The original SPSS manual (Nie, Bent & Hull, 1970)[11] has been described as one of "sociology's most influential books" for allowing ordinary researchers to do their own statistical analysis.

The many features of SPSS Statistics are accessible via pull-down menus or can be programmed with a proprietary 4GL command syntax language.

Command syntax programming has the benefits of reproducible output, simplifying repetitive tasks, and handling complex data manipulations and analyses.

This extension, introduced in SPSS 14, replaced the less functional SAX Basic "scripts" for most purposes, although SaxBasic remains available.

Cells in both views can be manually edited, defining the file structure and allowing data entry without using command syntax.

Larger datasets such as statistical surveys are more often created in data entry software, or entered during computer-assisted personal interviewing, by scanning and using optical character recognition and optical mark recognition software, or by direct capture from online questionnaires.

Alternatively, output can be captured as data (using the OMS command), as text, tab-delimited text, PDF, XLS, HTML, XML, SPSS dataset or a variety of graphic image formats (JPEG, PNG, BMP and EMF).

V25 also includes new Bayesian statistics capabilities, a method of statistical inference, and publication ready charts, such as powerful new charting capabilities, including new default templates and the ability to share with Microsoft Office applications.

To save precious computer time an 'edit' run could be done to check command syntax without analysing the data.

SPSS Statistics version 13.0 for Mac OS X was not compatible with Intel-based Macintosh computers, due to the Rosetta emulation software causing errors in calculations.

[22] Because of a dispute about ownership of the name "SPSS", between 2009 and 2010, the product was referred to as PASW (Predictive Analytics SoftWare).

[24][25][26] IDA (Interactive Data Analysis)[27] was a software package that originated at what was formerly the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), at the University of Chicago.

[31] In October, 2020 IBM announced the start of an Early Access Program for the "New SPSS Statistics", codenamed Project NX.

[32][33] It contains "many of your favorite SPSS capabilities presented in a new easy to use interface, with integrated guidance, multiple tabs, improved graphs and much more".

In December, 2021, IBM opened up the Early Access Program for the next generation of SPSS Statistics for more users and shared more visuals about it.