# Igor Pro Reviews **Vendor:** WaveMetrics **Category:** [Statistical Analysis Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/statistical-analysis) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 21 ## About Igor Pro Scientific and engineering data analysis solution that automates creation of graphs, image and data processing. ## Igor Pro Reviews ### 1. Long time user **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Timothy M. R. | Test Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** The simple programming language is easy to use but very powerful and useful. The built-in functions are very useful and have allowed me to do things that I was unable to do with other data programs I was using. I have used Igor since the 90's on both Apple and PC platforms. I wholeheartedly recommend Igor. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** It would be nice if I could use industry standard symbols. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** I fully recommend Igor. When I changed jobs I insisted on the new company getting Igor for me to use. I am sure you will appreciate Igor as much as I have. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used Igor to analyze thermal structural data, water purity data, clean room data, thermal testing data, seal leakage data and clean room usage data. As a test engineer I have found that Igor has allowed me to quickly graph and analyze the data from my tests. ### 2. Igor Pro is a Software Package Built for Scientists **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Raea H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 25, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Quality of graphs; ability to acquire and analyze data; scripting ability. User-friendly and easy for beginner programmers to learn. Igor Pro is convenient in that it does not require the user to choose an external environment to use it. Program macros are color-coded and show the user where compilation problems occur. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Feels clunky at times; relatively unknown among other programmers. At last use, the grep function did not return the leftover part of the parsed string, complicating matters for string analyses of chemical formula.s **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** If you want a tidy package to store data and share methods with others, then this is your software. Igor Pro makes some of the most enviable graphs in the industry. Choose Igor Pro over Excel for scientific analyses. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used Igor Pro for complex scientific analysis problems as well as for anything simple that is achievable in Excel. In addition to data analysis, Igor Pro allows for data acquisition, which is useful for building instrumentation where the user is to analyze the data on the instrument shortly after it is acquired (e.g. field studies; calibration). Igor Pro benefits from a strong online user community and responsiveness of the developers. Igor Pro's reputation for excellent graph quality is well-deserved. ### 3. Igor Pro: analysis and visualization of large data sets **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Fabio B. | Assistant Professor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Igor Pro allows efficient analysis of large multidimensional data sets. Contrary to other analysis software, Igor allows direct visualization of large datasets (1D, 2D, and 3D). Plotting tools and procedures offer a wide variety of ways to plot and visualize complex data. The possibility to write your own procedures allows wide customization of the software as well as a great platform (maybe not as good as Matlab or Python, but for sure way more user friendly) to perform calculations, fitting procedures and data processing. Help tool and Wavemetrics forum are handy and clear. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** When you upgrade from an old to a newer version, you may be required to change a few code lines of your own procedures. I noticed that Igor 7 has a tendency to crash when dealing with very large data sets (Igor 8 is more stable), therefore I recommend saving your file regularly. I must admit that the concept of "wave" may not be intuitive for beginners, however, it is a shallow learning curve: just after a few days, you should be able to deal with multidimensional waves and write basic procedures. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I analyze equilibrium and time-resolved ARPES and x-ray scattering data. The analysis of ARPES data requires direct and easy visualization of the multidimensional data, and Igor Pro is for sure the best software for this purpose. In addition, I perform basic calculations (tight-binding, spectral functions, RPA susceptibility, etc...) ### 4. Igor Pro for multidimensional data analysis **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sean K. | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 24, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Igor Pro is perfect for experimentalists. Igor stores the data in the "wave" format, which is different from typical matrices or tables in other analysis software, such as Origin, Mathematica, Excel. The "wave" has built-in "scaling" for each data dimension that mimics the "variables" in any physical measurements. That is, typically in any experiments, the measured intensity or amplitudes are plotted against some variables. In Igor, I don't need to generate an n-Dimensional matrix that defines the value of the variables corresponding to each data point. Instead, Igor automatically generates this mesh according to the range of variables defined in experimental setups. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** The function names are hard to guess, and the search function in Help works poorly. For example, if I want to find a function that could append new rows to a 2D wave, I will not find any results in Help. I will need to Google this question, and then I can find plenty of help on the Wavemetrics official forum. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** I think Igor Pro has found a sweet middle ground between flexibility, speed, visual appeal, and user friendly. It is not as easy for beginners as Origin, but also much better than Matlab. It is not as powerful as Matlab or Mathematica, but at the same time much easier to generate publication quality plots than these two softwares. It is not as flexible as Python, but so much more user friendly. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Igor Pro mainly for angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments, and also visualization of results from DFT calculations. In these examples, one typically need to do a series of linear transformations to the 3-dimensional data sets. Igor Pro is not only efficient for doing matrix transformation with built-in functions, it is also very convenient for me to write my own little gadgets in C++. ### 5. Igor Pro for Academic and Industrial use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anmol W. | Systems analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** The GUI experience for peak fitting has been easier than other products like MATLAB. This increased the productivity and throughput of my workflow. In addition, overlaying multiple data for better understanding and analysis is easier and efficient with Igor Pro. Also, the broad functionality of this tool has helped with data analysis in a quick and efficient way. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** I used Igor pro extensively in 2013-2014 and the scripting was not included well in the tool. With this functionality included, I could have scripted and automated a lot of my work. Also, there had been several crashes where the tool would hang up midway during work. A simple work around is to continuously save the work after each edit. But long term work was a little bit difficult at times. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** It is always better to understand one's own business needs before locking down on the appropriate tool for executing that task. One should also contact customer support when stuck somewhere in the program, it gets the job done faster. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Like any other tool, this one also helped in sculpting a significant part of my analysis that I published. Working with meteorite samples and their FTIR data, it becomes imperative to observe peaks at specific wavelengths which explained the composition of that sample. With Igor pro, I could do it easily and overlay with baseline data to observe the shift in peaks and make appropriate remarks on it. ### 6. Great Analysis Software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 29, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Igor Pro is a powerful and versatile tool you can use to analyze data. It has the ability to set up custom functions. Values inputted into the spreadsheet can be exported into another program such as Origin or Excel if you want to make the graphs look more presentable, but Igor Pro also has its own native graphical output for data. Additionally, you can analyze multiple spreadsheets of data at the same time. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** The interface isn’t very intuitive or user-friendly. It takes a bit of time to understand how custom functions work- but there are guides online which can get you started. The program itself is unlike any other graphing software you are familiar with, so be sure to be patient and experiment with its features. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** Thoroughly read the manual first, there are a lot of features but many are not intuitive at first glance. Igor Pro is rewarding if you take the time to understand the software. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Igor Pro to analyze Neutron Scattering data in terms of log functions. Setting up a custom equation in Igor Pro was able to provide advantages over other software. ### 7. Igor Pro for scientific analysis **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bhim C. | Postdoctoral Scholar, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 01, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** As like other analysis toos, I have used Igor Pro for scientific problems analysis to present and interpret the results. I like the part of the best fit to multiple waves. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** To get start with Igor has proved more difficult than I anticipated. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used Igor Pro for scientific problems analysis to present and interpret the results. I am analysing basically the data from my research experiments for scientific publication. ### 8. Igor Pro is a powerful tool for data analysis and has has helped me a lot throughout my research **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andreas A. | Researcher PhD Student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 05, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Can manage a great number of data The user has a great number of options regarding the plots design, style, type etc. The best tool for data analysis I have ever used **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Initially I had difficulties while using Igor Pro because some options are harder to find but after learning the basics it can be very helpful! **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Igor Pro mainly for air quality data analyses, involving box plots, image plots or size distributions etc. It offers a wide range of options! ### 9. Spectra Analysis of various Fluorophore **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dr. Anushruti A. | Scientific Reviewer/Editor/Writer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 01, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** I have used Igor Pro software for comparing spectra analysis of various fluorophores. Igor Pro is convenient, easy to use with large data sets. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** There should be the availability of video tutorials for Igor Pro. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I compared various spectra of oligothiophenes stained brain sections of AD-patients. As a beginner, I find Igor Pro really convenient to depict my large sets of data in a presentable wave graph. ### 10. Great software, easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lucy F. | Trainee Radiotherapy Physics Technologist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 21, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Really easy to use Igor Pro to graph data **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** It's quite difficult to get the most out of igor if you don't have a coding background **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Looking at Raman spectroscopy sets take of cells. Peak fittings, measurements of FWHM is very easy ### 11. Experience with Igor PRO **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** The most helpful feature was the multiple plots I was able to product to show the different results for my thesis. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** The environment of the programm can sometimes be not so user friendly **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** Be calm and patient and you will be able to show your work along side with the graphs you May produce with the most neat way there is. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used to create graphs that showed the kinetic model by which the graphene oxide nanoparticles were being adsorpted onto quartz sand particles ### 12. Useful to create highly personalized graph, Igor is a very powerful tool for data analysis. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Graphs can be personalized by the graphic interface then exported as a code to reuse the same layout consistently. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** How to handle the variables names with the $. It's not intuitive and hard to understand. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Complex data analysis for academic research in condensed matter. All the data of my PhD were analysed with Igor pro. ### 13. Steep learning curve but rewarding **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Once you learn how to use it, it's simple. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** There is a very steep learning curve, and it can be hard for new users to start. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it mainly for labs. Sometimes python can be a pain when I want to graph things quickly. ### 14. Great for plotting **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2021 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Makes beautiful graphs. Keeping track of the data is simple. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Coding scheme can a be a little difficult if you aren't used to it **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Plotting Raman spectra ### 15. Easy multipurpose scientific analysis software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2020 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** It's very user friendly. Easy to analyse complex data. Data segregation and visualisation. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Need primary scientific research background to get a grasp of the software **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have analysed CIGS thin film deposited solar cell characterization data. Quantitative analysis of thin-film device properties. ### 16. Can Make A Paper More professional **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** This program allows you to do a thousand more things and customization than any other graphing tool I've used. For the mass amount of things you can do, it is surprisingly user friendly. The graphs are easier to manipulate to what you desire without needing to look up tricks like in Microsoft excel. If you research or job is very statistical/mathematically heavy, this program will serve wonders. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** I think the worst thing about this program is the manual. In most cases, the manual struggles to efficiently describe its own tools. You could spend hours on the manual without really understanding what is going on. The manual may be geared to those more heavily knowledgeable in mathematics. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** If you are graphing and into research and need professional looking graphs for your papers and posters, try it out. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Graphing for physics research in glass ### 17. Igor produces the best looking graphs with the least amount of work and coding **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Biotechnology | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Igor's graph editing gui, built in macro display in the gui, and general coding capabilities. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Coding in igor is unique compared to other languages and consequently it took me a very long time to learn igor syntax and programming. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** No other numerical analysis software can produce beautiful graphs like Igor. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** At the moment, I mostly use Igor to produce publication quality graphs. In fact, every single graph in every single one of my publications was produced by Igor. Years ago, I used igor to interface with a high-precision atomic force microscope (The Cypher built by Aslyum Research). ### 18. Adequate **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 09, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Igor balances customization options and ease of use. You can change many elements of graphs and figures, like the axes, tick marks, colors, fonts, keys, trace color and style, etc. At the same time, there is a UI which is not impossible to learn. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** The data management has a steep learning curve. While the figures and graphs can be manipulated using UI elements, managing data often requires using the command line. These commands can feel outdated and inefficient to type out. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Igor is applied to curve fitting. Igor has made curve fitting easier to learn, but there is a limit to what Igor can do for curve fitting. ### 19. Easy data processing for your research need **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bhuiyan A. | General Physical Scientist, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** - Very fast. - Numerous tools. It's function library, analyzing tool collection is quite big. - User can write their own programs and save them as procedures. Makes workflow faster. - Very light software. Does not bog down your PC. - Strong and very helpful community. - Becomes very easy to use once the user is familiar with the system. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** - Steep learning curve. Takes some time to learn. - UI is not intuitive. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** If you are in academia and research this is the software you should go for. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** - Data visualization. ### 20. Research Associate **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Quality of figures, Easy to write your own codes. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** I don't see any downsides of Igor pro for now. **Recommendations to others considering Igor Pro:** I highly recommend to people working in the spectroscopy field. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** I mainly work on data processing of spectroscopy results. I love image processing in Igor pro. ### 21. User-friendly. Relatively simple interface **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 02, 2019 **What do you like best about Igor Pro?** Unlike Matlab, the interface is fairly easy to use. **What do you dislike about Igor Pro?** Price. Graph setting such as axis title cannot be altered. **What problems is Igor Pro solving and how is that benefiting you?** Non-linear fitting ## Igor Pro Discussions - [Is Igor Pro free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-igor-pro-free) - [How much does Igor Pro cost?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-much-does-igor-pro-cost) - [What is Igor used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-igor-used-for) - [Is Igor pro good?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-igor-pro-good) - [Can I use this to make an analysis report for a very large data set that is continuously changing over time, or has a time variation.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/33466-can-i-use-this-to-make-an-analysis-report-for-a-very-large-data-set-that-is-continuously-changing-over-time-or-has-a-time-variation) - [View Igor Pro pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/igor-pro/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-17+09%3A11%3A01+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=4fba14f7-6516-4fb0-81fd-3292cf6a6ceb&secure%5Btoken%5D=ab9ba5ed45f99acb7b5845bcd0c4b705a4c0d8aff06f797873ac2953cad92893&format=llm_user) ## Igor Pro 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 Igor Pro Alternatives - [OriginPro](https://www.g2.com/products/originpro/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (138 reviews) - [Posit](https://www.g2.com/products/posit-posit/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (563 reviews) - [GraphPad Prism](https://www.g2.com/products/graphpad-prism/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (54 reviews)