5 Reasons Executives are

Switching from Alteryx to KNIME

As the landscape of data analytics and AI continues to evolve

rapidly, executives must stay vigilant in selecting platforms

that deliver positive ROI and align with their organization’s

goals and priorities. They need to be prepared to let go of old

approaches that no longer keep up with their needs and bring

in those that truly provide strategic advantage.

KNIME, the open source no-code low-code platform for

end-to-end data science offers executives a compelling

choice that not only meets their current needs but ensures

adaptability and scalability for future growth and innovation.

In this guide, we will explore why teams choose KNIME so you

can make an informed decision about the future shape of your

data science capabilities.

1. Analytic breadth and
depth for your organization
Switching to KNIME means you get more analytic breadth and depth

than most other tools.

People tend to start using KNIME with a particular use case in mind

such as automating repetitive spreadsheet manipulation or analyzing

text. However, as they cross over into new territory such as geospatial

data analysis, image mining, and generative AI, they quickly realize

that KNIME seamlessly accommodates all of these needs with its

depth and breadth of coverage.

Let’s look at this in detail.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 3

Getting the data you need

The success of many data projects relies on quick adjustments

to changes in data repositories and the availability of new data

sources. One of the most useful features of KNIME Analytics

Platform is its versatility to connect easily to a wide variety of data

sources, from local file types on your hard drive, to databases, to

remote files on the cloud.

Because it’s open source, KNIME will consistently integrate any

new types of data sources, ensuring that your analyses are future-

proof. In addition to connecting to any data source, KNIME also lets

you work with any type of data – strings, integers, images, text,

networks, audio, molecules, and more.

Intuitive enough for business users,

sophisticated enough for data experts
KNIME gives users access to a complete range of analytic

techniques, from automating repetitive ETL tasks to accessing all

popular machine learning libraries like TensorFlow, Keras, and H2O

to build advanced models.

Users can choose to use any of these techniques without writing

any code, or integrate their favorite scripting language. You also

have the choice of using a generative AI assistant to get guidance

on building analyses or have them automatically built by AI based on

your instructions.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 4

How do you keep data scientists
happy?

In 73% of organizations data science teams are mostly,

if not completely, centralized. That means one data

science team is usually responsible for supporting all

data science-related projects across the organization.

The burden is therefore on these data scientists to solve

all data problems in the organization.

With data science skills being both scarce and

expensive, how do you ensure that your data experts

remain happy and satisfied?

The answer is by enabling them to focus on what they

do best — solving data analysis problems using their

favorite scripting language.

KNIME’s scripting support is valuable for individuals who

have a strong background in scripting languages like R,

Python, or JavaScript. Despite being a no-code low-

code tool, KNIME enables data scientists to leverage

their programming skills within the KNIME environment.

Instead of forcing and locking them into a proprietary

solution, KNIME’s integrative data science environment

allows different technologies to be combined and

enables the experts to collaborate, including by adding

custom scripting to workflows.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 5

For example, if a data scientist is proficient in Python, they can

easily write snippets of code that can be embedded into a workflow.

If they are a more experienced Python coder or have written Python

libraries, they can package these and build a no-code front-end

in KNIME for their team or even the broader community to use.

Developing Python-based KNIME extensions means that they can

build KNIME nodes that package the capabilities of a Python library

that they built or want to use. To end users, they can only choose

to show the parameters that need to be configured in the node

dialogue. In this way, it is very easy to make Python capabilities

accessible to everyone.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 6

The low-code advantage for data experts

While scripting is unarguably powerful, starting with a low-code

platform allows data experts to focus on actually doing data science

from day one.

With low-code, users don’t waste time learning how to stitch together

different libraries or technologies.They can use the low-code

environment to eliminate the need to be software developers. They use

code (or low-code) for their statistical or AI/ML models but then don’t

worry about the underlying technologies for the rest of the work like

accessing and preparing data, then ultimately integrating, deploying,

and monitoring.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 7

GenAI to speed up mundane work

Experienced data scientists can also use KNIME’s generative AI

assistant to speed up the repetitive aspects of analysis. They can

use K-AI as a peer to automatically generate workflows with a chat

in plain English and take over when the analysis gets interesting.

They can also rely on K-AI for guidance and recommendations

when they get stuck while tackling a new technique or discipline.

K-AI also has text-to-code translation capabilities and can create

Python scripts and Apache ECharts visualizations based on prompts

to assist data scientists.

Additionally, with KNIME’s AI extension

that connects to cutting edge AI models

provided by OpenAI, Hugging Face Hub

and GPT4ALL, they can build their own

assistant for their specific use cases or

enhance their workflows with AI.

Ultimately, KNIME gives users all the

tools needed to make sense of data

in one toolbox — the ability to create

analyses of any complexity level

without code, the choice to work in

any scripting language, access to all

relevant data sources, and to every

relevant analytic library or technique.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 8

2. Benefit from the power
of open source
Open-source platforms are transparent, highly customizable, and

extensible. KNIME operates without a black box. Its workflows

consist of nodes that handle specific tasks, and the source code is

publicly accessible. In today’s technology ecosystem littered with

AI-based tools, it’s hard for organizations to know what decisions

a software vendor is making on their behalf. With KNIME, you can

inspect and audit the source code to gain a full understanding of

how your data is treated.

Open source also means that you do not have to worry about a

product being discontinued or being pushed to more expensive

commercial editions.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 9

Most importantly, an open and integrative environment is necessary for

organizations to stay on the bleeding edge of innovation and be ready

for the future.

After all, do you know what kind of data you will want to analyze in

a few years? Do you know which tools will be available and what the

newest trends will be? An open environment will allow you to add any

new data sources, formats, and analysis technologies to the mix quickly.

Customize and extend capabilities based

on your needs
KNIME’s open-source and customizable nature empowers users

with the freedom to extend the platform according to their needs

and preferences. Whether it’s a specific data preprocessing step, a

novel machine learning algorithm, or a visualization technique, users

can extend KNIME’s functionality to address their specific analytical

challenges.

The dynamic open-source community surrounding KNIME also

consistently creates and shares extensions, widening the platform’s

capabilities beyond those found in closed-source alternatives. These

include a wide variety of community-contributed extensions for

specialized tasks like sentiment analysis, text mining, and network

analysis. These extensions augment KNIME’s functionality and provide

solutions for diverse use cases.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 10

The KNIME Community Hub serves as a centralized repository

where users can share these extensions, workflows, nodes, and

components, creating a rich library of resources that the community

can benefit from. This collaborative environment allows users to build

upon each other’s work and rapidly adapt to evolving data science

challenges.

Moreover, KNIME regularly engages with users on the KNIME forum,

hosts Q&As with the product team, and holds user meetups and

conferences to ensure that the platform evolves in alignment with

user feedback and meets their needs.

Stay on the bleeding edge of innovation

Openness means that the platform is often the first to integrate any

new technological breakthrough. When new technology becomes

available and even omnipresent the way that GenAI has, the platform

can easily be extended and adapted to work with those technologies.

KNIME has integrated every “AI” type technology as it’s become

available – data mining, machine learning, deep learning, and now,

Gen AI.

In contrast to closed-source platforms that may have constraints

and tie users to the company’s development schedule, KNIME users

experience unparalleled flexibility and innovation.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 11

In fact, according to an ESG survey, more than 88% organizations

cite being open source as critical for innovation, and over 25%

consider compatibility with open source technologies one of the

most important criteria to consider when making purchases, likely

foreshadowing a larger open source trend going forward.

Business impact Technical complexity

(i.e., projects with highest potential (i.e., projects with highest
business impact) technical complexity)

Time to market Resource availability

(i.e., projects with shortest (i.e., projects that can be
time to market) completed with available resources)

Customer feedback Executive leadership

(i.e., projects that address (i.e., priorities are dictated by
customer feedback) the executive leadership team)

88%
of organizations agree that open source is
critical to innovation in data science and
marchine learning.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 12

3. No barrier to entry
Access data science regardless
of background
Research indicates that the use of analytics within

organizations has remained stagnant at approximately

25% of all employees, reflecting minimal growth

for more than a decade. This is largely due to the

complexity of analytics platforms and the extensive

training needed to master them.

KNIME offers a visual low-code, no-code environment

that enables anyone, regardless of their background,

to easily engage in and upskill on data science.

Its intuitive interface allows users to construct

analytics workflows by simply connecting pre-built

nodes, with each node representing a specific data

processing or analysis task. This eliminates the

need for extensive coding, making it possible for

individuals with diverse backgrounds, from supply

chain specialists to accountants, to participate in data

analysis without the necessity of learning complex

programming languages.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 13

An AI-powered guiding hand for
faster upskilling

KNIME’s AI assistant makes it easier for beginners to build workflows

from scratch. They can either chat with it to get guidance or

instructions on how to build a workflow or they can use it to create

workflows based on their prompts.

Learning resources and an active

community to lean on
KNIME offers plenty of online courses that teach users how to use

low-code for any data task. Users can also validate their knowledge

with an on demand, industry recognized certification.

KNIME’s active and vibrant community is another rich resource that

helps new users upskill faster. Users can upskill through the vast

knowledge base of the community by using community-built analytics

blueprints and asking questions on the forum. Instead of starting with

a blank slate, users can download the freely available blueprints and

make their own customizations as they become familiar with the tool.

Providing plenty of ready-made examples helps users get started

with data analytics platforms quickly and confidently. It encourages

exploration and experimentation without the fear of starting from

scratch, allowing users to create more advanced workflows faster.

There are no limits to the level of mastery users can achieve: ETL,

automated reports, data apps, AI/ML, all without the need to code.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 14

4. Enterprise-grade scalability
Collaborate at scale
Enterprises are still struggling to get a lot out of their data, and this is,

at least in part, due to the silos between data and domain expert teams,

as well as the burden on data scientists to solve all data problems in the

organization. By creating a common, intuitive language between the two

teams and giving domain experts more powerful data tools, organizations

can start to remedy these issues.

KNIME serves as this common language that facilitates collaboration

and knowledge-sharing among various stakeholders involved in data

analytics initiatives — data scientists, data engineers, business analysts,

and line-of-business users. At the same time, it enables more such

stakeholders to self-sufficiently engage with data. It allows Python

experts, ML engineers, and other technical experts to share their work as

features non-experts can later access and reuse.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 15

It also enables teams of people with similar experience to easily work

on the same project, building on each other’s developments by letting

them easily share, version-control, and see what’s being done to data

at each step.

Deploy at scale
Data teams still encounter significant technical and bureaucratic

obstacles when attempting to scale their insights effectively. A common

issue is the transfer of analysis results to separate environments, leading

to friction, delays, and increased risk of errors.

KNIME offers a consistent, repeatable path to deployment by making the

results of analysis available for end users to consume through dashboards

or data apps, or making them available as APIs for integration with a third-

party tool. And it lets you deploy data science outcomes in the same no-

code/low-code environment where the analysis was performed.

1. Click on the title with the name of your 2.The Data App opens in a
deployment to run its respective Data App new browser page

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 16

Through its integrated deployment process, KNIME simplifies the capture

of preprocessing, preparation steps, models, and analyses for reuse

in production environments. Moreover, KNIME facilitates large-scale

productionization of data science by providing all the infrastructure

appropriate for the testing, validation, deployment, and monitoring of

models.

KNIME’s integrated deployment capabilities give organizations

the true value data science can provide – continuously adjusting

to new requirements and data, applicable to new or variations of

existing problems, and providing new insights that have profound

impact on our business.

All capabilities available in a unified platform

If you don’t pick a platform that supports all types of users and use

cases, you’ll end up buying more tools and trying to fit them together,

making it harder to reach your data and AI goals.

KNIME offers a unified platform that can be used by everyone whether

they are business users or data experts and can support all types of

data analysis use cases. It provides a single environment for advanced,

domain-specific, and basic ETL tasks as well as secure productionization

of those tasks.

This reduces software costs for businesses and boosts overall data

literacy among employees, enabling them to extract valuable insights

from data more effectively.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 17

Investing in a platform that does cover the entire

data science life cycle, when the time is ripe, sets

the stage for future ambitions.

5. Lower total cost

of ownership (TCO)
An open source platform like KNIME helps keep

TCO low, but equally importantly, it makes upskilling

everybody in the organization feasible because they

can all start with the open-source platform. Low

start-up costs are essential to getting buy-in across

an organization before investing in features that

support large-scale data science productionisation.

KNIME offers plenty of flexible options depending

on how and when you want to scale up.

Anyone can use the free KNIME Analytics Platform

on their desktop for as long as they like. If and when

they feel the need to collaborate in small teams and

automate the running of their workflows, they can

get a subscription to the paid SaaS Team plan on

KNIME Community Hub.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 18

Once there are large quantities of employees on both sides of the

business using the KNIME Analytics Platform, organizations can

choose to upgrade to KNIME Business Hub, to enable large (or small)

scale deployment of analytics as REST APIs or Data Apps in a secure,

governed environment.

KNIME and Alteryx: Choosing

the right platform for your needs
With its intuitive interface, open source nature, extensive library of algorithms

and extensions, and the ability to integrate with programming languages like

Python and R, KNIME is a complete solution for data workers of all levels of

expertise. Whether you want to handle basic data processing tasks or build

complex deep learning models, KNIME helps you get the job done.

Here’s a quick look at why KNIME might be the better choice for you

compared to Alteryx:

Why KNIME Alteryx Limitations

No barrier to entry: build workflows with KNIME Analytics Cost to use the platform after trial period ends, plus
Platform completely for free additional costs for advanced features

Offers the most complete range of advanced analytic

Compromised flexibility for ease-of-use
techniques available

Open source allows users to access and enhance source Fewer analytic techniques available due to limited
codeaccount mapping support machine learning capabilities

Open platform means all latest and greatest technology

Fewer data types & data sources supported
is accessible through KNIME

Consistent visual programming environment for building Closed source confines speed of innovation and
and deploying data science solutions community growth

Tools to define and automate a custom ModelOps process

Limited deployment capabilities
to scale the validation, testing & deployment of models

Comes with a large, active community with a common Community can’t easily extend or access the latest
goal to push data science forward technology because of proprietary restrictions
Learn more about
transitioning from Alteryx
to KNIME
The decision to migrate is not just about seeking change; it’s about

embracing a solution that keeps pace with innovation and allows

everyone in the organization to make data-driven decisions.

That’s why it’s crucial to adopt analytics tools that make working

with data intuitive for everyone. When you let people focus on what

truly matters, everyone can work with data at their level of expertise.

This is when you’ll truly see data analytics investments making a

difference for your enterprises.

Ready to start transitioning?

Here’s an ebook that maps the most commonly used Alteryx functions
and techniques to their KNIME equivalents.

Take a look at this Alteryx to KNIME cheat sheet to speed up your

transition.

5 Reasons Executives are Switching from Alteryx to KNIME 20