11 Best Predictive Analytics Tools (2024 Software Compared)

Knowledge is power. Time is money. Data is the new gold. Blablabla etc.

No doubt you've realized that data is essential to success. And the most important thing you can learn from the data is what the future looks like.

Predictive analytics solutions are your best bet for becoming a business seer. But what are the best predictive analytics tools? Can only data scientists use this stuff? Do you need to spend thousands per year? 

In this article, first you’ll get the data predictive modeling and analytics tour. Then we compare 11 of the best business intelligence solutions that do predictive analytics. 

Predictive analytics tools comparison chart (top 10 highest rated)

What are predictive analytics tools?

Predictive analytics tools are tools that use data to help you see into the future. But it’s not a crystal ball. Instead it tells you the probabilities of possible outcomes. Knowing these probabilities can help you plan many aspects of your business. 

Predictive analysis is part of the wider set of data analysis. Other aspects of data analytics include descriptive analytics, which helps you understand what your data represents. Diagnostic analytics pinpoint the causes of what’s happened. Prescriptive analytics is closer to predictive analytics. This gives you actionable tips for making better decisions.

In other words, you can say predictive analytics is between data mining, which looks for patterns, and prescriptive analytics, which tells you what you should do with this information.

Predictive modeling versus predictive analytics

These two terms may get used interchangeably. They are both parts of data science. But there are some differences to keep in mind.

You can say that predictive modeling is the more technical aspect of predictive analytics. Data analysts do modeling with statistics and other historical data. The model then weighs the likeliness of various outcomes. You can also reuse the models on other data stored in your data warehouse.

Predictive analytics tries to help you understand why the models gave different weighted scores. The insights here go beyond data scientists. They help in all sorts of use cases for business managers and other professionals. The best predictive analytics software streamlines the transition between modeling to analytics.

Raw data analytics

Another difference is the ability to do textual analysis. This is when you collect unstructured data. Basic predictive modeling cannot use this information.

For example when interviewing people. Normal human speech doesn’t compute to simple models. But the best predictive analytics products can do sentiment analysis. This means they use AI and machine learning to understand what someone means and transforms that raw sentiment into structured data.

Uses of predictive analytics

 There are many great use cases for predictive analytics. Here are a few.

In e-commerce it can help analyze customer data. It can predict the likeliness of certain people to buy. And it can predict the ROI of targeted marketing campaigns. Some SaaS can collect data right from online stores like Amazon Marketplace.

Social media marketing benefits from predictive analytics. It can help you plan what kind of content to post. It also shows you the best times and days to post. It may help you with things like Google Ads too.

It’s used in banking and insurance. It can help figure out credit ratings. You can also use it to identify fraudulent activities.

There are a lot of uses for predictive analytics in healthcare. It can monitor and look for early warning signs of someone’s health problems. 

Manufacturing needs predictive analytics to help with many things. These include inventory and supply chains. It also includes hiring of personnel. Planning your shipping and fulfillment is more efficient with predictive analytics.

What are the best predictive analytics tools? Here’s our top 11 list:

You want the best business intelligence software? Are you looking for good free predictive analytics tools? 

Let’s break down 11 platforms that’ll give you an edge over future outcomes. We talk about features, niche, scale and price. Hopefully you find the solution best for your business needs.   

SAP Analytics Cloud (best predictive analytics solution overall)

SAP is a huge multinational software company. It’s a German firm dating back to the 70s. ERP is their specialty and they have many good data platforms.

SAP Predictive Analytics was their main data analytics platform. Now, that software is being phased into SAP’s larger Cloud Analytics platform. This does more BI than SAP Predictive Analytics did. SAP Analytics Cloud runs on AI for enhanced business planning and forecasting. It works on all devices. This analytics platform easily scales up for businesses of any size. Augmented analytics lets you use NLP to gain insights from big data. Machine learning automates workflows to regularly reveal relationships and patterns. Finally, SAP Analytics Cloud is easy enough for anyone to use.

SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Intelligence starts $22.00 per user per month.

SAP is best for:

• SMBs

• Large business

• Enterprise

• Data mining

• Predictive analytics

• Augmented analytics

• Forecasting

• Business intelligence

Website: SAP

SAS Advanced Analytics (best business intelligence tool for enterprise)

SAS is another multinational software firm with roots in the 70s. The main focus of SAS is analytics software. It’s headquartered in North Carolina. 

SAS Advanced Analytics is a total suite of predictive analytics tools. It does data ming, which simplifies the data. This gets it ready for data modeling. There is statistical analysis. This uses algorithms to analyze the past, present and future. Forecasting tools automatically generate models for future probabilities. You get text analytics that analyzes unstructured data. SAS Advanced Analytics lets you run quick simulations. Here you can tweak variables and get new results instantly. 

For prices you’ll have to contact SAS.

SAS is best for:

• SMBs

• Large business

• Enterprise

• Text analysis

• Statistical analysis

• Forecasting

• Predictive analytics

Website: SAS

RapidMiner (top free predictive analytics software)

RapidMiner’s origins are in the AI department of the Technical University of Dortmund. It got off the ground in 2006. Today there are two products. RapidMiner Go and RapidMiner Studio.

RapidMiner is an end to end data analysis platform. It makes use of data modeling and machine learning to give you robust predictive analytics. Everything works on a fast drag and drop interface. You get a library of over 1,500 algorithms to apply to your data. There are templates to monitor things like customer churn and predictive maintenance. RapidMiner is a good data visualization tool. It makes seeing future outcomes of business decisions easy to interpret. Automated machine learning gives you stats on potential gains and other ROI data.

There’s a free version of RapidMiner Studio. The Professional version is $7,500 and the Enterprise is $15,000, both per user per year. RapidMiner Go starts at $10 per month. 

RapidMiner is best for:

• Free users

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Large businesses

• Data modeling

• Data visualization

• Machine learning algorithms

Website: RapidMiner

Alteryx (best predictive analytics vendor for team collaboration)

Alteryx used to be called SRC LLC. In 2010 the company rebranded as Alteryx. Today it’s a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader in data science and machine learning.

Alteryx’s main product is the APA platform. This is analytic process automation. It combines data science with predictive analytics. The goal of Alteryx is for non-coders to use the platform. It gives you hundreds of automation “building blocks” to apply to your data. This turns big data into actionable data insights. Alteryx can handle unstructured data. It can also do sentiment analysis on raw data. Alteryx Analytics Hub makes it easy for teams to share insights. It’s also a simple automation builder for creating scheduled workflows.

There are many packages with Alteryx. Alteryx Analytics Hub goes for $72,000 per year. 

Alteryx is best for:

• Team collaboration

• Large businesses

• Enterprises

• Data science

• Business analytics

• Unstructured data

• Sentiment analysis

Website: Alteryx

IBM SPSS (good predictive analytics tools for researchers)

IBM (international business machines) is a well-known name in all things technology. SPSS is its statistical product and service solutions. It first came out in 1968.

IBM SPSS specializes in advanced statistical analysis. There are two modules. SPSS Statistics and SPSS Modeler. The SPSS Statistics module does predictive analytics. It combines ad hoc analysis, hypothesis testing and geospatial analysis. This is useful when you want to find specific answers in your data. Then there is an SPSS Modeler. It’s more open-ended than SPSS Statistics. This transforms predictive analysis into graphic visuals. It makes it easy to spot patterns and anomalies in data. You can also use IBM’s Watson AI tool. This gives you more advanced data science features used for predictive analytics. 

IBM SPSS Statistics starts at $99 per user per month. IBM SPSS Modeler starts at $499 per user per month.

IBM SPSS is best for:

• SMBs

• Large businesses

• Enterprise

• Academics

• Data scientists

• Statistical analysis

• Data modeling

Website: IBM SPSS 

TIBCO Spotfire (best free predictive analytics software)

TIBCO is a 20-year old big data firm. They are based out of Palo Alto. Spotfire, its data analytics software, was acquired in 2007.

TIBCO Spotfire has many tools to work on large data sets. When it comes to predictive analytics, Spotfire is easy enough for anyone to use. Spotfire has something called one-click predictions. These are pre-programmed ways to classify and cluster data. It also shows relationships and does forecasting. Spotfire has nice data visualization. It’s always reading data and updates in real-time. It’s simple to build your own apps to work with the platform. Spotfire’s machine learning algorithms get more in-depth insights. 

TIBCO Spotfire has a free version. Premium plans are $25, $65 or $125 per month. 

TIBCO Spotfire is best for:

• Free users

• One-person business

• Startups

• SMBs

• Predictive analytics

• Data visualization

• User-friendly

Website: TIBCO 

H2O.ai (good open-source predictive analytics tool)

H2O.ai is an open-source platform. It comes out of Silicon Valley. H2O’s products are used by nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies.

H2O has many products with a range of business intelligence tools. It relies heavily on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Because it’s open-source anyone can create custom features to work on the platform. There is one product called H2O Driverless AI which is for data scientists. H2O AutoML is easier for non-technical people. H20 has many templates that are industry-specific. For finance you can do KYC or fraud prediction. For insurance there is credit rating. Marketing lets you do lead scoring and helps you predict customer behavior. 

There are free trials for H2O’s products. For full prices contact the vendor.

H2O.ai is best for:

• Single business users

• Startups

• SMBs

• Enterprise

• Marketing

• Finance

• Insurance

• Healthcare

Website: H2O.ai  

ibi WebFOCUS (good predictive analytics tool for beginners)

Information Builders (ibi) is an American company. It was founded back in 1975. It is one of the largest software companies that is privately held.

WebFOCUS is the analytics platform of ibi. It’s a self-service tool. Anyone can access it with a web browser. It gets users access to many databases. It lets you monitor and track lots of useful KPIs. WebFOCUS has good interactive dashboards. An insight mode makes it easy for non-tech users to see what stands out in the data. There are many more analytics tools in ibi. They have solutions for healthcare, finance, logistics and retail. What’s good about these tools is that they are easy to learn. Also the platform is flexible. Small companies can scale up with it.

There are free trials for WebFOCUS and other ibi products. Or you can request a demo. For prices you’ll have to contact the vendors.

Ibi WebFOCUS is best for:

• Single business users

• Startups

• SMBs

• Large business

• Enterprise

• Team collaboration

• Ease of use 

Website: Ibi WebFOCUS

Emcien (top predictive analytics tools for marketing)

Emcien is the brainchild of a Georgia Institute of Technology prof who authored mathematical software libraries.

The platform is called EmcienPatterns. It’s built on the idea of two engines. The Analysis engine uses the data to look for patterns. Then it gives it to the Prediction engine. This is where it continues to do decision-making. You get actionable insights updated in real-time. And not only is there data visualization, but also graph analysis. You get weighted predictions and likeliness scores. It can handle unstructured data and dirty data with no prep. EmcienPatterns helps with marketing like customer retention and subscriber churn.

You can try EmcienPatterns for free. For prices contact the vendor.

Emcien is best for:

• Startups

• SMBs

• Large businesses

• Marketing

• Decision-making

• Customer retention

• On-time delivery

Website: Emcien 

Sisense (good business intelligence software for data scientists)

Sisense is a BI company out of Israel with offices all over the globe. Today it’s a bona fide unicorn. They boast tens of thousands of users worldwide.

As far as business intelligence platforms go Sisense is pretty decent. It’s mostly data scientists and developers who will use this. Although managers use it as well. You create apps to do custom data mining. From there it gets you predictive modeling and analytics. On top of that Sisene has solid visualization features. New insights constantly show up on the dashboard. Then there is Sisense Narratives. It interprets the agnostic data in your visualizations. You also have pulse alerts for when new business insights emerge. These are easily set up based on your KPIs. 

To get a price quote from Sisense contact them through their website.

Sisense is best for:

• SMBs

• Large businesses

• Government

• Data science

• BI

• Digital marketing

• Manufacturing

Website URL: Sisense 

KNIME 

KNIME is a data analytics company from Switzerland. It used to be just for the pharmaceutical industry. Now this data analytics software is used in many fields.

The KNIME software is open source. It is divided into two. There is the KNIME Analytics platform. This does data mining for insights as well as predictive analysis. The KNIME SERVER app is for teams and enterprise collaboration. Creating visual workflows is easy with KNIME. You can clean your data and derive statistics quickly. You can build machine learning algorithms. These let you perform things like decision-trees. KNIME also integrates with Apache Spark for making predictions. You can host this on Microsoft Azure or Amazon’s Web Service. 

The KNIME Analytics platform is free. KNIME Server starts at $29,000 per year for 5 users.  

KNIME is best for:

• Free users

• Single business users

• Startups

• SMBs

• Workflow building

• Business analytics

• Decision trees

Website: KNIME 

Best tools for predictive analytics: our final points

So what are the key takeaways? First off, you don’t need a PhD in a programming language like Python to use the predictive analytics SaaS. It’s OK if you don’t understand deep learning or neural networks.

But to sum up: both SAP Analytics Cloud and SAS Advanced Analytics are top predictive analytics tools overall.

For good free predictive analytics tools you got RapidMiner, KNIME and TIBCO Spotfire. 

EmcienPatterns is the surprise little guy in the bunch. This is less known predictive analytics SaaS. But it’s a great tool for marketers.

What’s important is this. Information streams in all the time from many data sources. Collecting it and understanding it only goes so far. You need the best predictive analytics solution to use that data to see into the future. Foresight is how you beat the competition.

Knowledge is power. Foresight is business power with an edge.

FAQs on predictive analytics software tools :

What are examples of predictive analytics?

Some examples of predictive analytics are: In marketing it helps you reach the right people with campaigns. In banking it does credit scores and fraud detection. In manufacturing it helps plan supply chains and equipment maintenance.

What are predictive analytics models?

Some predictive analytics models are: Forecast models learn from historical data and apply it to new data. Outlier models find anomalies in the data. Classification models categorize data. Time series models find data within set time periods.

What is the goal of predictive analytics?

The goal of predictive analytics is knowing the future. Predictive analytics analyzes the data that a business produces. Based on that data, it gives you the likeliness of things happening, like the chance a customer will cancel a subscription. 

How are predictive analytics commonly used?

Predictive analytics are commonly used in business. Good CRM and ERP SaaS use predictive analytics. Academics and research benefit from predictive analytics. Healthcare uses predictive analytics in anything from viral detection to hospital staffing. 

What do you need for predictive analytics?

To use predictive analytics you need data. All businesses and organizations create data. You need to make sure to collect as much data as possible and clean it. Many of the best predictive analytics software vendors have tools for data integration and prepping.