Why Stata?

If you know Stata already, you don't have to read this post :)

FAQ:

Q - What is Stata?
A - Stata is a data analysis and Statistical Software by StataCorp, used frequently by researchers in the field of economics, political science, sociology, and others. Stata can help you with your data management, statistical analysis, visualization, regression analysis, etc. The word "Stata" is derived from two words "statistics" and "data," which more or less sums up what Stata does, i.e. statistics and data.

Q - Why use Stata?
A - Stata is a powerful data analysis and statistical software. But similar to Stata, there are a number of alternatives, just to name a few: SAS, R, SPSS and Minitab. Each of these packages despite doing the same job, have their own unique styles and their own strengths and weakness. Deciding to choose one of these pack is not easy, and very few has the resources to try all the packages out. I, having limited experience working with packages other than Stata, am going to report the review of expert users in the following. As you will see, Stata represents a good choice between these packages.

First, UCLA's Institute of Digital Research and Education compares SAS, Stata and SPSS, the summary of which is given below (click here for original article):

SAS is a package geared towards power users.  It has a steep learning curve and can be frustrating at first.  However, power users enjoy the its powerful data management and ability to work with numerous data files at once.

Stata offers a good combination of ease of use and power.  While Stata is easy to learn, it also has very powerful tools for data management, many cutting edge statistical procedures, the ability to easily download programs developed by other users and the ability to create your own Stata programs that seamlessly become part of Stata.

SPSS focuses on ease of use (their motto is "real stats, real easy"), and it succeeds in this area.  But if you intend to use SPSS as a power user, you may outgrow it over time. SPSS is strong in the area of graphics, but weak in more cutting edge statistical procedures lacking in robust methods and survey methods.

Second, Tobias Pfaff of University of Münster's Institute for Economic Education compares Stata, R, SAS and SPSS in his A Brief Introduction to Stata with 50+ Basic Commands. The following table summarizes his verdict:

Third, ProStatServices (link here) compared Stata, SAS, R, SPSS and Minitab in an extensive 14 criteria. I have summarized the ranks in a table, which should help you make an informed decision on choosing one of the five statistical software.

A review of top five statistical software systems

Criteria	Stata	SAS	R	SPSS	Minitab
1. Ease of use	2nd	3rd	3rd	1st	1st
2. Learning curve	2nd	3rd	3rd	1st	1st
3. Depth of menued procedures	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st	2nd
4. Range of statistical procedures offered	3rd	2nd	1st	4th	5th
5. Modifiability of analytical output specifications	2nd	1st	1st	2nd	3rd
6. Ease of transforming table output to formatting conventions (e.g., APA)	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	2nd
7. Range, quality, and ease of use of graphical output offered	3rd	2nd	1st	2nd	4th
8. Speed of handling large data sets	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd	3rd
9. Ease and flexibility of data importation	3rd	2nd	1st	3rd	4th
10. Ease of results exportation	2nd	2nd	3rd	1st	3rd
11. Thoroughness and interpretability of results output	=	=	=	=	=
12. Ease and flexibility of data set manipulation	1st	3rd	3rd	1st	2nd
13. Pricing for individuals	3rd	4th	1st	5th	2nd
14. Thoroughness and informativeness of documentation	1st	2nd	4th	3rd	3rd