SPSS vs. XLSTAT

[fpetillo]

I am an SPSS Base user, and I'm ready expand my capability by buying a bunch of SPSS modules (Exact Tests, Conjoint, Forecasting, etc.). The price, however, is daunting. XLSTAT is about half the price and offers techniques that SPSS doesn't like TURF Analysis. I work in a medium-sized corporation doing market research. Should I switch from SPSS to XLSTAT? What are the issues I should consider? All opinions welcome.

[gianmarco]

Hi!
I believe that all senior Users here will suggest to you to put aside SPSS, XLSTAT and the like, and to switch to R. I can bet on this.....
I do not wish to express any judgement (positive or negative) about R, since my knowledge of it is barely not existent, and I am moving my first steps into R in these very days.
As for commercial packages, I have rarely made use of SPSS and I do not like it too much. It seems to me cumbersome and to much demanding on PC resources.
I frequently use XLSTAT. I like it because:
a) it comes as an Excel add-in;
b) if you have the need to manipulate the data directly in the spreadsheet, it is what XLSTA allows you to do;
c) it is fairly complete as far as the types of analysis are concerned.
I could suggest you to take into consideration Statsoft STATISTICA. It is a very powerful tool, with great graphic capabilities. I do not like to much its multivariate analysis module (e.g., Correspondence Analysis, Multidimensional scaling). So, if you are interested in e.g. Correspondence Analysis or the like (as I can imagine since your are in market research), I would suggest to take into account XLSTAT.
Finally, I like the version 16 of Minitab. What I like much is the statistical advisor, and the way in which many results of hypothesis tests are reported, with a clear explanation of the details. This turns to be useful for people with a non extensive stat background.

I hope not to have confused things too much.

In sum:
I would take into consideration to use both Statistica and XLSTAT. The latter could be the right choice if something like Correspondence Analysis is essential for your purposes.

Best Regards,
Gm

[fpetillo]

Thanks much. This is very helpful. Should I be concerned about the quality of the LXSTAT product? Can I be confident that they are using appropriate algorithms?

[gianmarco]

Hi!
Glad to see that my reply was of some utility.
Sorry, but your new question is something I am not able to answer.

Best Luck,
gm

[peckjonk]

R is a very different animal from SPSS or other traditional statistical packages. Powerful but challenging.

SPSS is pretty strong in market research areas. It DOES in fact have a TURF analysis module. It happens to be an extension command, one of many such free extensions available from the SPSS Community website at www.ibm.com/developerworks/spssdevcentral. If you install the Python Essentials from that site, SPSSINC TURF, which includes a dialog box interface and traditional SPSS syntax, is automatically installed. The current version of TURF posted on the website separately is newer and has some additional features.