IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics are powerful data science platforms used to conduct statistical analysis of data sets. The main difference between the two tools is SAS Advanced Analytics uses its own programming language and IBM SPSS runs on Java, and doesn’t require programming to use.
SAS Advanced Analytics is a widely used statistical tool that uses the SAS programming language to analyze data and create visualizations. IBM SPSS is used for statistical analysis and has features that make it easier for individuals without coding knowledge to analyze large datasets.
Both IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics are most popular with large companies and in higher education due to their high costs.
Features
IBM SPSS and SAS Advanced Analytics offer robust statistical abilities but have key features that may make them more appealing to certain customers.
A key feature of IBM SPSS is that it offers better out of the box capabilities with less setup and downloading of packages. This program offers a minimal learning curve due to its more accessible graphical user interface and the ability to run scripts without extensive coding knowledge. Another advantage of IBM SPSS is that it offers built-in data scrubbing and staging capabilities.
SAS Advanced Analytics’ main feature is that it is capable of using the SAS coding language. Businesses that have users who are familiar with SAS codes can utilize this to make the tool even more powerful. SAS was developed with extremely large datasets in mind and can be the better choice for industries with unusually large amounts of data. Users also speak highly of the support given by SAS if they had system errors or were unable to complete tasks.
Limitations
While both SAS Advanced Analytics and IBM SPSS are both excellent data analysis tools, both exhibit some shortcomings depending on a customer’s use case.
IBM SPSS users have mentioned that visualizations and output graphics could be of a higher quality and may need to be exported to other programs to make them look presentation ready. Users have also complained about performance or installation issues when using Mac products.
SAS Advanced Analytics requires more coding knowledge than SPSS to take full advantage of the tool. Many users have also reported slow performance, but particularly slow startup speeds which means they must commit their machine to run the program. SAS Advanced Analytics is also not available to Mac users.
A major disadvantage of both IBM SPSS and SAS in the analytics space is that they are very expensive compared to some of their newer competition. This can make them less appealing to individuals or small businesses.
Pricing
IBM SPSS can be purchased in two ways. A per month subscription model to the base level software can be purchased for $99.00 per user per month. This tier includes desktop-only capability. 3 additional expansion modules can be added to this tier for an extra cost of $79.00 each. Prices for perpetual term licenses for the Base, Standard, Professional, and Premium packages can be obtained by contacting the vendor. This tier includes access to server-based analytics and cloud storage.
SAS Advanced Analytics pricing can be acquired by request from the vendor.
