphics, the interface is a little confusing. So, this is a point that could be improved."

"Data visualization needs improvement."

More KNIME cons

"The graphing and visualization features could be enhanced, in my opinion. I would especially stress improving the visualization capabilities."

"They could enhance the AI capabilities of the product."

"I would like to see their interface to R added to either Base SAS or SAS Analytics."

"The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved."

"Once a SAS figure is produced one would like to modify things, such as titles, legends, and incorporate risk sets as a footer on the plots."

"This solution should be made more user-friendly."

"Support at universities used to be limited, but I hear this is changing."

"One of the things that can be simplified is self-service analytics, especially for a citizen developer or a citizen data scientist."

More SAS Analytics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"At this time, I am using the free version of Knime."

"It's an open-source solution."

"KNIME desktop is free, which is great for analytics teams. Server is well priced, depending on how much support is required."

"While there are certain limitations in functionality, you can still utilize it efficiently free of charge."

"Scaling to the on-premises version requires a licensing fee per user that is a bit expensive in comparison to R, Python, and SAS."

"We're using the free academic license just locally. I went for KNIME because they have a free academic license."

"KNIME is a cost-effective solution because it’s free of cost."

"The client versions are mostly free, and we pay only for the KNIME server version. It's not a cheap solution."

More KNIME pricing and cost advice

"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay."

"I rate the product’s pricing a one out of ten."

"Our licensing covers the usage for around 50 data analysts."

"Prices were comparable with alternative solutions."

"The cost for SAS Business Intelligence can prove to be a little prohibitive."

"SAS is very expensive."

"Setup costs were quite reasonable."

"Licensing was rather straightforward."

More SAS Analytics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about KNIME?

Since KNIME is a no-code platform, it is easy to work with.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KNIME?

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with KNIME?

I have seen the potential to interact with Python, which is currently a bit limited. I am interested in the newer version, 5.4, when it becomes available. The machine learning and profileration asp...

See all answers

What do you like most about SAS Analytics?

I like that it is quickly embedding interactive reports and dashboards into a website, Outlook Mail, or even a mobile app.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAS Analytics?

SAS Analytics could improve in areas such as handling stress tests and workloads, as well as predicting financial movements, specifically profit and loss movements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAS Analytics?

I use SAS Analytics ( /products/sas-analytics-reviews ) in my work to analyze data, such as selecting credits for traditional securitization. Recently, I used SAS Analytics ( /products/sas-analytic...

See all answers

Comparisons

Altair RapidMiner vs KNIME

Compared 27% of the time

Dataiku vs KNIME

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs KNIME

Compared 14% of the time

Alteryx vs KNIME

Compared 8% of the time

SAS Enterprise Miner vs KNIME

Compared 1% of the time

More KNIME Competitors

Oracle Advanced Analytics vs SAS Analytics

Compared 18% of the time

IBM SPSS Statistics vs SAS Analytics

Compared 18% of the time

IBM SPSS Modeler vs SAS Analytics

Compared 15% of the time

Weka vs SAS Analytics

Compared 15% of the time

More SAS Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

KNIME

June 2025

Download KNIME product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Mining

June 2025

Download SAS Analytics product report

Also Known As

KNIME Analytics Platform

No data available

Overview

KNIME is an open-source analytics software used for creating data science that is built on a GUI based workflow, eliminating the need to know code. The solution has an inherent modular workflow approach that documents and stores the analysis process in the same order it was conceived and implemented, while ensuring that intermediate results are always available.

KNIME supports Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems and is suitable for enterprises of all different sizes. With KNIME, you can perform functions ranging from basic I/O to data manipulations, transformations and data mining. It consolidates all the functions of the entire process into a single workflow. The solution covers all main data wrangling and machine learning techniques, and is based on visual programming.

KNIME Features

KNIME has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Scalability through data handling (intelligent automatic caching of data in the background while maximizing throughput performance)
High extensibility via a well-defined API for plugin extensions
Intuitive user interface
Import/export of workflows
Parallel execution on multi-core systems
Command line version for "headless" batch executions
Activity dashboard
Reporting & statistics
Third-party integrations
Workflow management
Local automation
Metanode linking
Tool blending
Big Data extensions

KNIME Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing KNIME. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Integrated Deployment: KNIME’s integrated deployment moves both the selected model, and the entire data model preparation process into production simply and automatically, allowing for continuous optimization in production and also saving time because it eliminates error.

Elastic and Hybrid Execution: KNIME’s elastic and hybrid executions helps you reduce costs while covering periods of high demand, dynamically.

Metadata Mapping: KNIME enables complete metadata mapping of all aspects of your workflow. In addition, KNIME offers blueprint workflows for documenting the nodes, data sources, and libraries used, as well as runtime information.

Guided Analytics: KNIME’s guided analytics applications can be customized based on reusable components.

Powerful analytics, local automation, and workflow difference: KNIME uses advanced predictive and machine learning algorithms to provide you with the analytics you need. In combination with powerful analytics, KNIME’s automation capabilities and workflow difference prepare your organization with the tools you need to make better business decisions.

Supports enterprise-wide data science practices: The deployment and management functionalities of KNIME make it easy to productionize data science applications and services, and deliver usable, reliable, and reproducible insights for the business.

Helps you leverage insights gained from your data: Using KNIME ensures the data science process immediately reflects changing requirements or new insights.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the KNIME solution.

An Emeritus Professor at a university says, “It can read many different file formats. It can very easily tidy up your data, deleting blank rows, and deleting rows where certain columns are missing. It allows you to make lots of changes internally, which you do using JavaScript to put in the conditional. It also has very good fundamental machine learning. It has decision trees, linear regression, and neural nets. It has a lot of text mining facilities as well. It's fairly fully-featured.”

Benedikt S., CEO at SMH - Schwaiger Management Holding GmbH, explains, “All of the features related to the ETL are fantastic. That includes the connectors to other programs, databases, and the meta node function. Technical support has been extremely responsive so far. The solution has a very strong and supportive community that shares information and helps each other troubleshoot. The solution is very stable. The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward.”

Piotr Ś., Test Engineer at ProData Consult, says, “What I like the most is that it works almost out of the box with Random Forest and other Forest nodes.”

Knime

SAS was founded in 1976 and actually began as a project at North Carolina State University to analyze agriculture research. It has since become a global company that is recognized for its innovation in data analytics and business intelligence. SAS is redefining what's possible with data analytics through greater efficiency, strong information value chains, effective collaboration tools, and state-of-the-art visualization software. SAS Analytics is designed for use in a variety of industries including government, manufacturing, higher education, defense & security, banking, automotive, communications, and much more. SAS Analytics is a business intelligence (BI) solution that has the ability to reveal patterns and anomalies in data, identify relationships and different variables, and predict future outcomes. Users of SAS Analytics will benefit from making more sound, better informed business decisions based on company data and market trends. Data mining, data visualization, text analytics, forecasting, statistical analysis, and more are all available through SAS Analytics. Staples, which boasts $27 billion in sales across the globe, has a business philosophy that prioritizes customer loyalty and satisfaction. In order to better engage their customers, Staples utilizes SAS Analytics to plan finely tuned marketing campaigns. Through forecasting and advanced analytics, Staples has been able to rely on fewer contractors, and cut their marketing budget, while improving their customer retention rate.

SAS

Sample Customers

Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG

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

Buyer's Guide

KNIME vs. SAS Analytics

June 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about KNIME vs. SAS Analytics and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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