GraphPad Prism vs SPSS Statistics

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Our analysts compared GraphPad Prism vs SPSS Statistics based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Business Intelligence Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

SPSS Statistics Software Tool

Product Basics

Graphpad Prism is a statistics, data analysis and graphing package that simplifies powerful statistics to help users analyze smarter, not harder. Though specialized for scientific research, it doesn’t require its users to have programming knowledge in order to tell stories with their data and create a wide variety of data visualizations with ease.

It can be installed on Windows or Mac devices and is available through a group or personal subscription, which comes with free updates during the subscription term and is billed on an annual basis, or through a perpetual license, which does not include upgrades and guaranteed support for future operating system updates. For short-term projects, individual users can get a monthly subscription. Students can receive a subscription at a discounted rate.
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IBM SPSS, or Statistical Product and Service Solutions, is a data analysis platform that provides advanced statistical insights to propel business decision-making and research by crunching large datasets. With a user-friendly interface, it empowers everyone from basic users to experienced data scientists to perform statistical analysis. Scalable and agile, it is suitable for companies of all sizes.

Users can purchase it through an on-premises license or a subscription plan to a hybrid SaaS. Users who choose either monthly or annual subscription receive access to the base version and can choose which of three optional add-ons to include, if any, between Custom Tables and Advanced Statistics, Complex Sampling and Testing, and Forecasting and Decision Trees.

Perpetual and term licensees can choose between four editions that offer different levels of functionality: Base, standard, professional and premium. It was first launched as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences by three Stanford students in 1968 and later acquired by IBM in 2009.
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$142 Annually
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$99 Monthly
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Product Insights

  • Perform the Right Analysis: With clear language and a checklist for each process, Prism helps users select the most suitable statistical analysis from its library while bypassing technical jargon.
  • Helps You Learn As You Go: At almost every step, users can access pages from Prism’s online help. Tutorial data sets help users understand how and why they should perform analyses, how to make graphs and how to interpret the results of their analyses.
  • Focus on Research: Because users can utilize the software and automate processes without coding, it allows them to spend more time researching and less time programming. The software also takes care of updating graphs and results, freeing up even more time for researchers.
  • Publish with Ease: The solution allows users to customize and save default settings to meet their publishing requirements so that they can export publication-quality graphics with one click.
  • Enhance Collaboration: All parts of a Prism project, including the raw data, analyses, results, graphs and layouts, are contained in a single file that users can share with others, who can then follow their work step-by-step and add value to their findings.
  • Educational Resources and Support: Graphpad provides extensive online help guides for doing statistical analyses with Prism, as well as video tutorials and sample data sets that users can practice analyzing with the platform. The vendor also provides online training center options and technical support for the product, offering users the assistance and tools they need to succeed.
  • Free Trial: Interested parties can try the platform with a free 30-day trial with no credit card or commitment necessary.
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  • Increase Reliability of Analysis: Data analysts and scientists can reach more dependable conclusions and ensure high accuracy, backed by numbers and models made from their data.
  • Assists in Decision Making: Organize and analyze data sets in order to draw conclusions, glean insights and make data-driven business decisions.
  • Statistics with Speed: Maximize productivity by quickly crunching data sets. Handle complicated tasks in a third of the time of many non-statistical programs.
  • Data Management: Remove manual work, as the system does all the legwork in preparing and organizing data sets for analysis. It estimates and uncovers missing values, improving the accuracy of reports.
  • Ease of Use: According to the IBM website, 81% of reviewers rank SPSS as easy to use. A point-and-click interface and natural language processing allow analytics capabilities to be accessed by those without coding skills or advanced statistics knowledge.
  • Scalability: Built to scale and work with large volumes of data, supporting anything from basic descriptive analytics to advanced statistics simulations. Purchase as many licenses as needed, ensuring cost-efficiency for small businesses as well as robustness for large scale enterprises.
  • Customized Predictive Analytics: Tailor predictive analytics to unique needs and perform ad hoc analysis to find the information needed, making better predictions over time.
  • Free Trial: Access all capabilities with a free 14-day trial period.
  • Academic Versions: An academic version is optimized for higher education and research. Program availability varies based on user roles, including students, teachers, researchers and campus-wide administrators.
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  • Statistical Analysis: Prism offers a comprehensive library of statistical analyses, including nonlinear regression, t-tests, nonparametric comparisons, ANOVA, analysis of contingency tables, survival analysis and more. Users can confirm that they have chosen the appropriate test for their needs with a checklist that helps them understand the required statistical assumptions.
  • One-Click Regression Analysis: Prism allows users to select an equation and it will take care of the rest, including fitting the curve, displaying a table of results and function parameters, drawing the curve and interpolating unknown values.
  • Data Tables: Unlike spreadsheets or many other graphing programs, Prism has eight types of data tables that are specifically formatted for certain analyses, making it easier for users to enter data correctly and perform accurate analyses.
  • Real-Time Updates: When any changes are made to the data and analyses, those changes are reflected in the results, graphs and layouts instantaneously with updates in real time.
  • Customizable Data Visualization: Users can create a wide variety of visual representations of their data, including violin plots, box-whisker, bar graphs, subcolumn graphs, smoothing splines, scatter plots and more. They can also enhance these graphics with customization options that help them tell their data’s story in whatever way they desire; they can choose the type of graph, how the data is arranged, the style of the data points, labels, colors, fonts, look and more.
  • Prism Magic: Users can select one or more Prism graphs and apply a consistent look to the set with one-click simplicity, saving valuable time spent otherwise on standardizing the look of multiple graphics. 
  • Export Graphics: Users can export their graphs in high-quality and customize the file type, resolution, transparency, dimensions, color, space, etc. of their visualizations to meet the requirements of publication. To save time in the future, users can set their default export preferences.
  • Work Automation: Users can reduce the number of tedious steps needed to analyze data by setting up reproducible workflows that can create templates, duplicate families or clone graphs.
  • Tools for Teamwork: Prism allows for enhanced collaboration with other scientists, with all the information in a Prism project, including raw data, analyses, results, graphs and layouts, contained in a single, shareable file. Others can follow along with your work at every step, adding their insight and streamlining your collective research efforts.
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  • Data Source Connectivity:  Enables reading and writing data from a wide spectrum of file formats and sources. These include ASCII text files, spreadsheets and databases like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access, as well as those from other statistics packages. 
  • Data Preparation: Streamlines the data preparation process. Identify invalid values, view patterns of missing data and automate data preparation to analyze and clean up large data sets in a single step. Validate the accuracy of analysis with a thorough, efficient data conditioning workflow. 
  • Point-and-Click Interface: Allows users without coding knowledge to leverage point-and-click data analysis with drop-down menus and drag-and-drop functionality. 
  • Automated Analytics: Automate common tasks with syntax and create customized data analyses that run using algorithms. 
  • Comprehensive Statistical Analysis: Perform many kinds of statistics tests, including but not limited to linear and non-linear models, simulation modeling, bayesian statistics, custom tables, complex sampling, advanced and descriptive statistics, and regression.
  • Ad Hoc Analysis: “Slice and dice” data by creating customized tables to dig deeper and improve understanding.
  • Predictive Analytics:
    •  Uncovers complex relationships between variables with functions like time series analysis, forecasting, neural networks and temporal causal modeling. 
    •  Simulates values and accounts for the uncertainty of the future using probability distributions. 
    •  Improves predictive models with multilayer perception and radial basis function. 
  • Geospatial Analysis: Explore the relationship between data points that can be tied to specific locations.
  • Direct Marketing: Improve campaigns and target key customers. Conduct advanced statistics analysis of customers or contacts with RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) analysis.
  • Open-Source Integration: Enhance syntax with programming languages R and Python through a library of more than 100 free extensions on the IBM Extension Hub, or opt to build programs.
  • Export with Ease: Export data to a proprietary file format. Can be exported to a variety of widely accessible formats such as text, Microsoft Word, PDF, Excel, HTML, XML, XLS and more. Export to a variety of graphic image formats.
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 202 reviews
Great User Sentiment 1881 reviews
93%
of users recommend this product

GraphPad Prism has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 202 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

87%
of users recommend this product

SPSS Statistics has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 1881 user reviews from 6 recognized software review sites.

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4.3 (18)
4.6 (51)
4.2 (712)
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4.51 (528)
4.7 (143)
4.5 (425)
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4.6 (40)
4.1 (8)
4.2 (158)

Awards

GraphPad Prism stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Easy Data Entry: Users appreciate the intuitive interface that makes it simple to input and organize data, even for complex experiments. For example, users can easily import data from spreadsheets or directly enter data into the program.
Powerful Analysis: Prism offers a wide range of statistical tests and graphing options, allowing users to analyze data in depth and visualize results effectively. For example, users can perform t-tests, ANOVA, regression analysis, and more.
Customization: Users can customize graphs and reports to meet their specific needs, ensuring that data is presented clearly and effectively. For example, users can adjust colors, fonts, and labels to create visually appealing and informative graphs.
Collaboration: Prism allows users to share data and results with colleagues, facilitating collaboration and communication. For example, users can export data and graphs in various formats, including PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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Research Analysis: It’s easy to analyze and interpret large and complex datasets to generate insights, according to 96% of reviewers who mention this feature.
Ease of Use: The platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate as observed by almost 95% of reviewers mentioning ease of use.
Interface: The interface has a clean layout and visually appealing design according to 75% of users referencing it.
Syntax: It’s easy to use (copy and paste) and proof syntax, and save for later, as noted by 95% of reviewers who talk about this feature.
Resources: Of users mentioning support, 93% agreed that access to various support manuals and courses, as well as an extensive user community, was helpful.
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Steep Learning Curve: New users often find the interface and features overwhelming, requiring significant time investment to master. This can be a major hurdle for teams with tight deadlines or limited training resources.
Limited Data Handling: Prism struggles with large datasets, making it less suitable for complex analyses involving extensive data manipulation or integration with other tools. This can be a problem for businesses with large-scale data collection and analysis needs.
Lack of Collaboration Features: Prism lacks robust collaboration features, making it difficult for teams to work together on projects. This can be a significant drawback for businesses that rely on collaborative data analysis and reporting.
Costly Licensing: Prism's licensing model can be expensive, especially for larger teams or organizations. This can be a barrier for businesses with limited budgets or those looking for more cost-effective solutions.
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Learning Curve: It needs extensive learning to understand advanced tools and different aspects, as observed by almost 75% of reviewers mentioning training.
Cost: More than 90% of users referencing the price remarked that the product is a bit expensive.
Slow Operation: The system runs slow at times while using huge or complex data sets, and needs to restart, as observed by 92% of reviews on this topic.
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Is GraphPad Prism the real deal or just a statistical mirage? GraphPad Prism is a popular software choice for scientists who need to analyze and visualize their data. Users praise its ease of use, especially for those without a strong statistics background. They appreciate the intuitive interface and the clear explanations provided for each statistical test. The software's ability to generate publication-quality graphs is a major selling point, with users highlighting the wide range of customization options available. For example, one user mentioned using Prism to generate figures for publication in peer-reviewed journals, highlighting its ability to create professional-looking visuals. However, some users have expressed concerns about the software's performance, particularly on older or less powerful computers. One user noted that Prism can be resource-intensive, even on a computer with 8GB of RAM. This can be a significant drawback for researchers who need to analyze large datasets or work on machines with limited resources. Additionally, some users have suggested that the tutorials could be improved, particularly for specific analyses like IC50 calculations. They believe that more real-life examples and detailed explanations would be beneficial. Overall, GraphPad Prism is a powerful tool for scientists who need to analyze and visualize their data. Its ease of use, comprehensive statistical analysis capabilities, and ability to create publication-quality graphs make it a strong choice for researchers. However, its performance on older computers and the potential for improvement in its tutorials are areas that could be addressed in future updates. GraphPad Prism is most suited for scientists who are looking for a user-friendly software that can handle a wide range of statistical analyses and produce high-quality graphs for publications.

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SPSS Statistics is a point-and-click data analysis software that allows non-technical users to leverage advanced statistical analysis. Users praised its user-friendly, visually appealing interface. Many reviews also appreciated how easy it is to use and proof syntax, along with the extensive help documentation available for better understanding. Despite its ease of use, a majority found that using advanced tools involved a steep learning curve. Additionally, its cost runs on the high side and processing large amounts of information slows down its performance, as observed by most reviewers. It’s a good fit for students, data scientists and companies that want to analyze data sets but don’t have the technical resources and expertise to use a more advanced tool.

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