MATLAB vs Spotfire

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Our analysts compared MATLAB vs Spotfire based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Big Data Analytics Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

MATLAB is a numerical computing and programming platform that enables users to develop and implement mathematical algorithms, create models and analyze data. Designed for engineers and scientists, it can be used for a range of purposes, including deep learning and machine learning, computational finance, image processing, predictive maintenance, IoT analytics and more. Built around its matrix-based programming language, it can help users run analyses on large data sets as well as design and rigorously test models.

It is available through on-premise installation on Windows and Mac. For eligible licensees, there is also a SaaS version accessible through a web browser. Users can purchase it under a perpetual or annual license, with discounts for academic institutions. For individuals not associated with government agencies, private companies or other organizations, there is a less expensive home license for personal use. Students can purchase a student license for a version designed for coursework and academic research.

Early-stage technology startups can apply for startup-friendly pricing and opportunities.
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Spotfire is a software solution for business reporting and analytics. Ranked third on our product directory, it shines for data science and streaming analytics. Dashboards are customizable and interactive. Automation services help create and deliver reports on schedule. You can download it on Windows and access it through other operating systems via workarounds.

Organizations across the board find Spotfire helpful, be it pharma companies or oil and gas suppliers. Manufacturing and supply chain businesses also opt for it on account of its functions and formulas. Techniques like regression and what-if analysis support predictions. Reporting on inventory levels can help you anticipate and plan when to place the next order.

With a data tool, you expect to have data management built in, and Spotfire does an excellent job. It enables cleaning data from the user interface — inline data cleansing — and flags anomalies.

Geomapping is sometimes an afterthought in BI tools. Spotfire scores with excellent location analytics and companies with field machinery find it helpful. Plan maintenance by keeping tabs on machine performance and aging trends using Spotfire dashboards.

Spotfire has data management with anomaly detection and inline data cleansing. Geomapping is sometimes an afterthought in BI tools. Spotfire scores with excellent location analytics, which is why many companies with field machinery find it helpful.

Spotfire's robust calculations are due to TIBCO's runtime engine. Report templates are available, and you can create your own. Its Automation Services help manage routine reporting.

Users praise Spotfire for its connections with an active community that contributes additional connectors. They appreciate its visualizations and the freedom to customize data displays. The vendor provides exceptional support for mobile insights.

The latest edition, Spotfire X, has NLQ-powered searches, AI recommendations and model-based processing. A 30-day trial with 250 GB of storage is available. At $1,250 per year, a Spotfire Analyst license costs more than Tableau and Power BI, and users agree that pricing is steep.

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Product Insights

  • Get Results Faster: Obtain quicker results through contextual hints, automatic code generation and a fully integrated debugger. Spend less time on programming and troubleshooting.
  • Analyze with Less Code: Teach the platform to automatically generate code to reproduce work and save time, as well as perform tasks such as training machine learning models or labeling data. 
  • Add-Ons For Every Application: Customize and extend the functionality of the core platform through the MATLAB family of add-on products to address specific business needs.
  • Scale Up to Big Data: Scale analyses to process big data by running on clusters, GPUs and clouds. Speed up computation on large data sets without needing to rewrite code or learn big data programming. 
  • Updates and Upgrades: Runs code more than twice as fast as before, due to continual updates and new features on the platform, as well as twice-yearly new releases.
  • Access Anywhere: Sign in to the online platform from any standard web browser, without needing to download and install the application on new machines. Syncs files between computers and the online platform via cloud storage and integration, eliminating the need for manual upload or download. 
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Collaborate by sharing scripts and files directly online or publishing to the web via interactive controls. Easily package or translate analysis for other platforms, or document work and export it to reports for sharing.
  • Free Trial: Try it hands-on with a free 30-day trial. Students whose schools have a campus license can access a free copy of the software without the 30-day trial limitation.
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  • Make Informed Decisions: Ensure you don't miss any data when performing analysis. Spotfire connects to over 50 sources out of the box and provides many more, thanks to its active community. When a connector isn't available, you can rely on TIBCO’s data virtualization capabilities. Users appreciate its expertise in capturing streaming data, which many data tools have yet to catch up with. Our analysts awarded it top honors for source connectivity.
  • Gain Accurate Insight: Make decisions with confidence, knowing you have quality data in your corner. Organize data using metadata management and build workflows in a dedicated wizard. Or use freeform SQL query building with autocomplete. Spotfire scores a perfect 100 in our analyst rankings for seamless data preparation and management. It’s mainly due to inline data correction, which not many platforms support.
  • Visualize Insight: Achieve your weekly, monthly and yearly goals. Put your data to work with interactive dashboards and visualizations that come alive thanks to animations. Get suggestions on how datasets relate and visualizations that fit your analysis. And don't worry about it going stale — you can set it up to refresh on cue. Our analysts give Spotfire the top award for dashboarding and visualization.
  • Stay Mobile: Spotfire wins our analyst recommendation for responsive mobile insights on iOS and Android. You can favorite views and search for them later and swipe left and right between pages on your phone. Share your findings via email, SMS or other communication channels. Map visualizations are available on mobile — Spotfire will show you relevant data based on your location. QR code scanning is available. Spotfire gets a 100 score in our assessment.
  • Add Location Data: If your data includes location coordinates, Spotfire can directly plot these points on a map. If it contains city, state, or country names, Spotfire can convert them into locations on the map. Geographic searches, functions and calculations are available. Our analysts give Spotfire a 100 for its mapping features.
  • Automate Reports: Its automation services earn Spotfire another perfect 100 for reporting. Report scheduling and alerts are no longer optional; every organization that wants its teams to own their tasks wants automation. And Spotfire wins hands down with another perfect 100 in our analysis. Readymade reports templates are available, and you can build your own. Apply filters, drill down or perform calculations with ease. Report exports are possible in standard file formats, such as PDF, Excel and CSV.
  • Stay Competitive: Spotfire supports cohort analysis and decision trees. ML algorithms can extract features from text data for model training. Built for data science, it has capabilities for neural networks and deep learning. Spotfire gets 99 in our machine learning rankings.
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  • Data Import: Import and access a variety of data types, including text files, spreadsheets, images, audio, video, scientific data formats, IoT data, large data sets and more. 
  • Algorithm Development: Develop algorithms with thousands of core mathematical, engineering and scientific functions and tools for debugging, implementation and optimization. 
  • Automate with Machine Learning: Leverage interactive apps to see how algorithms work with data and then tweak to get the desired results. Then, automatically generate a program to reproduce or automate workflows. 
  • Live Editor: Build functions and generate code, creating scripts that can be enhanced with formatting through an interactive editor. Compile these scripts and results into an executable notebook. Explore parameters and immediately see the results, saving time.
  • Data Analysis: Analyze large data sets and big data in a multitude of ways through thousands of prebuilt functions for statistical analysis, machine learning and signal processing.
  • Data Visualization: Turn data into graphics with prebuilt 2D and 3D plots, including line plots, histograms, bar graphs, scatter plots, pie charts, word clouds, maps, polar plots, vector fields and animations.
  • Mathematics: Perform mathematical calculations via a vast library of mathematical functions, including linear algebra, statistics, Fourier analysis, numerical integration, differential equations and more.
  • Modeling: Supports model-based design, multi-domain simulation and automatic code generation via integration with another product from the same vendor, Simulink. Helps in numeric and symbolic modeling and provides mathematical tools like curve fitting, statistics, ODE and PDE solving, calculus and more.
  • Teach with Live Scripts: Build live scripts with its code to let students explore concepts and learn on their own. Create engaging lectures that walk students through explanations, math equations and results, one section at a time. Modify code on the fly to demonstrate how to use math to solve complex problems.
  • App Designer: Create, package and share professional desktop and web apps without needing all the technical know-how of app development. Lay out a graphical user interface through drag-and-drop tools and write the coding for the app’s behavior with an integrated editor and code analyzer that warns about errors in code as it’s written.
  • Community Gallery: See examples from the community on how to display and manipulate data by visiting the plot gallery and live script gallery on the vendor’s website.
  • Programming Integrations: Supports interfacing with other programming languages. Use the platform from within another programming environment without starting a new desktop session through engine APIs that support C/C++, Fortran, Java, Python and more. Call functions and objects from other libraries, including C, C++, Java, Python, .NET, COM objects and more from within the platform. Convert algorithms written in its code to C/C++.
  • Add-Ons: Utilize toolboxes and specialized solutions for fields such as math and optimizations, statistics and data science, code generation, application deployment, database access and reporting. These toolboxes are professionally built, rigorously tested and fully documented. Integrate automated reporting into the platform with richly-formatted custom reports in PDF, Word and HTML formats. 
  • MATLAB Online: Access the platform from any web browser through cloud-based services without downloading and installing the software. 
  • MATLAB Drive: Store, manage and share files from the cloud across devices and work with files from anywhere.
  • Mobile App: Learn and teach through mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. Connect to sessions, and acquire sensor data to analyze and capture images and videos.
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  • Spotfire Actions: Decide what to do with and act instantly — no need to switch to your procurement application to pause new orders. This powerful feature allows you to run scripts within analytics workflows. You can also trigger actions in your external system through visualization. Spotfire can set up over 200 commercial connections and has 1800 community connectors.
  • Mods: Build reusable workflows and visualization components, much like apps in Power BI and Qlik Sense. They allow your users to tailor their analytical processes so they don’t have to start from scratch every time. Based on code, they run in a sandbox with limited access to system resources for security. Users can share them through the Spotfire library. Mods improve efficiency and collaboration.
  • Batch Edits: Make similar changes to multiple files in one go. Write custom scripts to call the Spotfire API that’ll make changes to the files. Update the IronPython version to the latest one or embed the Spotfire JQueryUI library instead of its references.
  • Recurring Jobs: Simplify event scheduling to better manage your time and tasks. Improve efficiency and deliver reports at the same time on the same day of the week or month. The latest Spotfire version allows you to set recurring automation jobs to occur every X hours, days, weeks or months.
  • Web Player REST API: Share insight with clients and partners without them needing to sign up for a paid Spotfire account. Engage them via data visualizations on the web browser, thanks to Spotfire Web Player. Update analyses on the web with real-time data in the latest Spotfire version.
  • Roles: Invest wisely — opt for licenses that align with user roles. Choose Spotfire Analyst for data analysts, scientists and power users who need deep-dive analysis. Get the Business Author license for enterprise users, analysts and power users to create and consume insights without deep expertise. Choose consumer licenses for users who’ll interact with and consume data. They include the C-suite and non-technical users within the organization.
  • Information Designer: Prepare fully governed data sources for business users in a dedicated wizard. Set up their preferred data sources and define in advance how Spotfire will query and import data into storage. Specify which columns to load and which filters, joins and aggregations to apply.
  • Audio and Image Processing: Add user feedback from customer calls and videos. Interpret public sentiment about your product by analyzing social media pictures and videos. Spotfire enables writing code to extract text from audio and image files. You can then import the data into the platform for analysis.
  • IoT Analytics: Gain insight at lightning speed; build microservices and deploy them at the edge. With Spotfire, you can add IoT data to your regular data for the complete picture.
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Product Ranking

#11

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

#9

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

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Analyst Rating Summary

we're gathering data
92
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77
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79
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100
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

MATLAB
Spotfire
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Augmented Analytics Computer Vision And Internet Of Things (IoT) Dashboarding And Data Visualization Data Management Data Preparation Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Machine Learning Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 77 79 100 100 100 99 94 100 0 25 50 75 100
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88%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

we're gathering data
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86%
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 4535 reviews
Great User Sentiment 1749 reviews
92%
of users recommend this product

MATLAB has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 4535 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

86%
of users recommend this product

Spotfire has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 1749 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.3 (14)
4.5 (599)
4.2 (315)
4.6 (1808)
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4.6 (1570)
4.4 (60)
4.6 (401)
4.4 (539)
4.3 (157)
4.3 (821)

Awards

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

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Spotfire and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Geospatial Visualizations and Analysis, Mobile Capabilities and Reporting.

Geospatial Visualizations and Analysis Award
Mobile Capabilities Award
Reporting Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Service and Support: All users who mentioned support said that online community forums are supportive in helping them leverage the platform to its maximum potential.
Data Processing: Around 92% of users who discussed its data processing capabilities said that the solution helps to simulate and visualize complex mathematical models in an intuitive manner.
Data Analysis: According to 92% of users who reviewed data analysis, the platform, with multiple built-in packages, is useful in exploring data, creating machine learning models and predictive analysis.
Functionality: Citing a range of pre-loaded functions and algorithms, approximately 88% of users who reviewed functionality said that the solution is a powerful tool with a rich feature set and strong computing abilities.
Ease of Use: Reviewing ease of using the tool, approximately 60% of users said that, with detailed documentation being readily available, minimal coding experience is necessary to create and combine scripts.
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Data Visualization: About 86% of reviewers were satisfied with the available options when designing dashboards.
Support: Around 74% of users praised vendor support for their timely response and helpful attitude.
Integration: Almost 72% of users were satisfied that it integrates with their preferred systems.
Friendly Interface: Around 68% of reviewers said the platform was easy to use.
Functionality: About 64% of users said it had a rich feature set.
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Performance and Speed: Around 91% of users who reviewed speed said that the platform is resource-hungry in terms of power and space and slows down when performing complex computations.
Cost: Citing licensing costs, approximately 81% of users said that the software is expensive for individual users.
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Cost: Around 96% of the user reviews said it the price was high and licensing complex.
Adoption: 90% of reviewers said there was a significant learning curve and users would need specialized knowledge of data science and statistics.
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MATLAB is a computing and programming tool that combines the power of functions and algorithms with data integration, modeling and visualization for predictive business data analysis. Users perform complex computations on data sets that the platform ingests from a multitude of data sources to glean business-specific metrics. Citing online communities, all users who reviewed support said that the tool is accessible to beginners, while providing enough depth for advanced users, though some said that the coding syntax could be daunting for non-technical users initially. Around 92% of users who reviewed its analytical capabilities said that the platform provides a wide range of built-in packages to provide out-of-the-box data analysis solutions. With its minimal scripting, many users who discussed data processing said that they could simulate complex mathematical functions to visualize complex data models. Reviewing its functionality, many users said that its rich library and design makes it possible to write powerful programs easily. A majority of users who discussed its performance said that the platform consumes a lot of power and space and slows down when performing complex computations, possibly because updates, though frequent, do not include optimization for older features. Many users who reviewed the cost said that individual user licenses are expensive, and buying additional libraries adds to the cost since many of these have interlinking dependencies, though some users said that the platform provides value for money. In summary, MATLAB is a programming solution that leverages machine learning for data collection and complex computations for users to create data models and visualize enterprise metrics for predictive analysis.

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In online reviews, Spotfire emerges as a user-friendly big data platform. Most users found data exploration easy with a drag-and-drop interface. Some users said the UI was dated, though, and said it could use a revamp. Most users praised its interactive visualizations and dashboards, saying they helped them interpret data better. But, a few said they would love to have more visuals to choose from.A user mentioned they did the calculations in Excel and imported them into Spotfire for visualization. It's a common scenario when a steep learning curve slows down adoption, and teams fall back on Excel. Most users said Spotfire takes time to learn. You might have to opt for a balance of multiple platforms to balance your departmental and enterprise needs.Spotfire surpasses Excel in data management, especially data prep. Customizable visualizations and custom Mods give you enough freedom to work within the platform.Though 72% of reviewers were happy with the integrations, Spotfire lacks some standard connectors, such as for Apache Kafka, forcing users to rely on workarounds.A majority of users found its pricing structure complex, especially as users increased. In such cases, organizations often tend to opt for a cheaper alternative for less advanced use cases while using the pricier platform for the critical ones. We advise doing a deep dive into the vendor's pricing plans to avoid making your tech stack top-heavy.Ultimately, Spotfire's appeal lies in its balance. It's visually captivating and user-friendly for casual users while offering enough depth for seasoned analysts. However, its pricing and learning curve might deter organizations on a tight budget.

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