KNIME and Alteryx are top data science tools with ETL capabilities that can help meet the challenge of working with large volumes of data. Compare the features to see which software is best for your business.
Many organizations around the world use data science tools to facilitate data management, automation and analysis. Of those data science tools, KNIME and Alteryx are two popular solutions that offer: extract, transform and load (ETL) capabilities in addition to several other data management features.
What is KNIME?
KNIME is a free to use, open source data analysis and reporting tool that integrates multiple data mining and machine learning components through its modular data pipeline. This data science software simplifies data, automates data science workflow processing and makes the reusable components accessible to multiple users.
KNIME also uses a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to easily create and process data models and perform data analysis and data visualization.
What is Alteryx?
Alteryx is a data editing, analysis and execution software solution for companies dealing with large amounts of data. Using this data science software, users can monitor and manipulate data and collaborate and help with the flow of information with a human readable GUI.
In other words, people are deploying this data science software tool to increase the efficiency, speed and automation of data processing to avoid complexity.
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KNIME vs. Alteryx function comparison
While KNIME and Alteryx offer many features common to all data science tools, their differences make it easier to determine which solution is better in specific use cases. Where Alteryx offers simplicity and user-friendliness with robust community support, KNIME offers more customization and reliability.
| Function | KNIME | Alteryx |
|---|---|---|
| open source | Yes | New |
| Enterprise-wide support | Yes | Yes |
| simplicity of use | New | Yes |
| Easy implementation | Yes | Yes |
| Quality of user community | New | Yes |
| Integration using API tools | Yes | Yes |
| Price flexibility | Yes | New |
| Data magnification | Yes | Yes |
Head-to-head comparison: KNIME vs. Alteryx
Date preparation
During the data preparation process, the Alteryx dashboard has some features where a user can easily drag and drop to choose a data type and connect to a database. From the same dashboard, it’s also easy to change or connect to other file types.
Compared to Alteryx, KNIME’s user interface for this capability is often more complex, especially for new users. As a result, new users spend more time entering or selecting a data type, ultimately slowing down the overall time spent on data analysis.
Mixing data
KNIME’s Join button provides an easy to learn and use function for merging or mixing different databases. In addition, KNIME’s data blending tool retains its reliability when processing large amounts of data.
In comparison, the Alteryx Analytic tool is less user-friendly. The Connect feature also allows users to combine different databases, but the process is slower. And while the data blending functionality is great for not messing up data during merging, compared to KNIME, Alteryx is less reliable when dealing with large volumes of data.
User Interface (UI)
The KNIME user interface consists of nodes that can be dragged onto the canvas. This way, a node can connect to other nodes on the same canvas and can be easily configured on-the-fly. Compared to Alteryx, KNIME users often have to deal with many redundant windows.
With Alteryx, the user interface is organized in a menu at the top of the dashboard. The nodes come with functionalities that are easier to understand and configure. The user interface allows a user to easily identify and choose key functionalities such as Join, Data Preparation, Transform, Reporting and Input/Output for simplicity.
Great Community Support
For new users of a data science software tool, the availability of a large community goes a long way in mastering the tool. In the case of these data science tools, Alteryx has greater community support; hence a new user can easily access help when stuck in the learning process.
While KNIME also has a large online community, it is not as robust as what is available in the Alteryx online community.
Charts and reporting
The ability of data science tools to produce a less ambiguous graphical report is very important, especially for reports that compare a large amount of data and data from different geolocations.
Since KNIME is an open-source data science tool, users have added more capabilities to enhance a wider variety of visual representations of reports using other tools. This makes it a better data graphics tool than Alteryx.
Open source capability
Open source licensing facilitates innovation and broader software development. Since KNIME is open source data science software, people can easily create and add their plugins to KNIME. This joint approach to software development makes KNIME very powerful and flexible, unlike the Alteryx tool.
Choosing between KNIME and Alteryx
KNIME and Alteryx are powerful data science software tools. However, choosing one of these depends on the user and the volume of data a company manages.
Alteryx is a great analytical tool that promises simplicity of use and that handles data entry and preparation in a less technical way; however, it struggles to reliably handle large amounts of data.
While the complexity of KNIME requires a solid technical background in data science and analysis, its ability to work with large volumes of data makes it ideal for those wishing to learn the capabilities of the development and data science tool.
