Comparing the Big Three free Mac statistics programs

Updated 10/3/2025

JASP, Jamovi, and PSPP are all excellent free programs, but which is best for you? That’s a question that can change every year—or with every release—or with every new project.

Every one of these three programs is fast, free, accurate, and able to import from SPSS, Stata, and Excel data files—including missing values and value and variable labels (from Stata and SPSS).

The core strength of PSPP is the user interface, for those used to older SPSS versions, and its ability to run SPSS commands. If you’re an SPSS person seeking free software, it’s the closest you can get, and it fits like an old glove—one with a few tears. PSPP is often awkward, with bugs, on the Mac; it’s better in Linux.

JASP and Jamovi are both based on R, and share a similar new interface. Both are somewhat weaker in recoding and computing new variables, so it’s best to prepare information for them somewhere else. One could prepare data in PSPP for JASP or Jamovi!

So, advantages of JASP and Jamovi over PSPP are:

• They are signed by Apple, while PSPP is unsigned.
• They copy output as tables (PSPP does them as plain text).
• Modules can be added to bring in new features.
• The single-screen interface is easier for beginners than PSPP’s two or three windows.
• Both save your analyses with data by default.
• There is a cloud version (of Jamovi).

Where does PSPP excel?

• Runs SPSS syntax.
• You can specify the values in a t-test, while JASP and Jamovi require two-value variables, which is inconvenient.
• It’s small—124 MB vs Jamovi's 415 MB and JASP's 1.2 GB.
• Runs quite well on Linux.
• Like SPSS, runs both student’s and Welch’s t-tests by default (some may see this as a drawback).

JASP and Jamovi use the standard Mac open/save dialogue boxes after you click on your computer option in the custom file open/save box (you’ll see what I mean when you do it). All the programs have command logs, though JASP and Jamovi’s aren’t easy to replay and PSPP’s have to be set up.

PSPP is a more traditional setup, while JASP and Jamovi instantly change the output if you change the input.

Quick video comparing JASP and Jamovi...

The current JASP makes recoding easier than it was in the video, which we plan to update. Missing value handling now has both global and per-variable options, and JASP now imports pretty flawlessly from SPSS .sav data files.

Not having a real Mac user interface makes PSPP painful at times.

Comparing each individual program

Every program can import SPSS data files, cannot import SPSS output, and is very fast. They all produce the same numbers in our tests. How are they different?

Now, let’s go through each one, for unique goodness and deal killers:

JASP

JAMOVI

PSPP

SPSS

For only a few thousand dollars a year, you can use the actual SPSS. ... if your computer supports it.

For much more on each of the three, see our free software page.