# Stata Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Stata the right Data Analysis solution for you? Explore 183 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/119880/Stata/reviews --- Stata 4.5 (183) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/119880/Stata/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated February 24th, 2026 # Reviews of Stata Ease of use 3.9 Customer Service 4.1 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews JV Julian V Assistant Professor of FinanceHigher Education, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Stata allows to perform even the most sophisticated statistical analyses with confidence, due to the intuitive and helpful documentation.“ December 29, 2024 PY Prasanna D Y Statistician Government Administration, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The next concern is the arranging windows into one frame. While using the Software in my laptop I face some difficulties to maintain the do file, data view and the output in the same window.“ June 21, 2023 Godwin M Statistical AnalystBanking, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “You are able to clean the data and process it without the need of a third party application.“ August 19, 2023 Kimberly S StatisticianBiotechnology, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “It is a bit expensive and is not as flexible as R or Python.“ June 6, 2023 MD Muhammet D Research AssistantHigher Education, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “I like the capabilities of the programme, you can do almost anything, even if it is not in the libraries you can write and implement, in terms of that there is no limit in the programme.“ December 21, 2022 da desmond a Head of quality standards and accreditationHigher Education, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Sometimes too complex output that beat my comprehensive ability.“ July 4, 2022 LO Latina O Quality ManagerFinancial Services, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The tool also can act as a stand alone as far as data preparation, analysis, visualization is concerned. With Stata you don't need any other tool to get the work done.“ November 13, 2022 CG Christopher G StudentEducation Management, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “The big problem I would see is the technical support, most of the answers to the problems are computer generated and most of the doubts are not solved, it is frustrating the fact that your problems have no solution and you have to go elsewhere to try to solve them.“ September 2, 2021 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 183 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Godwin M. Statistical Analyst Banking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A Reliable and Effective Statistical Data Analysis and Processing Tool." August 19, 2023 5.0 With the current grobal trends, we can say that data is the new gold as far as business is concerned. With the tool we are able to manipulate any data to get the desired results. There is no statistical challenge that we are unable to sort with the tool. Pros Whats best with the tool is that its loaded with a breath of features. The features helps us in handling any statistical analysis and data visualization. Its a stand alone when its data processing. You are able to clean the data and process it without the need of a third party application. Cons For you to work with the tool, you will need a training on statistics and data handling. Other than that the tool is reliable and efficient. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Research Associate Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Stata is the best." September 26, 2019 5.0 I have found Stata to be capable of doing 99% of the things I need a stats program to do, and it does them quickly, efficiently, and without much work on my part. Most issues I have run into with Stata are user-generated, and quickly solved by referencing Stata's extensive documentation or its very strong Stata discussion community. That said, it was a bit intimidating at first, being that it's mainly command-driven rather than menu-driven. This creates a slight issue when trying to bring coworkers who haven't used Stata before into the fold. Pros I enjoy the interface -- maybe just because I'm used to it. Still, the flexibility of being able to type something into the command line ad hoc rather than writing it into a syntax file when I just want to see what a command is going to do with out "committing" is nice. The general structure of how Stata presents data and elements of the data within the GUI, specifically the ability to see basically everything in one main window, tends to make my life a lot easier. Cons It's kind of ugly. The output especially is pretty bad, even using Stata markup log files. I find that colleagues who do not use Stata are a bit off-put by output I send them in plain-text log files, compared to fancier tables/web reports easily generated in SPSS. Even though my workplace is currently paying for it, I am still not a fan of Stata's pricing structure. Alternatives considered [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) Reason for choosing Stata I have been using Stata for years now -- I switched from SPSS to Stata during my graduate program. There is a bit of a stats package prestige issue in academia, and for whatever reason Stata is a bit higher in the rankings than SPSS. That said -- the way a stats program handles various calculations, to me, only seems to matter with higher level analyses (let's say anything beyond regression). In these scenarios I have typically found that Stata handles them better overall than SPSS, including more options and modes of calculation. That said, there are more powerful packages out there depending on the specific analysis/need, such as MPlus for structural equations. That said, most of my work does not require high level statistics. My preference toward Stata really comes down to the fact that I like the scripting language and overall format of the program (look of the main window, and the actual process of "doing" statistics in the program). My prior familiarity with the Stata language also influenced my choice to use Stata. Perhaps most importantly, I find Stata to allow me to do whatever it is I'm trying to do quickly and efficiently, more so than other statistics packages. Switched from [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) Simply because I was given the option and I prefer Stata, having used both. Review Source Response from StataCorp October 7, 2019 Thanks for the feedback! Rafael B. Jefe del departamento de Oceanografia Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Acceptable statistical analysis and inference tool. " May 21, 2018 3.0 Although it is not the software that I normally use, especially due to the deficiencies in its graphical presentation of results, I use it frequently to compare the results it produces, against the results obtained with other software, both commercial and self-developed. This has allowed me, in many cases, to validate the results obtained. Pros Price, that although it is not cheap, if it is competitive with respect to other softwares of similar characteristics. It allows me ample freedom to customize the way of presenting the results obtained, which in general is not the best. The after-sales service is good, with regular updates and an excellent help section. Cons Talking with my students, the cost is accessible to people like me, but it is not for the average student, especially when the licenses must be renewed periodically. If there is something to criticize the program is the way of presenting the data, where there is a lot of improvement field, since the outputs produced by default are of limited quality and presentation, especially if you want to enter a publication. The error code messages are not very useful in order to solve the error. Review Source RM Ryan M. Senior Research Analyst E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Stata is really good for statistical analysis" July 7, 2022 5.0 Stata was really wonderful because it had a really low learning curve and I felt like it was a much better product than SPSS. It was my favorite language until I learned R. R works much better for the work I am doing now but Stata will always have a special place in my heart and I would recommend Stata to anyone who wants to start getting into data analysis but hasn't had a lot of programming training Pros I liked that the syntax of the language was really intuitive. Moving from SPSS to Stata made me feel like I could actually keep track of the code myself. I also loved that there was so much support online Cons Stata was really good for academic data analysis but it didn't meet all of the needs for programming data analysis. The for loops were there but not really intuitive. It was really hard to run a lot of different analyses and then compare them. That is why I say that it is really good if you are running a few analysis for an academic manuscript but I wouldn't run large scale business analyses in it Switched from [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) I was in a class that focused on Regression analysis and my teacher wanted us to learn a new language that specialized in regression. It was a very good move. Review Source Response from StataCorp July 12, 2022 Thank you for your comments. MS Mohammed S. Field Manager Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "one stop shop for all your data analysis needs" July 6, 2021 5.0 As we began consulting on national-scale projects with massive datasets and sophisticated data analysis and reporting needs, it was only normal that we migrate from the equally efficient but less technical alternatives we were using prior. And the great wealth of freely accessible online resources and communities has been the most essential differentiator that separates Stata from other options. Pros Stata provides a comprehensive package of functions that allows us to manage and analyze project research data very efficiently. Particularly with purely statistical functions. Stata also has a very dedicated user community, which translates to extreme ease of getting help when we get stuck. Cons Learning to use Stata was very challenging for me, as someone coming from the significantly less technical alternatives I had been using to that point. I also think product licensing can be improved to make it easier for smaller teams to subscribe at relatively lower costs. Alternatives considered [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) Reason for choosing Stata Stata had a bigger and much more supportive user community, as well as more readily accessible local and online resources. Switched from [Microsoft Excel](https://www.capterra.com/p/176574/Excel/) We needed a more powerful tool to handle the bigger weights of work we had started taking on. Review Source Response from StataCorp July 12, 2021 Thank you for your feedback! UA Umair A. Reseracher Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Stata for Statistical Data Analysis" February 17, 2023 4.0 Stata is a great software for statistical data analysis, especially for researchers and data analysts. However, it requires proper training to learn the formulas. Moreover, it is somehow expensive. Pros It is a great statistical data analysis software with a user-friendly interface. Data can be visualized in a good manner and can be downloaded easily in various formats. Cons It requires proper training for utilizing its maximum functions. Takes time to learn the formulas/codes that sometimes look difficult. Switched from [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) My supervisor suggested me to work on STATA. Review Source XA Xorla A. Executive Director Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great for Academic Research and Mid level professional data work" January 22, 2021 4.0 Before Stata, we were using Excel for almost all of our data work.....mostly because it was free. Switching to Stata however cut down our manual processes drastically; reducing task times by up to 80%. The main issue we ever had was with the product licencing and product access for our team. The response time in resolving the issues weren't as prompt as we would have hoped. Pros The range of functionality in the software, the free training and help resources available online, the ease of creating reports from your work, etc. Cons 1\. The software interface was a bit intimidating for me as a beginner coming from Excel 2. the computer requirements for running the software were rather high, and the devices we had at the time couldn't quite run them smoothly so we had to replace most of them. Switched from [Microsoft Excel](https://www.capterra.com/p/176574/Excel/) Not suited to the nature of work we had moved on to. The volume of work made was simply too much to execute productively with Excel. Review Source DR Daren R. Researcher Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "God bless Stata" November 25, 2020 5.0 Pros Stata is such a flexible stats tool. If the native features don’t work for you, someone has probably created something that will. All you have to do is use the “findit”command. Cons There is a learning curve, and I wonder if I could have learned it on my own as I learned it in grad school. Switched from [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) Stata is less expensive and offers more features and functionality. Review Source JV Julian V. Assistant Professor of Finance Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great software with even better documentation" December 29, 2024 5.0 Stata allows to perform even the most sophisticated statistical analyses with confidence, due to the intuitive and helpful documentation. Pros I like that Stata has one of the most thorough documentations out there, and tremendously supports statistical analyses. Cons I do not like that Stata is - as a software - sometimes a bit slow, especially for large datasets and matrices. Review Source Rahat D. Analyst Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Excellent for econometric analysis." December 18, 2018 5.0 There are some things that Stata does extremely well - the statistics and econometrics in particular. And it does these things reliably and fast, with a good support network. If you're willing to pay for it, performance is even better - using up to 64 cores. But for more general purpose statistical work, R is not only free, but better (even though it is more buggy). Pros This is statistical programming software that is excellent for canned econometric procedures. Reliable and fast, with a huge library of procedures built in, and an even bigger user-contributed library. Online support through the statalist forum is also amazing. It also has a matrix programming language (Mata). The graphics capabilities are also easy to use and very high quality. Has a lot of related features like heatmaps, producing production-quality regression tables, etc. Cons This software is expensive. You're paying for something that is reliable, tried and true, with a great support network. But there are other free options, such as R. Furthermore, while this is excellent for canned statistical and econometric procedures, the programming language itself is not anywhere near as developed as something like R. For example, work with text etc is out of the picture. It is quite un-intuitive for someone coming with a programming background, and has weird quirks - such as only being able to keep on dataset in memory at a time. These issues mean that achieving what could be achieved in 3 lines of code in another language, might take 100s in Stata. Review Source JB Jay B. Project Consultant Public Policy Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Use Stata for Statistical Analysis" June 7, 2024 4.0 Pros Stata's integration with other software, like R and Python, enhances its versatility and utility in diverse analytical workflows. Cons Occasional performance issues with very large datasets can slow down analysis. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Research Assistant Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Stata for Social Research and Beginners" February 3, 2023 5.0 Pros Stata is an excellent program for new sociologists to study data analysis and is used in many universities; thus, I find it to be easy software for statistical beginners. The ease of use, variables, uploading, and extracting data is straightforward and more comprehensible than a few other statistical software. In addition, no matter which computer one has, stata will most likely still be compatible (works with a MacBook). Cons This software is costly, that is, if you are not given access by a university or research company, which provides difficulty in accessibility. In addition, stata does not allow you to put your data into blocks with their titles \[such as in R\], and if you run your data and there is a mistake, it's challenging to figure out and correct where your issue lies. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Guest Teacher Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The best and easiest statistical analysis package" January 28, 2022 5.0 STATA gives you simple and accurate analytics of the impored data set, UI is similiar to SPSS a well known platform for all other analytic works Pros Simple yet strong to handle big data set, data mining and data manipulation, data analytics, and graphical representation. Simple UI, faster language and simplest data importing features make them standalone from other platforms. Cons Language is bit different than others, so switching from others is a difficult task for users. Review Source JK John K. Credit Officer Banking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A data analysis tool like no other in the todays' markets. " October 22, 2022 5.0 We were using the Stata to handle data from entry, cleaning, analysis, and visualization. You are able to handle data from initial stage to the last stage. Pros Data is one of the most useful tool in any business oriented organization. The fact is that, if you ignore the data your business will be headed to fail. You need to understand what people say about your products, understand what are the market trends and where the business is headed. Stata is that tool that will help you analyze any kind of collected data and tabulate it for easier understanding and implementation. It has a great visualization features and with the relevant knowledge you can handle any data despite its size. Cons Although the tool is amazing and I wouldn't like to imply otherwise, you will need statistical and machine language to handle a task end to end. Review Source JM John M. Analyst International Affairs Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Incredibly power big data analysis system that, though difficult to master, provides big results" October 19, 2017 5.0 \-I was able to run trends for my college thesis on domestic and international terrorism growth and attacks. By using stata, I could create cross-time data sets to demonstrate trends in terrorism incidents from my collegiate database. -I also used this system extensively in an advanced statistics class where we ran risk analysis profiles for various companies, looking for inconsistencies between anticipated growth trends and actual trends. We were able to run statistical tests to determine likelihood of certain events and easily determine the margins of error. We analyzed vehicular risk information, health risk information across different states, trends in international fishing companies, etc. -The system is extremely powerful and can give the user strong evidence through analysis. Pros I used STATA SE, which is the large database version for an advanced statistics class extensively in college. As long as your computer has enough memory, STATA can take in vast quantities of data and very quickly provide complex graphs, will perform a variety of modifications for plotting a wide variety of regressions, analyze data from surveys, and will takes a variety of data inputs to use for the processing. STATA can analyze data sets across time, save your progress while you are working, sort and clean data, create dummy variables, and export your results. STATA is a fantastic program for research. Cons Coding the requested commands takes fairly extensive experience and practice. It usually takes upwards of 40 to 50 hours to master without any prior experience in STATA. Performing basic commands is a simple process with a guide, but interpreting the results can be difficult without significant experience with statistics. Review Source Response from StataCorp November 8, 2017 We appreciate the review. Always like hearing from our users! VR Verified Reviewer PhD Researcher Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Powerful data management and analysis software" June 8, 2019 5.0 Stata has been a crucial part of any piece of econometric research or data visualization conducted. High quality and accepted for peer review. Generally helpful online fora. Worth it if you can afford it. Pros Powerful data management and statistical analysis tool. Great graphic generator. Good integration with other software. Cons High degree of difficulty in getting started. Course is recommended. Often unintuitive menu system and layout. Review Source SS SB S. Research Assistant Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Practical and efficient statistical program" November 20, 2018 4.0 Stata is my favorite statiscal program to use, I would highly suggest this program for beginners. Pros Stata is the third statistical analysis software that I have used. It is really great for simple and complex problem solving. Depending on the size of the dataset everything I have done has processed fairly quickly. The help menu is amazing, there are always packages you can download if there is something you need to do that is not already included in the software. The coding is easy to learn, it’s very intuitive. Cons If you are running a multiple imputation then the software takes a very long time to run on a PC. Usually to get the imputation to run you would need a computer with an extremely fast processor. Also, I find it easier to use with a PC versus a Mac. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Investigating Officer Government Administration Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Great for Research Analysis " February 23, 2020 5.0 Stata is by far my favorite statistical tool. It’s like having hundreds of statistical tools at your fingertips. I have used SPSS which I found to be very good, but Stata by far exceeded my expectations. Stata is versatile and can be used by any organization. Pros Stata is great for analyzing large amounts of data for research and analytics purposes. It’s especially suited for quantitative research and analysis. We recently started using Stata at work and the results has been phenomenon. We conducted a survey with a sample size of 250 participants and using Stata, we were able to integrate data management, data analysis, data modelling, and graphical visualization using one single tool. Apart from work, I have also used Stata as a University student when conducting research and handling large data files. Once trained in Stata, it is very easy to comprehend and use. Cons While Stata is great for handling large amounts of data, it may be difficult to use if you are unfamiliar with how it works. This now becomes a very time-consuming process as you now have to learn the system. Also, this can lead to errors in the process and ultimately affect the result of the research. Because I was familiar with the ins and outs of how Stata works, it was quite simple and user friendly for me. However, many of my colleagues who were not familiar with the programme, had great difficulty in using it. Review Source Response from StataCorp February 26, 2020 Thank you for your feedback! VR Verified Reviewer Graduate Teaching Fellow Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "STATA" February 5, 2019 5.0 Pros It is imperative for development economics research. There are both pros and cons to the grid like structure, but often it makes sense and STATA is generally user-friendly. Cons Being constricted by the structure of the software. Often I wish it was more free-form like MATLAB and R. Review Source JM John M. user Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Stata review" June 12, 2022 5.0 Fantastic one of the leading products on the market for stats analysis! Pros One of the best all in one statistical packages available! I just wish it was less command driven - but that is how this product also leads the market! Cons Graphics always so hard to generate - much better recently! Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Ph.D Student Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great tool for statistical analysis " May 30, 2019 5.0 I love using Stata. It has been a great experience as I conduct my research using large datasets. I definitely recommend for researchers who employ a quantitative approach. Pros Stata is great software for researchers. It is very convenient to conduct statistical analysis such as regressions and visualize the results. This software is widely used in academia, thus it is very easy to find tutorials and relevant resources generated by Stata and users. Cons It is not as intuitive as software like SPSS. It is definitely for advanced users who want to do more sophisticated analysis. Writing codes is almost necessary. Review Source SN Steve N. Researcher - professor Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Delighted" October 6, 2017 5.0 I use it almost every day to study many things. As a researcher in economy, it is my duty to try to find correlations between two variables to see if there is some kind of relation than can explain the behavior of the people in an economic context or the evolution of the economy, etc. This tool is fundamental in my PhD. Also, as a assistant professor of econometrics, I teach the students how to use this program, and I must say that some of them find it a little bit difficult to use. But through practise, the majority of them finally learn to use it properly. Pros Almost everything. Although it has minor bugs, the amount of things that this program allows you to do is so extensive that you can quickly forget the mistakes. From simple mathematic operations to big calculations of multiple variables and different types of graphs. Besides, it allows you to save the structure of your work so the next time you have to do the same or similar you don't need to start from scratch. Cons Since it is a program that works using commands that you write on the sheet, you need to take your time to remember all of them. It's not a very big trouble, but still, some people that may not have a very good memory can find this a problem. Review Source Response from StataCorp November 8, 2017 Your feedback is always appreciated! SC Swaty C. Student Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Easy statistical analysis" February 23, 2021 5.0 Excellent product! I like the help feature as well. Everything is explained in the documents provided in help tool Pros I like overall every feature of this software. It has made my work easier, especially regression analysis. Cons Update is installed easily but sometime it take long time to update and create error in analyses. Else I like it! Switched from [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.capterra.com/p/250819/IBM-SPSS-Statistics/) Ease of use Review Source JD Jane D. Assistant Professor Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Statistical Package for Everyday Use" January 7, 2021 5.0 Overall, I really like Stata and I still plan to use it for the majority of my research. Pros I use this package pretty much every single day and for the majority of my research manuscripts. I'll do all of my data management and cleaning as well as my analyses in Stata. The syntax is fairly intuitive and the software is able to handle most advanced statistical techniques. Cons What I like least about the software is that there are certain types of categorical data analysis techniques that cannot be done in Stata. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Graduate Research Assistant Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Favorite software for statistical analysis. " June 25, 2018 5.0 Pros What I like most about this software are the advanced statistical tools you can find in it. Also, you can use as input a large number of data and it will continue working fast. Cons The interface I think could be more user-friendly, sometimes there are some tools that I can not find using the menus. Thanks there are online forums that help you with the commands needed to use most of the tools. Review Source Similar Products Featured