Introduction
As enterprises increasingly adopt cloud-based applications and services, it is becoming critical for IT teams to have visibility and control over ongoing cloud spend. Without the right tools, organizations risk overspending on unnecessary features or unused licenses. In this blog, we evaluate the top 15 SaaS spend management (SAM) solutions that can help optimize costs, improve compliance and streamline IT operations in multi-cloud environments.
Methods of Evaluation
To select the top 15 SaaS spend management software, we considered various evaluation criteria including core functionality, customer reviews, pricing models, and market presence factors like number of backlinks, traffic and keyword trends. Some of the key capabilities analyzed include software discovery, license and contract management, cloud cost optimization, security and compliance support. We also looked at customer ratings on sites like G2, TrustRadius and Capterra to understand the real-world experience of using these platforms.
1. Cloudfare
Cloudflare is a comprehensive cloud network and security provider that offers a wide range of services including web application firewall (WAF), content delivery network (CDN), domain name system (DNS), and firewall capabilities. Founded in 2009, Cloudflare aims to help build a better Internet by providing an intelligent network that accelerates and protects websites, applications, and internet connections. Cloudflare serves over 26 million Internet properties and billions of requests each day from data centers around the world.
Pros: Some key advantages of Cloudflare include:
– Comprehensive security and performance solutions in one platform
– Very cost effective pricing for WAF, CDN, DNS and other essential services
– Automatic HTTPS/SSL encryption for secure connections
– Significant speed and performance improvements for websites
– DDoS protection and mitigation capabilities
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Cloudflare is primarily a network and security provider rather than a full suite spend management platform. Additional tools may be required for comprehensive spend visibility and control.
Pricing: Cloudflare offers a flexible freemium model with both free and paid plans. The free plan provides basic security and performance capabilities. Paid plans start from $200/month and provide additional advanced features, configurations and support.
Some key stats about Cloudflare include:
– Over 26 million Internet properties use Cloudflare globally
– Handled over 41 trillion requests per year
– Serves more than 17 million HTTP requests per second on average
– Has 210 data centers in more than 100 cities worldwide
2. IBM
IBM’s software asset management (SAM) solutions provide visibility and control over software spending across your organization. As one of the earliest and largest technology companies, IBM brings deep experience in developing and delivering SAM tools to help customers optimize technology costs.
Pros: Key advantages of IBM’s SAM tools include: fully integrated solutions that provide end-to-end management of software licenses and assets; mature features to track usage and spend across all applications; trusted vendor with strong customer support globally; ability to manage applications from IBM as well as non-IBM vendors.
Cons: As with any large enterprise software offering, IBM’s SAM tools may have higher costs of ownership compared to some point solutions. They also require more implementation time and resources to fully deploy across a large organization.
Pricing: IBM offers flexible pricing for its SAM tools depending on the modules, number of managed devices/users, and level of support required. On-premise licenses start at $150 per user or $30,000 for unlimited users. Cloud subscriptions are priced per managed asset starting at $5 per year.
Some key stats about IBM’s SAM portfolio include: it supports over 150 commercial and open source applications; manages licenses for over 20,000 customers globally; includes license optimization and cost avoidance features that have saved customers over $3 billion.
3. Flexera
Flexera is a leading provider of Spend Management and Software Asset Management solutions. Their flagship product, FlexNet Manager Suite, provides comprehensive capabilities for optimizing software assets, managing licenses, and controlling software costs. With FlexNet Manager Suite, organizations can gain visibility into all software assets, automate license management processes, and help ensure compliance.
Pros: Some key advantages of FlexNet Manager Suite include:
– Comprehensive SAM solution for optimization and compliance
– Helps analyze and optimize third-party software spend
– Integrates with procurement and finance systems for end-to-end spend management
– Automates software license management processes to save time
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that FlexNet Manager Suite requires dedicated implementation and administration resources for large and complex environments. However, Flexera also offers professional services to assist with deployment and ongoing support.
Pricing: FlexNet Manager Suite pricing is based on the number of devices being managed. It has flexible licensing options including perpetual and subscription licenses. Flexera also offers flexible payment plans and free trials to help evaluate the solution.
Some key stats about Flexera and FlexNet Manager Suite include:
– Used by over 50,000 organizations globally across all industries
– Manages over $25 billion in annual IT spend
– Identifies unused and underutilized software to help optimize about 30% of annual software budgets on average
4. Snyk
Snyk is a leading SaaS spend management and security platform that helps developers build secure applications. Founded in 2015, Snyk helps organizations seamlessly integrate security into their existing development workflows to find and fix vulnerabilities and secrets in open source libraries and containers.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Snyk include:
– Helps track and optimize third-party software costs by monitoring usage and spend
– Automates continuous vulnerability monitoring and remediation to find and fix issues early
– Integrates directly within developer workflows like GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, and others for seamless usage
– Provides security as code capabilities to embed security checks directly into the development process
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Snyk requires integration within development tools and workflows which takes some initial setup and configuration.
Pricing: Snyk offers different pricing plans based on team size and functionality needed. Pricing ranges from a free personal developer plan up to enterprise plans for very large teams and organizations.
Some key stats about Snyk include:
– Used by over 2 million developers and organizations worldwide
– Protects over 4 million dependencies and 2 billion lines of code
– Can scan for vulnerabilities in npm, Maven, NuGet, RubyGems, and PyPI packages
– Automates the fixing of vulnerabilities for popular package managers like npm and Maven
5. Apptio
Apptio is a SaaS-based technology business management (TBM) platform that helps organizations analyze, optimize, and plan their technology budgets. For over 15 years, Apptio has helped some of the world’s largest organizations connect technology investments to business outcomes through better visibility and decision-making.
Pros: Some key advantages of Apptio include:
– Comprehensive TCO analysis of cloud applications portfolio.
– Actionable insights into cloud optimization opportunities.
– Continuous cost optimization through AI and automation.
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Apptio is primarily geared towards very large enterprises with substantial technology budgets and resources. Smaller companies may find some of its features and capabilities overkill for their needs.
Pricing: Apptio pricing is based on annual contract value and customized to each organization. However, generally their on-premise deployment starts around $150,000/year while their SaaS offering starts at around $50,000/year for smaller organizations.
Some key stats about Apptio include:
– Over 1,500 customers globally including large enterprises like McKesson, Target, and ViacomCBS.
– Tracks $150 billion in annualized IT spend for customers.
– Continuously optimizes over $1 billion in technology costs annually for customers through optimization recommendations.
6. BetterCloud
BetterCloud is a SaaS management platform that helps IT professionals govern SaaS usage and spend. Founded in 2011, BetterCloud has grown to support over 1,500 customers and 5 million users. Their platform helps companies manage over 25,000 different SaaS applications.
Pros: Some key advantages of BetterCloud include:
– Prevent shadow IT and govern multi-cloud environments
– Automate lifecycle management of SaaS applications from provisioning to deprovisioning
– Gain granular visibility into SaaS usage and spend across your organization
– Centrally manage permissions and policies for compliance
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the full capabilities of the platform may not be necessary for some smaller organizations, so the pricing could be higher than competitors targeting smaller businesses.
Pricing: BetterCloud offers several pricing plans including Team, Business and Enterprise Editions. Pricing is based on the number of users on the platform. The Team Edition starts at $3/user per month for up to 50 users.
Some key stats about BetterCloud include:
– Over 1,500 customers including 25% of the Fortune 100
– Supports over 5 million users
– Governance and management of over 25,000 different SaaS apps
– Integrations with over 150 apps including Office 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and more
7. Rippling
Rippling is a cloud-based SaaS spend management platform founded in 2014 and based in San Francisco. The company offers automated software provisioning, billing, usage tracking and cancellation to help companies gain visibility and control over their cloud spend.
Pros: Key advantages of Rippling include:
– No-code platform for complete cloud spend management across procurement, finance, IT and HR
– Automates software provisioning, deprovisioning and renewal to avoid unnecessary costs
– Integrates seamlessly with leading HR platforms like Workday, UltiPro and service providers like Concur, Expensify and Bill.com
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the no-code platform requires some technical understanding of software usage and licensing to fully leverage all of Rippling’s automation capabilities.
Pricing: Rippling offers different pricing tiers based on features and number of users. Basic plans start from $99/user per month for essential capabilities. Premium packages with advanced functionality are priced per annual spend under management.
Some key stats about Rippling include:
– Manages over $6B in annual software and cloud spend
– Integrates with over 300 Saas applications
– Used by over 700 companies including Tableau, Atlassian and Anthropic
8. Snow Software
Snow Software is a leading provider of software asset management and cloud cost optimization solutions. Founded in Sweden in 2001, Snow helps thousands of organizations worldwide take control of their IT spend and optimize the value of their software investments. With solutions that deliver comprehensive visibility across software, SaaS, and cloud assets, Snow helps customers make confident decisions that lower costs, mitigate risk, and extract more value from existing technology budgets.
Pros: Some key advantages of Snow Software include:
– Unified platform for SAM, SaaS Management and Cloud Cost Optimization
– Automated software license reconciliation and spend analysis
– Comprehensive visibility into all IT assets across on-prem, cloud and SaaS environments
– Actionable insights and recommendations to optimize spend and compliance
Cons: A potential disadvantage is that the platform requires implementation and onboarding support which takes time and resources to set up fully.
Pricing: Snow Software pricing is based on annual contract value and number of managed assets/users. They offer flexible licensing models including perpetual licenses and subscription licensing. Pricing starts at around $50,000 per year for smaller implementations.
Some key stats about Snow Software:
– Over 12,000 customers worldwide
– Supports the software discovery and optimization needs of 90% of the Fortune 500
– Over 20 years of experience in IT spending and license optimization
– Processes over $2B in customer cloud transactions annually
9. SoftwareReviews
SoftwareReviews is a premier source of insights on business applications and services. As a business decision tool, the SoftwareReviews platform provides ratings, reviews and personalized recommendations on thousands of software products and SaaS providers. Founded in 2010, SoftwareReviews collects data from real IT and business professionals on more than 1,300 software and service providers.
Pros: Some key advantages of using SoftwareReviews include: – In-depth product evaluations and ratings directly from real users – Unbiased opinions on features, ease of use, quality and other important factors – Dynamic recommendation engine that matches your specific needs to top options – Peer reviews, alternative options and expert analyst research to inform your selection
Cons: A potential disadvantage is that SoftwareReviews only includes ratings and reviews on software packages and SaaS providers that have been reviewed by their survey respondents. Newer or less widely used options may not be covered.
Pricing: SoftwareReviews offers both free and paid plans. The free version allows users to search reviews, ratings and reports. Paid premium plans provide additional advanced features like customized reports, 1-on-1 Expert Guidance and Software Selection Templates starting at $99/month.
Some key stats about SoftwareReviews include: – More than 300,000 verified ratings and reviews – Over 1,300 software and services evaluated – 15 years of experience helping organizations select the right software
10. Blissfully
Blissfully is a SaaS spend management platform that helps organizations gain visibility and control over their subscription-based software spending. Founded in 2015, Blissfully provides an easy to use and deploy platform for software procurement, contract management, usage analytics, and subscription optimization.
Pros: Some key advantages of the Blissfully platform include:
– Easy to deploy and use self-service platform
– Automates contract management and renewal process
– Provides insights into cloud optimization opportunities like under-utilized software and over-provisioned instances
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the platform is only available as a paid subscription and does not offer a free tier or plan.
Pricing: Blissfully pricing starts at $4,999 per year for the Standard plan which includes support for up to 500 software products. The Premium plan is $9,999 per year and increases the limit to 2,500 products. Both plans offer usage-based pricing above the included product limits.
Some key stats about Blissfully include:
– Manages over $5 billion in annual recurring software spend
– Used by more than 2,500 customers including Box, Macy’s, and National Instruments
– Integrates with over 150 different SaaS vendors like Salesforce, Slack, and GitHub
11. CloudHealth
VMware Tanzu CloudHealth is a software as a service (SaaS) spend management platform from VMware. CloudHealth provides organizations with comprehensive cloud cost governance, optimization and management capabilities across all major public cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud in a single view.
Pros: Some key advantages of CloudHealth include:
– Central dashboard for multi-cloud insights and governance
– Automates continuous optimization across hybrid environments
– Offers a unified view of cloud spending across all platforms
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that CloudHealth is primarily geared towards large enterprise customers with significant cloud spend across multiple platforms/accounts. The tool may not be as relevant for smaller businesses with limited cloud usage.
Pricing: CloudHealth pricing is based on a subscription model. Pricing starts at $6 per server/month for the Standard Edition and goes up to $15 per server/month for the Premier Edition. Discounts are available for higher volume commitments.
Some key stats about CloudHealth include:
– Manages over $35 billion in annual cloud spend
– Provides insights and governance for hybrid cloud environments spanning over 1 million servers
– Optimizes cloud resources for over 800 enterprise customers globally
12. CloudPassage
CloudPassage is a leading cloud security provider that delivers continuous and automated protection for customers’ cloud infrastructure and workloads. Founded in 2011, the CloudPassage platform integrates with all major public cloud platforms and has over 5,000 customers worldwide.
Pros: Some key advantages of the CloudPassage platform include:
– Continuous cloud security monitoring and compliance
– Identifies vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
– Automates cloud security through policy-based controls
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the platform relies on continuous monitoring and automated policy enforcement, so initial configuration and customization may require more manual review than some other point solutions.
Pricing: CloudPassage offers monthly pricing based on the number of cloud assets being protected. Pricing starts at $5 per asset per month for vendors with under 500 assets.
Some key stats about CloudPassage include:
– Protects over 1 billion assets across public cloud environments
– Continuous monitoring and compliance across AWS, Azure, GCP
– Over 90% of threats detected within 1 hour of exposure
13. CloserIQ
CloserIQ is a SaaS spend management software that helps companies analyze and optimize their software costs. Founded in 2020, CloserIQ has helped over 500 companies analyze over $500M in annual recurring SaaS spend.
Pros: Some key advantages of CloserIQ include:
– Helps analyze SaaS spend to optimize costs and benchmark against peers.
– Provides actionable insights on savings opportunities, unused features, excess seats.
– Integration with most popular SaaS tools makes data collection seamless.
– Easy to understand reports and recommendations help prioritize areas for savings.
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the software requires connecting to various SaaS tools which some companies may be hesitant about due to security or privacy concerns.
Pricing: CloserIQ offers three pricing tiers:
– Free Plan: Limited to 3 tools and basic reporting
– Professional Plan: $99/month billed annually for up to 10 tools
– Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for unlimited tools and advanced features
Some key stats about CloserIQ include:
– Analyzes over $500M in annual SaaS spend
– Helped save over 500 companies an average of 20% in annual SaaS costs
– Integrates with over 200+ popular SaaS tools like Slack, Zoom, Salesforce, etc.
14. CloudCheckr
CloudCheckr is a spend management software that helps organizations gain visibility and control over their cloud costs. Founded in 2013, CloudCheckr provides cloud cost optimization (CCO), usage analytics, and governance to customers across industries. With CloudCheckr, finance teams have full transparency into their cloud spend while dev and ops teams get benchmarking and best practices to optimize resources.
Pros: Some key advantages of CloudCheckr include:
– Automates cloud cost optimization through rightsizing recommendations.
– Identifies unused and underutilized cloud resources like test/dev instances left running.
– Provides dashboards and reports with cost segmentation and usage trends over time.
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that CloudCheckr is primarily focused on cost optimization and has limited features for usage analytics and governance compared to some competitors.
Pricing: CloudCheckr offers monthly pricing plans starting at $299/month for the Standard plan which includes features like cost analysis, benchmarking, and recommendations. The Advanced plan starting at $799/month adds features like configuration management, usage segmentation, and reserved instance optimization.
Some key stats about CloudCheckr include:
– Tracks costs, usage, and configurations of over 150 cloud services including AWS, Azure, GCP, and more.
– Used by over 2,000 companies including 20% of the Fortune 100.
– Identifies over $1 billion in annual cloud waste for customers.
CloudCheckr – Spot.iocloudcheckr.com
15. CloudBolt
CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform that enables enterprises to efficiently build, deploy, and manage applications across private and public clouds. Founded in 2012, CloudBolt Software has helped thousands of organizations worldwide simplify complex cloud environments through a single control plane for all cloud resources and applications.
Pros: Some key advantages of CloudBolt include:
– Central platform for multicloud management across all major public clouds like AWS, Azure, GCP and private clouds
– Automates cloud provisioning, migration and governance of infrastructure as code
– Improves operational efficiency by eliminating manual tasks and enforcing best practices and governance
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the platform requires some initial configuration and customization to set up governance and workflows for specific cloud environments.
Pricing: CloudBolt offers perpetual and subscription licensing models. Pricing is based on the number of cloud resources under management.
Some key stats about CloudBolt include:
– Used by over 4,000 companies worldwide including 30% of the Fortune 100
– Manages over 2 million cloud resources
– Has provisioned over 250,000 cloud servers using self-service
Conclusion
While no single solution will be the best fit for every organization, this evaluation provides a comprehensive view of the leading SaaS spend management offerings. Implementing one of these platforms can help technology leaders gain transparency into cloud spend, continuously optimize usage, and ensure compliance – thereby extracting maximum value from their cloud investments. The top platforms also continue enhancing their capabilities through AI/ML to offer predictive analytics and automated optimizations over time.