Gergely Tamás - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Applied Logic Laboratory
Real User
Is convenient for writing your own algorithms, but the speed needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very convenient to write your own algorithms in KNIME. You can write it in Java script or Python transcript."
  • "It's very general in terms of architecture, and as a result, it doesn't support efficient running. That is, the speed needs to be improved."

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

It's very general in terms of architecture, and as a result, it doesn't support efficient running. That is, the speed needs to be improved.

The scalability needs to be improved as well.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's more or less stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable to a certain extent.

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March 2024
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How was the initial setup?

It is fairly easy to setup KNIME.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The client versions are mostly free, and we pay only for the KNIME server version.

It's not a cheap solution.

What other advice do I have?

For experimental work, KNIME is a good solution. However, for special task oriented developments, it's not the best.

Considering this, I would rate KNIME at seven on a scale from one to ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user837522 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Consultant
Consultant
Very easy-to-use visual interface; Data Wrangling and looping help automate analysis
Pros and Cons
  • "Key features include: very easy-to-use visual interface; Help functions and clear explanations of the functionalities and the used algorithms; Data Wrangling and data manipulation functionalities are certainly sufficient, as well as the looping possibilities which help you to automate parts of the analysis."
  • "The visualization functionalities are not good (cannot be compared to, for instance, the possibilities in R)."
  • "The program is not fit for handling very large files or databases (greater than 1GB); it gets too slow and has a tendency to crash easily."

What is our primary use case?

I mainly used it to perform predictive modeling projects, such as customer-churn predictions and HR attrition predictions. The environments are mainly SQL-databases or CSV files.

The installation I worked with to perform the analyses was a regular laptop with no computational server behind it, which may have an impact on the capacity of the program handling very large databases or files.

How has it helped my organization?

The clients I performed the analyses for were all very pleased with the results. For churn prediction, one of the companies proactively started contacting clients with high risk to churn, resulting in drastically decreasing churn rates.

For organizations with a small team of data analysts or data scientists, it is a very easy tool to become familiar with predictive modeling, and makes it possible to hand over projects to colleagues without the need to extensively document them.

What is most valuable?

  • The very easy-to-use visual interface
  • Help functions and clear explanations of the functionalities and the used algorithms
  • Data Wrangling and data manipulation functionalities are certainly sufficient, as well as the looping possibilities which help you to automate parts of the analysis

For inexperienced analysts or data scientists, it is a very easy tool to take your first steps in modeling and analytics.

What needs improvement?

The visualization functionalities are not good (cannot be compared to, for instance, the possibilities in R).

The program is not fit for handling very large files or databases (greater than  1GB); it gets too slow and has a tendency to crash easily.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What other advice do I have?

I used it quite intensively for 10 months, long enough get familiar with it, to follow training, to use it in in several projects, to ask questions on the user forum.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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KNIME
March 2024
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it_user837516 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Analyst at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Allows me to integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics
Pros and Cons
  • "We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics."
  • "Valuable features include visual workflow creation, workflow variables (parameterisation), automatic caching of all intermediate data sets in the workflow, scheduling with the server."
  • "The overall user experience feels unpolished. In particular: Data field type conversion is a real hassle, and date fields are a hassle; documentation is pretty poor; user community is average at best."

What is our primary use case?

All analytics individuals use KNIME to integrate multiple sources of data (SQL, excel, etc.) and prep the data for static reporting.

How has it helped my organization?

We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics.

What is most valuable?

  • Visual workflow creation
  • Workflow variables (parameterisation)
  • Automatic caching of all intermediate data sets in the workflow
  • Scheduling with the server

What needs improvement?

The overall user experience feels unpolished. 

  • Data field type conversion is a real hassle, and date fields are a hassle.
  • Documentation is pretty poor.
  • User community is average at best.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Partially, only with very large datasets (10M+ records or so); its reliance on RAM is a bit high for normal PCs. Servers should be fine.

How are customer service and technical support?

Not applicable (not local in South Africa).

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Alteryx. KNIME is much cheaper. The KNIME desktop client is free. KNIME handles 95% of our requirements.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Alteryx.

What other advice do I have?

I rate it a seven out of 10. It's very useful but needs polish and improved UX and UI in several areas.

For quick adoption, either get KNIME to provide training, or have a local knowledge expert on hand who is well versed with data workflow tools, and databases if necessary.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Teacher at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Coding-less opportunity to use AI and it is easy to set up
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a coding-less opportunity to use AI. This is the major value for me."
  • "There should be better documentation and the steps should be easier."

What is our primary use case?

I use KNIME for clustering data analysis. 

What is most valuable?

It's a coding-less opportunity to use AI. This is the major value for me.

What needs improvement?

I had some difficulty connecting to servers. It asked me to set something up on my server and it asked me for a code that I needed to generate on the server. There were several steps that I messed up. I followed all of the instructions but I couldn't manage it at all. I followed the directions in several forums to find out the problem.  

There should be better documentation and the steps should be easier. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using KNIME for three to four months. 

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't needed to contact their support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I tried Python and Microsoft. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was super easy. It was really quick. I did it myself for personal use. It didn't take longer than half an hour. 

What other advice do I have?

Some of the samples are outdated but my advice to someone considering KNIME is to use their samples. 

I would rate KNIME an eight out of ten. 

In the next release, the should have more comprehensive samples.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
CEO at Alpha Analytics
Real User
Easy to use, with good data wrangling and preparation capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very fast to develop solutions."
  • "There are a lot of tools in the product and it would help if they were grouped into classes where you can select a function, rather than a specific tool."

What is our primary use case?

Our analysts use Knime in the company for data modeling, data wrangling, and data preparation. We have a good amount of data that we work with.

I do not personally use the product, but I am familiar with its usage through my analysts.

What is most valuable?

Data preparation and data modeling are easy to do.

It is very fast to develop solutions.

What needs improvement?

There are a lot of tools in the product and it would help if they were grouped into classes where you can select a function, rather than a specific tool. This would make workflow development faster because several tools could be used together, based on the function that is chosen. Each would complete one of the constituents of the task.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with Knime for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is quite stable and we haven't had any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Knime is a scalable solution and we haven't experienced any issues. There are six of us who are using it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to Knime, we were using Alteryx. However, Alteryx is too costly and our customers don't want to pay for it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price for Knime is okay.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Test Engineer at ProData Consult
Real User
An impressive open-source product that is stable and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like the most is that it works almost out of the box with Random Forest and other Forest nodes."
  • "The documentation is lacking and it could be better."

What is our primary use case?

I am advocating the use of this solution in my organization. I use it personally for my purposes and for the company, I use it for internal data science with very good results.

What is most valuable?

What I like the most is that it works almost out of the box with Random Forest and other Forest nodes.

What needs improvement?

It is difficult to say at this time, as I am not using the latest version. I have noticed that I don't have the latest modules that were added, such as ML.

In my opinion, there's one thing lacking. As far as algorithm notes go, it would be handy if category algorithms of C4 or C4.5 could be set with a checkbox or something like that.

Once you go to the forum or the documentation, to see how to implement a C4.5, you mark the checkbox, and only then it would be content for C4 or C4.5.

The documentation is lacking and it could be better. It's a community-driven product but there are a few crucial models missing such as ANOVA and MANOVA.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using KNIME since December 2019.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In my opinion, it is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not yet explored the scalability as I am using it on my local machine and I don't have the experience of putting it on the cloud.

I do plan to increase my usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

The documentation is okay, although there are things missing. At the same time, the forum support is great.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I was using SPSS Statistics, although that was ten years ago. I had a gap in data mining and the statistic field as a whole.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's an open-source solution.

What other advice do I have?

I am considering further courses and maybe some certification in the next year.

I would strongly recommend KNIME. It's a modeling or statistics product that can be used by almost anyone with knowledge in the field. It works almost out of the box.

For starters, it's approximately two hours of watching videos and/or reading the documentation, and then off you go.

I built my first working model in two days when I started using KNIME, and it only needed to be tweaked. It was impressive.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Data Scientist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We have been able to appreciate the considerable reduction in prototyping time
Pros and Cons
  • "We have been able to appreciate the considerable reduction in prototyping time."
  • "The most useful features are the readily available extensions that speed up the work."
  • "The documentation needs a proper rework. ​"

What is our primary use case?

We have used KNIME for text processing, specifically for leveraging the text processing features for entity extraction, document classification, relationship extraction, and other such NLP tasks.

How has it helped my organization?

We are far from reaping the benefits of this platform as an organization. However, so far, we have been able to appreciate the considerable reduction in prototyping time.

What is most valuable?

The most useful features are the readily available extensions that speed up the work. For instance, KNIME offers multiple document taggers, which one can use with relative ease. Similarly, the number of predefined NER taggers are also very handy.

What needs improvement?

The documentation needs a proper rework. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Associate Analyst at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Easy to setup, it organises workflows in very neat manner
Pros and Cons
  • "Usability, and organising workflows in very neat manner. Controlling workflow through variables is something amazing."
  • "System resource usage. Knime will occupy total system RAM size and other applications will hang."

What is most valuable?

Usability, and organising workflows in very neat manner. Controlling workflow through variables is something amazing.

How has it helped my organization?

Lot of manual work has been automated through this and single solution created on this can be used by others, too. We have implemented the same thing in our organization as CAE.

What needs improvement?

Data handling capacity. Currently it handless 25M rows of data, after which you will face lagging issue.

System resource usage. Knime will occupy total system RAM size and other applications will hang.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for 18 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nope.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When the data limit exceeds, it will get lag.

How are customer service and technical support?

A nine out of 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used Alteryx for harmonizing. Cost was the main reason for the switch.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is free of cost. It is GNU licensed.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No.

What other advice do I have?

It is best one for harmonizing data with no cost included.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are partners of the KNIME tool.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free KNIME Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free KNIME Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.