The answer depends on exactly what you are trying to do now, and what you hope to do in the future. I have used Design Expert for analysis of mixture designs. I liked the software, especially the graphics. However, that is all I have used it for. Most analyses I do in SAS, and I am trying to move to R. Many people use SPSS, and there is a long list of other options. That said, I am not familiar with Modde Pro.

That said, do you use the other Sartorius-Stedim suite of products, like simca? If so, I might go with modde because it will probably fit better with what you already use.

There is DoE in R: https://www.r-project.org/conferences/useR-2011/TalkSlides/Invited/Gromping-Design_of_Experiments.pdf

There is DoE in JMP: https://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/jmp/902/DOE_Guide.pdf, and there is a direct link between what happens in JMP and SAS code. If you run JMP, there should be a window that gives the SAS code used to generate the output.

Software comparison depends on the type of data analysis to be done. The coverage of one software may be different from that of another. For example, for time series applications I know that eviews is more versatile than minitab. For multivariate analysis eviews is less versatile than minitab.

From your topics you want to do some experimental designs (DoE). I am neither familiar with Modde Pro nor with Design expert. Experience with them might inform one's decision to choose one in preference to the other after observing their relative strengths and weaknesses.

I know that for DoE, minitab 17 has a provision. I do not know about Modde Pro nor Design expert.

For DOE and RSM related analysis, Design expert is very appropriate and useful.