# Base SAS Reviews **Vendor:** SAS Institute Inc. **Category:** [Statistical Analysis Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/statistical-analysis) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 148 ## About Base SAS Base SAS is a comprehensive software suite that provides a flexible and extensible fourth-generation programming language (4GL) designed for data access, transformation, analysis, and reporting. It serves as the foundation of the SAS System, enabling users to manage and analyze data efficiently across various platforms. With its intuitive syntax and extensive library of prewritten procedures, Base SAS simplifies complex data tasks, making it an essential tool for data professionals. Key Features and Functionality: - Intuitive 4GL Programming Language: Offers an easy-to-learn syntax with hundreds of language elements and functions, supporting tasks from data extraction and cleansing to reporting and information delivery. - Rich Library of Integrated Procedures: Provides prewritten procedures for data manipulation, management, information storage, retrieval, and report writing, enhancing productivity by reducing the need for extensive coding. - Powerful Data Analysis Tools: Capable of performing a wide range of analyses, from simple descriptive statistics to advanced data correlation and distribution analysis. - Cross-Platform Support: Runs on all major computing platforms, allowing seamless integration into any computing environment and ensuring code portability across different systems. - Web-Based Interface: Includes SAS Studio, a web-based developer interface that enables access to data files, libraries, and existing programs from any device with a web browser, facilitating coding and data management tasks. Primary Value and Solutions Provided: Base SAS significantly reduces programming and maintenance time by offering an intuitive programming language and a comprehensive set of tools for data management and analysis. It enables organizations to integrate data across diverse environments, ensuring a unified view of information. The software simplifies the creation and distribution of visually appealing reports in various formats, including Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and HTML, catering to the preferred platforms of decision-makers. By providing a robust and scalable solution, Base SAS addresses the challenges of complex data manipulation and reporting, empowering users to derive meaningful insights and make informed decisions. ## Base SAS Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users praise the **ease of use** in Base SAS, highlighting its simple code and user-friendly functions for data manipulation. (16 reviews) - Users appreciate the **coding simplification** in Base SAS, enjoying stability and extensive documentation for efficient troubleshooting. (12 reviews) - Users find the **ease of learning** with Base SAS highly beneficial for managing and analyzing data efficiently. (8 reviews) - Users value the **strong data management capabilities** of Base SAS, enabling efficient data handling and analysis. (7 reviews) - Users appreciate the **performance efficiency** of Base SAS, enabling reliable data management and analysis for large datasets. (6 reviews) - Flexibility (5 reviews) - Users value the **robust data analysis capabilities** of Base SAS, noting its reliability and powerful processing features. (4 reviews) - Ease of Learning (4 reviews) - Useful (3 reviews) - Data Import (2 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find the **complexity of initial setup and syntax** makes Base SAS less user-friendly for newcomers. (5 reviews) - Users find **poor visualization** in Base SAS, making graph generation challenging and requiring prior knowledge to navigate effectively. (5 reviews) - Users experience **slow performance** in Base SAS, making iterations and testing programs frustratingly inefficient. (5 reviews) - Users find that Base SAS has a **learning difficulty** , requiring time investment and prior knowledge for effective use. (4 reviews) - Users find Base SAS **not user-friendly** , especially beginners who struggle with basic tasks and documentation. (3 reviews) - Expensive (2 reviews) - Users find the **limited features** of Base SAS burdensome, often requiring additional tools for advanced visualization. (2 reviews) - Complex Configuration (1 reviews) - Data Management (1 reviews) - Error Clarity (1 reviews) ## Base SAS Reviews ### 1. Perfect for Independent Consultants with Ease of Use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lisa M. | Lead Data Scientist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like the ease of use and the fact that Base SAS is available on the desktop without needing a cloud infrastructure. As an independent consultant, setting up a cloud infrastructure doesn't make sense for just one person, so having it on desktop is perfect. The initial setup was pretty straightforward, and Base SAS meets all my needs for data cleaning, reporting, and data visualization. Additionally, it's a valuable tool for clinical trials and prepping data and outputs for submission. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I dislike the cost. Too expensive for a one person shop. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS for data cleaning, reporting, and visualization. It's great for clinical trials and prepping data for submission. The ease of use and availability on my desktop without a cloud infrastructure are huge benefits. ### 2. Facilitates Seamless Data Integration, Ideal for Analytics **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Flint C. | Marketing Manager - VBM, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like that Base SAS can facilitate putting different tools together from a data standpoint. It also facilitates data movement and reformatting, which is really helpful. Data access is particularly effective because they offer different 'plugins' to facilitate reading data from various sources, or I can program the access from scratch. Additionally, the initial setup of Base SAS was easy. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Giving access plug-ins for all data types like what is in Viya would be helpful. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I solve just about any problem with Base SAS. I like how it facilitates data movement and reformatting, and integrates different tools from a data standpoint. Data access is effective, with plugins for different data sources or custom access programming. ### 3. Effortless Data Handling with Base SAS **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nitish J. | Lead Statistical Analyst, Research, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2024 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like Base SAS because of its simple programming way and intuitive UI. It's also impressive how it can handle large datasets with minimal time. The initial setup was simple too. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The GUI feature can be improved, looping code is not collapsible and for some analysis it may take some time if the data is present on a different server. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS solves data-related problems like poorly structured data and helps analyze data distribution. It excels in handling large datasets swiftly and provides a straightforward programming experience. ### 4. Reliable and Easy to Use, with Smooth Code Updates **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Devices | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I love the ease of use and reliability of the software. I can always depend on it to work the way I want. It's easy to update code, whenever I want. Whenever I don't know how to do something, it is very dependable to call customer support and find an answer. I know SAS will never disappear since what is available is always evolving. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I wish it were a bit more visual—for example, highlighting functions that may have been misspelled, color-coding different functions, and similar cues. It would also be helpful if it could automatically direct me to any errors, warnings, or potential issues. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** With the variety of functions available, I’m able to drive process improvements and explore the innovative ideas that come my way. I rarely have to say no—there’s almost always a way to meet requests and find a workable solution. ### 5. One Platform to Process and Analyze Data Sources Faster **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David Anthony G. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Not having to use multiple applications to process and analyze data. Having the ability to process and analyze various data sources (e.g. flat files, MS Excel, MS Access, AWS Redshift (S3)) reduced operational and processing time. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The downside for me was using 9.4 with cloud services and integrating Open Source technology. At the time I was finally able to work with cloud data sources, but I was unsuccessful on the Open Source side. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS allowed me to calculate CMS Medication Adherence Quality Measures. Using Macros, Data step, and proc sql made it possible. ### 6. Legacy Code Sharing Enhances Efficiency, Setup Needs Improvement **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Annetta S. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like that Base SAS allows users to share legacy code that is proven and validated, which helps make completing projects faster as they don’t have to recreate the wheel. I also enjoy the user flexibility with data sources and the base SAS knowledge. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Base install, security patch update could be way easier to install. Not have to convert the data to native SAS to do analytics could be easier **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS for credit risk models, call center staffing, and big data analytics. ### 7. Advance Data Transformation and ETL tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Satish R. | Application Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 03, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Base SAS gives you very user-friendly interface along with its own language to Extract, Transform and Load the data from various sources. What I like best about Base SAS is its ability to efficiently manage, clean, and analyze large datasets. It provides a robust set of procedures and DATA step programming that makes data manipulation, summarization, and reporting straightforward and reliable. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** One of the main drawbacks I’ve noticed is that the initial setup can be somewhat complex for new users. Another limitation I find with Base SAS is that its syntax tends to be rather rigid and verbose, especially when compared to more modern programming languages. Additionally, it lacks some of the advanced visualization and interactive features found in other tools, so creating complex dashboards often requires the use of additional software. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS is an effective tool for managing and analyzing large datasets. It enables me to clean, transform, and summarize data swiftly, which simplifies the process of generating accurate reports and insights. This efficiency not only saves time but also minimizes errors and contributes to more informed decision-making. ### 8. Versatile Tool with Broad Compatibility, Almos None Limitations **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bartosz J. | Sr. SAS Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like that Base SAS works on almost any computer and doesn’t require a big server like Viya. It’s also very easy to set up on Windows. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** There is no SAS/ACCESS to DuckDB. The FCMP procedure does not support hash tables in full. SAS Packages Framework is not supported out of the box. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS for building SAS Packages and teaching SAS. It solves almost all my problems without needing a big server like Viya, and it works on almost any computer. ### 9. Comprehensive Review of Base SAS: Features, Applications, and Performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Neeraj D. | Application Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** What I appreciate most about Base SAS is how it simplifies and organizes data work. It streamlines the process of cleaning, sorting, and analyzing large datasets, making it much less confusing. The commands are straightforward, and after grasping the fundamentals, I find it easy to generate useful reports and results efficiently. It not only saves time but also helps minimize errors when managing data. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I dislike about Base SAS is that it often feels somewhat outdated when compared to more modern data tools. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS helps solve problems related to handling and analyzing large amounts of data. It makes it easy to clean, sort, and combine data from different sources. This saves a lot of time and reduces errors that can happen when doing the same work manually. It also helps in generating accurate reports and insights, which supports better decision-making ### 10. Base SAS: Robust but Time-Consuming Data Analysis **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** sandeep g. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I use Base SAS for analysis, data management, and clinical trials. I find it useful for creating tables and doing predictive analysis. I appreciate using Spark SQL, as it's the first programming language I used and it's easy to use. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It's been very difficult to find the options for exporting or importing Excel files, especially when they have special characters. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS for data analysis and clinical trials, including creating tables and doing predictive analysis. ### 11. Decent Tool, Needs Better Code Editing Features **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hailin Y. | Senior Research Scientist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I find running SAS code beneficial for generating TLFs for clinical trials. The initial setup of Base SAS was very easy, which was a positive experience. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I don't like that there is no code auto-correct or completion in Base SAS. Also, it's hard to switch the default to open a SAS code program and sometimes requires administrator permission. I hope it’s easier to switch. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS for writing codes to generate TLFs for clinical trials. ### 12. Effortless Coding, Great Data Processing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kaiyun (Kaylee) K. | Economist II, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like how easy the coding is with Base SAS and appreciate that the SAS SQL is nice. The initial setup was easy too, which is always a plus. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Base SAS is limited with SAS table. Can use with other formats of table. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS helps solve pricing-related business problems by pulling and processing data. I like the easy coding and SAS SQL features. ### 13. Reliable Data Cleaning and Reporting with Base SAS **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Maria A. | Public Health Technician **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I find Base SAS to be a great product for our surveillance project in Laredo, Texas. I use it to clean our data and run reports for missing or inconsistent data. I value the import and export features. Everything works well. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** n/a **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Base SAS to clean our data and run reports for missing or inconsistent data. ### 14. Best Software for Data Analysis and Statistical Visualization **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Deqing P. | Biostatistician, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Best software for Data analysis and stat visualization **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I like it and no complaints about it, very good **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Analysis ### 15. Great for workflow **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Larry L. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like the integration with other tools such as SQL, Python, and R **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** No suggestions. I have not had any challenges with the product. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it for data storage through SAS libraries. We also use it for data querying and reporting ### 16. Outstanding Flexibility to Code Anything You Need **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stacie D. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** The flexibility to code whatever I want is outstanding. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Learning the SAS language was difficult. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed something that would allow more robust statistical analysis than what exists in Excel or Access. ### 17. Easy to Use with Great Customer Service **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alonzo O. | Public Health Technician, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It’s ease of use. And costumer service. I have had great experiences **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I dislike the learning curve to use this software **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is helping us with our data analysis ### 18. Easy to Learn, Powerful Tools for Handling Large Data **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shannon M. | Senior Systems Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Ease in learning, powerful tools, ease of using large data **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I wish there was warnings for merges without a by **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Case control matching, analytics ### 19. Clear Visuals and Easy-to-Follow Learning Directions **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alexandra C. | Graduate Research Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Clear visual, easy directions for learning **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** not as common in my field, sometimes may need to learn additional tools. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** healthcare prediction modeling ### 20. Rock-Solid for Regulated Industries Like Pharma **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Olamide A. | Statistical Programmer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** SAS Base is incredibly reliable when it comes to handling large datasets. The DATA step and PROC SQL give you so much control and flexibility, and once you get the hang of it, you realize how powerful it really is for data manipulation, cleaning, and reporting. I also like that it's been around for a long time—it’s stable, well-documented, and widely trusted in regulated industries like healthcare and banking **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The syntax has a learning curve, especially if you're coming from R or Python. It’s also a bit outdated in terms of modern IDE features, unless you're using something like SAS Studio or integrating it with VS Code. Licensing costs can be a hurdle for small organizations or individual learners, too. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS helps me manage, clean, and transform large volumes of data efficiently—especially in clinical research settings where data accuracy and traceability are critical. It simplifies complex programming tasks and ensures that outputs are reproducible and audit-ready, which is essential in regulatory submissions. By automating routine data steps and report generation, it saves a lot of manual effort and reduces the risk of errors. It’s also reliable for merging datasets, handling missing values, and performing statistical summaries quickly and accurately. ### 21. SAS Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Cosmetics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Windowing environment. Flexible code, ability to use SQL. Ability to create macros to drive automations. Extensive documentation **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Wish it had dark mode. Have had trouble getting support in terms of understanding our use cases **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Automating data and reporting processes to enhance efficiency and accuracy ### 22. Versatile Data Connectivity Across Many Sources **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Ability to read from and write to a variety of data sources. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Difficult to trouble shoot connectivity issues to third party databases. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data analysis where the data is at different levels across multiple different data sources. ### 23. Easy to Use, Highly Customizable, and Packed with Product Variety **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** ease of use; variety of products; options to customize **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** error messages are not always clear/useful in determining what and/or the issue is **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** consolidating data and identifying trends; highlighting problem areas and potential solutions ### 24. Clear, Clutter-Free UI That’s Effortless to Use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Clear and clutter free User interface and ease of use **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I guess the viya sas visual analytics not being available **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it to make sense of data ### 25. Accurate Results, but the Tool Is Hard to Use and Needs Smarter Syntax Help **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consulting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Theaccuracy of the statistical result and the documentation **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Hard to use and not too much AI have the 100% correct syntax **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** The statistical analysis part of HEOR ### 26. Easy to Use with Powerful SAS/ACCESS Engines **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Enjoy the ease of use and the SAS/ACCESS engines **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The patching process. Not having an updated hotfix to resolve current CVE’s **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Big data and modeling ### 27. Costly Subscription and Outdated Feel Despite Server-Based File Handling **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ishita P. | Senior Quantitative Modeling Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It’s connected to server, so easy to handle/operate large files **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The subscription is costly and it’s outdated **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Not solving anything at the moment. My organization has shifted everything to Puthon ### 28. Ultimate Solution for Data Manipulation and Management **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2026 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Ultimate solution for data manipulation and data management **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Nothing ro mention here other than complex setup **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Complex data analysis and data management ### 29. Base SAS Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patel Y. | Statistical Programmer - III, Pharmaceuticals, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** There is no feedback available while accessing application, which makes it so much helpful especially when we want to gain confidence on our programming skills. In addition, this software is so much fast as it doesn't contain much features to access in it. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Nonetheless, its an base version so all the cool features of latest SAS applications would not be available, still there is nothing to dislike about SAS. Its like a saying "Old is Gold". **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** In order to apply statistics or apply some conditions, we need to write every word manually, there are no suggestions popping up at every action we do in it, Ultimately this action has helped me in perfecting my programming knowledge and logic followed by achieving confidence on myself. ### 30. leveraging older skills **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William S. | Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** it is the product I learned to use SAS with. I thought this was the ONLY sas for years. It handles data and data management better than any other product I have used. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It doesn't get the latest tools and now seems like it's taking a back seat to many of the other products sas is producing. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it in teaching econometrics, forecasting, programming, and it is really good at teaching students to think in a 'programmatic' process. Although it takes a bit to get up to speed on the language, it's not as difficult as R or Python for new users, and its language sounds more 'English' than programming, which makes it a good fit for beginners. ### 31. Superior software for data analysis. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stacie D. | Statistician and Research Coordinator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 28, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Base SAS is easy to learn, very useful for data analysis, and easily customizable. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** As long as you know sql, you can't go wrong with Base SAS. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS is our company's go to software for all data analysis, data cleaning and manipulation, and it has enabled us to visualize our data and make accurate predictions. ### 32. Review of SAS Base **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sriya V. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It’s very easy to use and there’s a lot of resources to learn it **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Sometimes it runs pretty slow and inefficiently **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS is helping me complete my classes and do research in my field ### 33. SAS as a programing language **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Cassandra B. | Director Clinical Quality Analytics, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I learned how to program in BASE so, it is the most familiar. It can allow for cleaning of data which can allow you to go on to do better things with your data. It also allows me to learn how the programing language acutally works - like how it goes from one row to another. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It is not very user friendly for those who are just starting out. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is helping me clean and process my data for my job. We have been able to predict health conditions and work to get patients with the right member help when they need it. ### 34. Great **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Duha K. | Course Collaboration Leader - Data Science Academy, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** easy to pick up on, great for statistical analysis **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It’s Not always intuitive, you sometimes need to spend some time doing research in documentation **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Homework and class assignments in statistics ### 35. 10 Year old code still works **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chary A. | Senior Biostatistician, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** The consistency. My code from ten years ago still works while I always have problems with my R or python codes due to the packages being updated. The continuous updates and improvements of my SAS platform brought new capabilities while my written codes, especially my macro function catalog, stayed stable and consistent. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** the windowing interface, but I solved this using the enterprise guide as my coding interface. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** code stability and consistency. Accurate and precise results no matter how many times the base SAS being updated. ### 36. Base SAS benefits **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Betsy A. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like the ability to create from a blank slate. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Troubleshooting is difficult. If I run into code that's not working, then I'm on my own. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS helps us to analyze complex sets of data in the banking industry. Our data sets seem to be unusually complicated due to our organization being immature in the lifecycle of building an enterprise data warehouse. SAS helps us get our arms around the problems that this immature process generates. ### 37. Base SAS is Easy to Learn and Use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Meryl C. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Base SAS was my first introduction to coding software. I love using base SAS for any analyses or basic visualizations that I need. I've also had great success with contacting my customer support agents in case of any questions. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** As SAS starts to push Viya, I feel like there is less support provided for base SAS users. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Base SAS helps me to manage and analyze large datasets. ### 38. Review after base programming cert and learning in school for about a year. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Thomas G. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** The ability to quickly get insights from large datasets, and the ability to clean ugly and incomplete datasets rather easily. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** I don't love the style/syntax, but that is just personal preference. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Have a dataset that I can't just open and look at, and I am able to quickly clean and extract the important information. ### 39. Getting the job done! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** margaret a. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It's very user friendly and when there are errors in the code, it's easy to identify where the error is **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Easy to ID errors in code in order to fix and get your code to run **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ease of working with large data is what Base SAS asissts with. ### 40. Quick and efficient way to manipulate/prepare data **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Enrique G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Ease of use and ability to immediately start programming/coding; no need to download additional peripheral software. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** The options to generate images/figures are quite limited so other programs, like R, are necessary to generate more intricate designs **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Formatting/cleaning up data that we must read in to analyze ### 41. SAS is powerful **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** KODJO S. | Quantitative Pricing Analyst , Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 11, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** After 8 years of experience with SAS, I recognize that this tool is the most powerful in its category. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** SAS is too expensive for businesses. This is the main drawback of SAS at the moment. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** This tool is very easy to use. The entry cost is not huge compared to other tools. ### 42. Very useful and documented enterprise software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Has a lot of documentation for all the procedures that easily let us troubleshoot and develop new functionalities. Pretty efficient with well defined data. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Some of the datatypes can be clunky to debug. Especially when the column names are raw and not well defined. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use to clean and filter data and develop models to communicate insights. This combined with the security features and product support makes it an ideal tool for enterprises engaged in data analytics. ### 43. Base SAS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hongyu L. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It has been a very reliable and powerful analytic tool for drug development data processing. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** some procedures were too complicated to use, comparing with some other similar tools. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Process the data and produce the report from the data. ### 44. Dependable and longevity tested software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Devices | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Tried and true, it always works without fail as expected to do powerful data processing and can build datasets as wanted and needed to setup for statistical analysis. Of course, also can perform statistical analysis as needed using PROCs. Appreciate being able to run on PC without internet connected, if needed. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** none really, graphing can be tricky and some user knowledge and experience required before use **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Building analysis-ready datasets, performing analysis. ### 45. So easy to use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Donna L. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** It's easy to use. Coding is pretty simple. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Downside, I don't realize how much more you can do til I watch the sas learning videos! **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows me to analyze data quickly ### 46. Straight Forward and useful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrea L. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** I like the raw coding aspect. I'm pretty barebones **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Sometimes could use more information on errors **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Looking customer data in many ways and providing reports in many formats and forms. ### 47. Quick and powerful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hugh W. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Base SAS runs quickly and has the needed power for data manipulation and analysis. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Very little frills compared to modern interfaces **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Gathering and manipulating data to run queries for abakysis ### 48. It is a great product for new users **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** xuezhe W. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Quick to learn and detail manuals and instruction **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It runs long time for big datasets and hope it has more functions **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Help analyze the data and report patterns and utilization ### 49. Statistical programmer generating sdtm, Adam data, and table, listings, and figures **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Fang Jia C. | Biostatistical Programming Senior Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Easy to use to manipulate data, such as merging, viewing etc. **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** It is somewhat difficult to generate graphs. **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Generate SDTM and ADaM datasets, and TFLs for clinical trail submissions. ### 50. Great using SAS to data analysis **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ravi R. | Sr Manager Statistical Programming, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Base SAS?** Helps data mining and integration and provide updates as needed to met with current standards **What do you dislike about Base SAS?** Nothing off about SAS since it’s really great tool **What problems is Base SAS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Perform data submission ## Base SAS Discussions - [What is the difference between SAS and SAS Enterprise Guide?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-difference-between-sas-and-sas-enterprise-guide) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [What is Base SAS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/base-sas-what-is-base-sas-used-for) - 1 comment - [Who uses SAS software?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/who-uses-sas-software) - 2 comments - [What is SAS platform?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sas-platform) - 1 comment - [What is Base SAS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-base-sas-used-for) - 1 comment - [View Base SAS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/base-sas/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-11+10%3A23%3A44+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c711ca78-0b6e-40fa-bb20-4d5d75931c21&secure%5Btoken%5D=e2a0fcbe2cdedd86724256e7ca2e2c6fff4c701875e9c25c7e647d4af18af71a&format=llm_user) ## Base SAS Integrations - [REDCap](https://www.g2.com/products/redcap/reviews) ## Base SAS Features **Administration** - Quality Control - Data Sampling - Collaboration **Capabilities** - Data Visualization - Survival Analysis - Risk Data Attributes - Cost Analysis **Methodology** - ANOVA Support - Regression - Time Series Analysis **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization ## Top Base SAS Alternatives - [IBM SPSS Statistics](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-spss-statistics/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (893 reviews) - [Posit Team](https://www.g2.com/products/posit-team/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (563 reviews) - [eviews](https://www.g2.com/products/eviews/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (111 reviews)