SAS Viya Reviews & Product Details

What I like best about SAS Viya is its powerful combination of advanced analytics and user-friendly interface. It allows both technical and non-technical users to work efficiently with data through its intuitive, cloud-based platform. The ability to handle large datasets quickly, along with built-in machine learning and AI capabilities, has significantly improved our decision-making process. I also appreciate the seamless integration with other tools and the flexibility it offers for customizing workflows. Overall, SAS Viya has made complex data analysis faster, more accessible, and more collaborative across teams. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One downside of SAS Viya is that it can have a steep learning curve for new users, especially those without a strong analytics background. Additionally, the cost can be relatively high compared to other tools, and some advanced features require extra configuration, which can slow down initial setup. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use SAS Viya for reporting tool data management, report generation, and fetching data fast. I appreciate that statistical modeling and reporting are combined into one platform, making it a unified analytics platform. The cloud-based architecture and scalability make SAS Viya my first choice for software. It eliminates the need for multiple tools and improves workflow efficiency, allowing users to move seamlessly from raw data to insights without switching systems. The platform delivers powerful analytics capabilities, strong performance, and excellent scalability for handling complex data workloads. Although the installation is a bit complex, the support team from SAS is fantastic and makes the process easy and smooth, making it feel like we're using premium software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software can be expensive compared to open source analytics tools, making it less accessible for small businesses or startups with limited budgets. Complex installation and maintenance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about SAS Viya is how it combines the strength and reliability of traditional SAS with a modern, flexible environment. I appreciate the cloud-based structure, which makes it easier to access projects from different locations, and the integration of visual analytics with coding in SAS and Python. The interface is clean and intuitive, but still powerful enough for advanced modeling, including mixed models and large datasets. It feels scalable, efficient, and well-suited for both teaching and research environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While SAS Viya is powerful, the transition from traditional SAS 9.4 can sometimes feel challenging, especially when certain procedures or workflows do not behave exactly the same way. Some advanced features require additional configuration or licensing, which can limit access depending on the setup. In addition, for new users, the interface and ecosystem can feel a bit overwhelming at first, particularly when navigating between different applications (e.g., Visual Analytics, Model Studio, programming). A smoother learning curve and clearer guidance for users migrating from earlier SAS versions would be helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like SAS Viya's low code, no code interface because it allows people who don't know how to code to pretty much do everything. You can create dashboards, models from scratch, and data pipelines. It gives you the option to either code or use drag and drop. As a non-tech person, you can do almost anything you want on SAS Viya without ever writing code. That's something very unique. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In my experience, when we tried to create reports which are quite extensive on SAS Viya, they tend to slow down a bit and get laggy, making me feel they're not that scalable. If the data keeps increasing, it might not scale as much as we want it to. I also have a complaint with SAS Intelligent Planning; the user interface is quite outdated and configuring it is complicated. The learning curve is quite steep, especially in today's age where tools are expected to be intuitive and easy to adapt. Additionally, installing SAS Viya can be complicated, with potential issues during installation and configuration. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SAS Viya is a powerful yet user-friendly analytics platform that I genuinely enjoy working with. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes building and running models straightforward, even without heavy coding knowledge. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One drawback of SAS Viya is that the font size can be extremely small, making it difficult to read and navigate the interface comfortably. The platform can also feel overwhelming at first due to the sheer number of features and options available, which can be challenging for new users to get used to. Additionally, it can be slow to load at times, which interrupts the workflow when working on larger projects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that SAS Viya was able to really analyze thousands and thousands of data in a very short time, which I think is pretty useful because I would like to work with governments and bigger organizations that have huge amounts of data. SAS Viya was able to analyze them very quickly and at a very reasonable time. It's really important that we're able to take in that data and analyze it because other software isn't as fast. They struggle with large amounts of data, but SAS Viya was able to analyze those data in a very short time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I felt like the SAS Viya interface was not very user-friendly in terms of finding files. It's very clunky compared to industry standards like Google products. It was difficult to locate folders and files, and we needed multiple training sessions just for the basics, which should be easily accessible for tech people. Also, the initial setup felt daunting and required watching multiple videos. As someone tech-savvy, I find this not very user-friendly. It scared me away initially, and I might not have returned if not for work obligations. There is a bit of an initial learning curve, making it a bit difficult to get started. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about SAS Viya is that it combines powerful data analytics, machine learning, and visualization into one modern, cloud-based platform. It allows users to process large datasets quickly using scalable computing while supporting multiple programming languages like SAS, Python, and R, which makes collaboration easier across teams. I also like that it integrates the entire analytics workflow from data preparation to model deployment and monitoring into a single system, helping organizations work more efficiently while maintaining strong data governance and security. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One potential downside of SAS Viya is that it can have a steep learning curve, especially for users who are new to SAS or enterprise analytics platforms. The cost of licensing and implementation can also be high compared with some open-source alternatives, which may limit accessibility for smaller organizations. Additionally, while Viya supports multiple programming languages, some advanced customization can still feel more seamless within the SAS ecosystem, which may reduce flexibility for teams that primarily work in open-source environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SAS Viya offers a robust and modern platform for advanced analytics and modeling. The interface is clean and relatively intuitive, especially for users familiar with analytics tools, although its proprietary programming language involves a learning curve.

I also appreciate that SAS Viya can connect with multiple data sources and platforms, making it highly flexible for enterprise environments and compatible with existing data ecosystems.

Regarding performance, the platform is highly efficient, comparable to leading providers, particularly when handling millions of records. Its cloud-based architecture enables scalability and faster processing compared to traditional SAS 9.

Although it is an expensive product, it provides reliable support, especially for regulated organizations.

Finally, SAS Viya stands out for its strong machine learning and AI capabilities. It also offers specialized products for predictive modeling, risk modeling, and both batch and real-time scoring.

Overall, SAS Viya is a comprehensive and powerful platform, well-suited for large organizations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One of the main drawbacks is its high cost, which makes it less accessible for small organizations. In our case, it is only used at the group´s headquarters due to budget constraints.

I also find that the training and certification courses are still quite expensive. Making them more accessible would help promote the development of skilled professionals.

Additionally, some essential features, such as connectors to other databases, are offered as add-ons that require additional licensing costs, which increases the overall investment.

Finally, I find the CASL language challenging, as it has a steeper learning curve compared to the traditional macro-based SAS language. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about SAS Viya is its cloud-native architecture and strong performance. It enables faster data processing through in-memory analytics, supports Python, R, and SQL alongside SAS, and offers convenient access via a web-based interface. Overall, these capabilities make analytics more scalable, collaborative, and flexible than in traditional SAS environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike about SAS Viya is its steeper learning curve, particularly for users who are new to cloud environments. Migrating from SAS 9 can be complex, and the administration and licensing costs can be high. In addition, some traditional SAS features behave differently in Viya, which may require adaptation, retraining, and extra time to adjust. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

A macro language with a simple, straightforward syntax that stays easy to work with, even at more advanced levels. Keeping code and other features—like dashboarding and environment control—in one place makes it easier to manage complex scenarios and improves overall usability.

Performance is good—certainly toward the higher end of the speed spectrum for statistical programming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The logs are often vague and not very helpful. Across most products, the interface is unpleasant to look at and feels outdated, and the code text is frequently too small to read comfortably. Support and documentation could be better as well. Python integration is fairly middle-of-the-road and seems to depend heavily on having access to admin commands, since installing new libraries can be difficult. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.