# Best Cloud Cost Management Tools - Page 9 *By [Rachana Hasyagar](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/rachana-hasyagar)* Cloud cost management software helps companies control cloud infrastructure spending by monitoring resource usage and computing demands, alerting users to underutilized capacity, automatically scaling usage to optimal rates, and providing reporting features to identify waste and redundancies across cloud environments. ### Core Capabilities of Cloud Cost Management Software To qualify for inclusion in the Cloud Cost Management category, a product must: - Monitor cloud infrastructure usage - Track spending as it relates to resource usage - Identify areas to save by reducing resource usage ### Common Use Cases for Cloud Cost Management Software IT, finance, and DevOps teams use cloud cost management tools to maximize the efficiency of cloud infrastructure investments. Common use cases include: - Monitoring real-time cloud resource consumption to detect overspending or underutilized capacity - Automatically scaling cloud usage to match demand and eliminate unnecessary spend - Generating cost allocation and waste reports to identify optimization opportunities across teams and workloads ### How Cloud Cost Management Software Differs from Other Tools Cloud cost management tools are typically paired with [infrastructure as a service (IaaS)](https://www.g2.com/categories/infrastructure-as-a-service-iaas) offerings to minimize the costs of pay-as-you-go cloud models. They differ from [SaaS spend management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/saas-spend-management), which monitors and manages spending on cloud-based SaaS applications rather than the underlying cloud infrastructure and compute resources. ### Insights from G2 on Cloud Cost Management Software Based on category trends on G2, real-time usage monitoring and automated rightsizing recommendations stand out as the most valued capabilities. These platforms deliver measurable reductions in cloud spend and improved budget visibility as primary outcomes of adoption. ## Top Cloud Cost Management Tools at a Glance | # | Product | Rating | Best For | What Users Say | |---|---------|--------|----------|----------------| | 1 | [Cast AI](https://www.g2.com/products/cast-ai/reviews) | 4.6/5.0 (191 reviews) | Autonomous Kubernetes cost rightsizing and bin-packing | "[Lock and Bolt Infrastructure: Fire-and-Forget Cloud Savings for K8s](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/cast-ai-review-12457236)" | | 2 | [CloudKeeper](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudkeeper/reviews) | 4.7/5.0 (290 reviews) | AWS cost visibility with guaranteed commitment-free savings | "[Excellent Cloud Visibility and Cost Control Made Easy](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/cloudkeeper-review-12980640)" | | 3 | [Amazon CloudWatch](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-cloudwatch/reviews) | 4.3/5.0 (363 reviews) | AWS-native cost and resource alerting | "[Seamless AWS Integration and Feature-Rich Log Access](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/amazon-cloudwatch-review-12850490)" | | 4 | [ScaleOps](https://www.g2.com/products/scaleops-cloud-native-optimization-scaleops/reviews) | 4.6/5.0 (96 reviews) | Automated Kubernetes workload rightsizing with real-time adjustment | "[Dynamic Resource Optimization That Cuts Costs and Keeps Workloads Stable](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/scaleops-review-12342100)" | | 5 | [AWS Budgets](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-budgets/reviews) | 4.1/5.0 (40 reviews) | AWS-native cloud spend threshold alerting | "[Proactive Cloud Spending with Easy Setup](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/aws-budgets-review-12909236)" | | 6 | [Vantage](https://www.g2.com/products/vntg-inc-vantage/reviews) | 4.7/5.0 (69 reviews) | Multi-cloud spend visibility with virtual tagging | "[Vantage Simplifies Cross-Platform Budgeting with Clear Cost Accountability](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/vantage-review-12299583)" | | 7 | [Flexera One](https://www.g2.com/products/flexera-one/reviews) | 4.3/5.0 (116 reviews) | Multi-cloud FinOps with license compliance intelligence | "[A must have tool for inventory management for every organisation](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/flexera-one-review-11647810)" | | 8 | [IBM Cloudability](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-cloudability/reviews) | 4.2/5.0 (202 reviews) | Multi-cloud FinOps chargeback and rightsizing visibility | "[Effective for Cloud Cost Optimization, Minor Hurdles](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/ibm-cloudability-review-12693260)" | | 9 | [IBM Turbonomic](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-turbonomic/reviews) | 4.4/5.0 (288 reviews) | AI-driven rightsizing across hybrid multicloud workloads | "[Advanced Infrastructure Optimizer with challenging configuration requirements.](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/ibm-turbonomic-review-12821189)" | | 10 | [Datadog](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews) | 4.4/5.0 (708 reviews) | Multi-cloud observability with unpredictable spend visibility | "[Easy Datadog Integration with Powerful, Insightful Dashboards](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/datadog-review-12925009)" | --- ## What Are the Most Common Questions About Cloud Cost Management Tools? *AI-generated · Last updated: May 26, 2026* ### Which is the best cloud cost management tool for AWS and Azure? Based on G2 reviews, [CloudKeeper](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudkeeper/reviews) stands out most strongly for AWS-focused cloud cost management, with reviewers repeatedly highlighting cost visibility, billing support, responsive service, and optimization guidance. According to verified users, it helps teams monitor spend, analyze billing, and identify savings opportunities through tools like CK Lens and tuning recommendations. G2 reviewers mention smooth onboarding, strong support, and clear dashboards for understanding costs across accounts. For buyers evaluating AWS and Azure together, the review data in this set is much deeper for AWS than Azure, so the strongest evidence supports CloudKeeper as the clearest recent leader for AWS-centric cloud cost management needs. ### What top tools for optimizing cloud spend? Based on G2 reviews, buyers looking for cloud cost management tools for spend optimization consistently mention visibility, actionable recommendations, and reduced manual effort. According to verified users, several products help teams identify waste, improve resource sizing, and monitor spending trends across cloud environments. G2 reviewers mention that some tools are especially strong for Kubernetes optimization, while others are better for billing visibility, reporting, or automated rightsizing. Common themes include easier cost allocation, anomaly detection, better forecasting, and stronger collaboration between finance and engineering teams. The most consistently cited strengths across recent reviews are automation, dashboards that clarify where money is going, and recommendations that help teams cut unnecessary spend without increasing operational burden. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [Cast AI](https://www.g2.com/products/cast-ai/reviews) – frequently used to automate Kubernetes rightsizing, scaling, and cluster cost reduction - [CloudKeeper](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudkeeper/reviews) – often used for cloud billing visibility, cost analysis, and savings guidance in AWS environments - [ScaleOps](https://www.g2.com/products/scaleops-cloud-native-optimization-scaleops/reviews) – commonly chosen for Kubernetes workload rightsizing and reducing over-provisioned resources ### Which cloud cost management solution offers AI-driven recommendations? Based on G2 reviews, buyers looking for AI-driven recommendations in cloud cost management tools most often mention automation, anomaly detection, and recommendation engines that reduce manual analysis. According to verified users, multiple products in this category surface AI-assisted insights for rightsizing, forecasting, or optimization workflows. G2 reviewers mention AI for Kubernetes resource tuning, cloud cost anomaly detection, natural-language summaries, and automated savings guidance. The strongest recent review themes center on tools that turn raw cost data into practical actions teams can apply quickly. For buyers prioritizing AI assistance, the most grounded signals in recent reviews point to products that combine visibility with recommendation workflows rather than dashboards alone, especially for Kubernetes and multi-cloud optimization use cases. ### What top tools for managing reserved instance usage? Based on G2 reviews, reserved instance and commitment management is most often discussed in relation to AWS savings plans, billing support, and commitment optimization. According to verified users, buyers value tools that reduce the operational burden of tracking expiring commitments, recommending purchases, and simplifying billing visibility. G2 reviewers mention platforms that help with savings plan delegation, commitment analysis, and easier interpretation of cloud billing without relying entirely on native provider tools. For teams focused on commitment management, the review data points to products that combine reporting with practical support around reserved usage, savings opportunities, and budget control. Recent feedback especially emphasizes simpler billing workflows, better forecasting, and reducing the manual work needed to manage commitment-based cloud savings. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [CloudKeeper](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudkeeper/reviews) – often used to manage AWS billing, reservations, and cost optimization support - [Pump](https://www.g2.com/products/pump-pump/reviews) – frequently mentioned for simplifying AWS reserved instance and discount management - [Strategic Blue](https://www.g2.com/products/strategic-blue/reviews) – used to reduce internal effort around savings plans and AWS spend optimization ### What top-rated cloud cost optimization platforms for enterprises? Based on G2 reviews, enterprise buyers evaluating cloud cost management tools tend to prioritize visibility across large environments, governance support, shared dashboards, and optimization guidance that works across teams. According to verified users, enterprise-friendly platforms are often described as strong for cost allocation, executive reporting, multi-account visibility, and policy-driven optimization. G2 reviewers mention that larger organizations benefit from tools that support chargeback, anomaly detection, rightsizing, and coordination between finance, procurement, and engineering teams. Recent reviews also highlight the importance of support quality and workflow flexibility in complex environments. The most grounded enterprise signals in this dataset point to platforms that help organizations centralize cost data, improve accountability, and make optimization efforts repeatable across cloud operations. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [Flexera One](https://www.g2.com/products/flexera-one/reviews) – commonly used for multi-cloud cost visibility, governance, and optimization in larger organizations - [IBM Cloudability](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-cloudability/reviews) – often chosen for enterprise cloud visibility, reporting, and cost allocation across teams - [ServiceNow IT Asset Management](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-asset-management/reviews) – used to centralize asset and spend visibility while improving lifecycle and usage oversight ### Which software integrates cloud cost management with billing systems? Based on G2 reviews, cloud cost management tools that connect closely with billing workflows are often valued for simplifying invoice analysis, cost reporting, and spend visibility across accounts. According to verified users, products in this area help teams understand billing data without relying on manual spreadsheets or fragmented native consoles. G2 reviewers mention billing dashboards, invoice support, mediator-style support with cloud providers, and easier chargeback or showback processes. In the recent review set, CloudKeeper is especially associated with AWS billing help, invoice support, and cost analysis, while other products focus more on optimization than billing workflows. For buyers prioritizing billing integration, the strongest grounded signals come from tools that combine clear dashboards, usage visibility, and practical help with billing-related questions and reporting. ### What best tools for forecasting cloud usage costs? Based on G2 reviews, forecasting features are most valued when they help teams move from reactive cost reviews to proactive planning. According to verified users, strong forecasting support usually appears alongside budgeting, anomaly detection, and cost trend visibility. G2 reviewers mention the need for near real-time data, cost planning, and reports that help leadership understand changing usage patterns before bills become surprises. Products in this category are often praised for helping finance and engineering work from the same cloud cost signals. Recent review themes show that buyers want forecasting tools that improve budget confidence, surface anomalies early, and connect spend patterns to optimization decisions. The most grounded review evidence supports platforms that combine cost visibility, alerts, and planning-oriented reporting. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [IBM Cloudability](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-cloudability/reviews) – frequently mentioned for forecasting, budgeting, and proactive cloud financial management - [Flexera One](https://www.g2.com/products/flexera-one/reviews) – often used for cost planning, budgeting, and forecasting across multi-cloud environments - [Vantage](https://www.g2.com/products/vntg-inc-vantage/reviews) – commonly used for tracking spend trends, planning budgets, and improving financial visibility ### What best platforms for tracking multi-cloud expenses? Based on G2 reviews, buyers tracking multi-cloud expenses want a centralized view of spend across providers, along with better allocation and easier reporting. According to verified users, the strongest tools reduce the need to jump across multiple cloud consoles and make it easier to see costs by team, service, or environment. G2 reviewers mention unified dashboards, cross-provider reporting, and improved visibility for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes costs. Recent reviews also emphasize that multi-cloud buyers value anomaly detection and better communication between finance and engineering. The most grounded review evidence points to platforms that consolidate cost data, simplify spend analysis, and help teams understand where cloud budget is going without relying on manual exports or disconnected dashboards. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [Vantage](https://www.g2.com/products/vntg-inc-vantage/reviews) – often used to unify cloud cost reporting across multiple providers and accounts - [IBM Cloudability](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-cloudability/reviews) – frequently cited for consolidated visibility across multi-cloud environments - [CloudZero](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudzero/reviews) – commonly used to centralize spend visibility and link costs to business dimensions ### Which cloud cost management platform is most user-friendly? Based on G2 reviews, user-friendliness in cloud cost management tools usually comes down to clear dashboards, easy onboarding, and reducing the effort needed to understand spending data. According to verified users, several products are praised for intuitive interfaces, simple setup, and making cloud cost information more accessible beyond just FinOps specialists. G2 reviewers mention straightforward dashboards, easier cost exploration, and better usability for finance, engineering, and leadership stakeholders. Recent feedback suggests that buyers favor tools that shorten time to insight, support fast adoption, and reduce the need for manual reporting. In this dataset, products like Vantage, CloudKeeper, and CloudZero receive repeated praise for usability, though the best fit depends on whether a buyer values billing simplicity, multi-cloud visibility, or customizable views. ### What best platforms for tracking cost allocation by department? Based on G2 reviews, cost allocation by department is a key requirement for buyers who need stronger accountability across finance, engineering, and business teams. According to verified users, the most useful cloud cost management tools let teams break down spend by account, service, team, project, business unit, or custom dimensions. G2 reviewers mention chargeback and showback reporting, tagging support, virtual tagging, and easier ways to connect cloud costs with organizational ownership. Recent reviews show that buyers value platforms that turn complex billing data into views that department leaders can actually use. The strongest grounded signals in this dataset point to products that centralize cost data, improve allocation accuracy, and make it easier to explain who owns which portion of cloud spend. **Here are some of the top-rated products on G2:** - [Vantage](https://www.g2.com/products/vntg-inc-vantage/reviews) – often used for cost breakdowns by team, business unit, and project with strong visibility features - [CloudZero](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudzero/reviews) – commonly used to allocate spend by customer, product, workload, or team - [Finout](https://www.g2.com/products/finout/reviews) – frequently mentioned for shared cost allocation, virtual tagging, and team-level cost visibility ## How Many Cloud Cost Management Tools Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 228 ### Category Stats (Jul 2026) - **Average Rating**: 4.6/5 (↑0.01 vs Jun 2026) The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings - **Top Trending Product**: OpsRamp (+0.46%) - Among all products in this category, OpsRamp recorded the largest rating increase compared to last month *Last updated: July 01, 2026* ## How Does G2 Rank Cloud Cost Management Tools Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 6,100+ Authentic Reviews - 228+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. ## Which Cloud Cost Management Tools Is Best for Your Use Case? - **Leader:** [Cast AI](https://www.g2.com/products/cast-ai/reviews) - **Highest Performer:** [PointFive](https://www.g2.com/products/pointfive-2024-08-28/reviews) - **Easiest to Use:** [CloudKeeper](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudkeeper/reviews) - **Top Trending:** [ScaleOps](https://www.g2.com/products/scaleops-cloud-native-optimization-scaleops/reviews) - **Best Free Software:** [Datadog](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews) --- **Sponsored** ### Cast AI Cast AI is an automation platform for operating cloud-native and AI infrastructure at scale. It keeps applications fast and stable by continuously optimizing production systems and eliminating manual operations as environments scale. [Visit website](https://www.g2.com/external_clickthroughs/record?secure%5Bad_program%5D=ppc&secure%5Bad_slot%5D=category_product_list&secure%5Bcategory_id%5D=1388&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_id%5D=1388&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bmedium%5D=sponsored&secure%5Bplacement_reason%5D=page_category&secure%5Bplacement_resource_ids%5D%5B%5D=1388&secure%5Bprioritized%5D=false&secure%5Bproduct_id%5D=136001&secure%5Bresource_id%5D=1388&secure%5Bresource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bsource_type%5D=category_page&secure%5Bsource_url%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fcategories%2Fcloud-cost-management%3Fpage%3D15&secure%5Btoken%5D=3281f5cbd96f0a86fb715ec7aa07086bbc16ab90142c9b2eb6ed8d84a72a5f0f&secure%5Burl%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fcast.ai%2Flp%2Fstart-automation%2F%3Futm_source%3Dg2_ads%26utm_medium%3Dpaidsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dg2_cloud_cost_managing%26utm_term%3Dg2_cloud_cost_managingscaling%26utm_content%3Dg2_cloud_cost_managing&secure%5Burl_type%5D=custom_url) --- ## What Are the Top-Rated Cloud Cost Management Tools Products in 2026? ### 1. [Pier Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/pier-cloud-pier-cloud/reviews) Pier Cloud is a FinOps platform built to empower and designed to transform how companies operate in the cloud — with intelligence, structure, and purpose. The platform helps organizations connect cloud investments to real outcomes, automate critical processes, and scale with confidence. Pier Cloud provides multi-layer dashboards that combine operational and business metrics, detailed visibility by organizational unit, and features such as retroactive tagging and Kubernetes cost segmentation. With GenAI-based insights and a proprietary FinOps LLM, it generates executive-level reports that simplify visibility and support decision making. The platform is aligned with the FinOps Foundation Focus Specification and is ready for Cloud+ and FinOps for SaaS scopes. Its modules cover automation rules, multicloud compliance, rightsizing, Spot Instance management, chargeback, forecasting, and workload optimization, with advanced BI and multicloud integration. **Who Is the Company Behind Pier Cloud?** - **Seller:** [Pier Cloud](https://www.g2.com/sellers/pier-cloud) - **Year Founded:** 2017 - **HQ Location:** São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/piercloud (38 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 2. [Props AI](https://www.g2.com/products/props-ai/reviews) Props AI enables effortless cost monitoring and usage based billing for AI companies. **Who Is the Company Behind Props AI?** - **Seller:** [Props AI](https://www.g2.com/sellers/props-ai) - **Year Founded:** 2023 - **Twitter:** @getPropsAI (29 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/props-ai/ (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 3. [Pulse](https://www.g2.com/products/devoteam-pulse/reviews) Pulse is a cloud management platform that enables you to gain complete visibility and control across your AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure environments. Users can identify cloud cost reductions, security enhancements and performance optimisations from a single pane of glass. **Who Is the Company Behind Pulse?** - **Seller:** [Devoteam](https://www.g2.com/sellers/devoteam) - **Year Founded:** 1995 - **HQ Location:** Levallois-Perret, France - **Twitter:** @Devoteam (4,289 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/devoteam/ (9,702 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 4. [Rabbit](https://www.g2.com/products/rabbit/reviews) Rabbit is a cloud cost management and cloud cost optimization SaaS product that's mission is to provide cloud cost transparency **Who Is the Company Behind Rabbit?** - **Seller:** [Aliz Technologies](https://www.g2.com/sellers/aliz-technologies) - **Year Founded:** 2009 - **HQ Location:** Budapest, HU - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/alizcompany (236 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 5. [Rackspace Spot](https://www.g2.com/products/rackspace-spot/reviews) Rackspace Spot is a cloud infrastructure service that offers managed Kubernetes clusters through an open market auction, providing cost-effective cloud solutions for businesses of various sizes. It leverages an open market auction model where users can bid on cloud server capacity, and resources are allocated based on market-driven pricing. This approach allows for significant cost savings, potentially up to 90% compared to traditional cloud instances, especially for workloads that can tolerate occasional interruptions. **Who Is the Company Behind Rackspace Spot?** - **Seller:** [Rackspace Technology](https://www.g2.com/sellers/rackspace-technology) - **Year Founded:** 1998 - **HQ Location:** San Antonio, TX - **Twitter:** @Rackspace (98,359 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/rackspace-technology (7,147 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Company Size:** 100% Mid-Market #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Rackspace Spot? **"[Excellent Spot Instance Management and Cost Optimization](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/rackspace-spot-review-11568835)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Sumeet K.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/rackspace-spot-review-11568835) --- ### 6. [Rackwyse](https://www.g2.com/products/rackwyse/reviews) Rackwyse is an intelligent cloud cost optimization SaaS platform designed to help startups, scale-ups, and enterprises reduce their cloud spending across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud (GCP). It serves as a unified multi-cloud dashboard that automatically analyzes bills, identifies waste, and provides actionable recommendations to cut cloud bills, with some users reporting savings of 30-40%. Key Features and Capabilities: Unified Multi-Cloud Dashboard: Provides visibility into AWS, Azure, and GCP from a single interface, eliminating the need to use multiple cloud consoles. AI-Powered Optimization: Machine learning algorithms analyze up to 90 days of usage data across 200+ services to right-size resources and optimize commitments (RI, Reservations, CUD). Automated Action: Allows for one-click approval to implement savings or generate Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, ARM) for DevOps review. FinOps & Collaboration: Enables teams to set custom thresholds, track spending in real-time with hourly updates, and manage cost allocation by team or project. Target Market: Specifically designed for modern DevOps and FinOps teams, particularly targeting startups and SMBs that find enterprise tools like CloudHealth too expensive. **Who Is the Company Behind Rackwyse?** - **Seller:** [Rackwyse](https://www.g2.com/sellers/rackwyse) - **Year Founded:** 2025 - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/rackwyse/ (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 7. [Serviceware Financial](https://www.g2.com/products/serviceware-financial/reviews) Serviceware Financial is a leading software tool for the Financial Management of your IT and Shared Services. With a structured service catalog, a detailed cost-to-service-flow and the capabilities to create virtually infinite budgeting scenarios, you can create as much cost transparency as you need. Automated capabilities for documentation allow for simplified, tax-compliant reporting and adherence to all transfer pricing regulations. Serviceware Financial is the easiest way to cut down on IT and Shared Service costs and prove to your business the true value of your services. Let's talk about Cloud Cost Management and Cloud Economics Cloud costs are analyzed and cloud operations right-sized simultaneously. Integrates with VMware Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth®, supporting all major public cloud vendors. Let's talk about time-to-value Enterprise customers profit from Serviceware Financial in multiple ways. The ignition spark on your way from data to dashboard is the underlying calculation model. We call it ‘Digital Value Model’, because it provides enough flexibility to incorporate enterprise-specific tags and attributes when allocating costs, while managing budget and demand are standardized on the processes layer, all with a focus on uncovering those value creating opportunities. With flexibility and standards in balance, customers’ sometimes herculean efforts for implementation are reduced significantly. They can draw from best practices and get a head start on their way to the multiple benefits of TBM as defined by the TBM council. The Digital Value Model is your autobahn to TBM. **Who Is the Company Behind Serviceware Financial?** - **Seller:** [SERVICEWARE SE](https://www.g2.com/sellers/serviceware-se-62d35c35-1c26-4008-8d62-9cda4893f0d8) - **Year Founded:** 1998 - **HQ Location:** Idstein, Hesse - **Twitter:** @serviceware (193 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/serviceware/ (360 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 8. [SKYXOPS Orbit](https://www.g2.com/products/skyxops-orbit/reviews) SKYXOPS Orbit is the multi-cloud visibility layer of the SKYXOPS platform, giving engineering, FinOps, and finance teams a unified view of cloud spend, usage, and resource inventory across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. SKYXOPS leads with CostGuard, our shift-left cost validation engine that catches expensive infrastructure changes before they ship. CostGuard analyzes Terraform plans directly in CI/CD pipelines, flags cost-impacting changes at pull request time, and provides AI-powered hints so engineers can make informed decisions before resources are provisioned. This moves cloud cost from a monthly finance review into an engineering workflow where it actually gets fixed. Orbit complements CostGuard by consolidating billing data, resource metadata, and tagging hygiene into a single pane of glass, so teams can see where spend is going, which accounts or projects are driving costs, and where waste is hiding before it shows up on the invoice. Teams use Orbit to answer questions like: Which services grew the fastest this month? Which resources are untagged or misallocated? Where is idle or underutilized capacity sitting across our clouds? The SKYXOPS platform also includes ConfigIQ for anomaly detection and governance with 112+ sensors, and Edge managed services for teams that need hands-on FinOps delivery. Together, the suite delivers AI-powered insights with human-controlled decisions across the full cloud cost lifecycle - from pre-deployment validation through post-deployment visibility and governance. **Who Is the Company Behind SKYXOPS Orbit?** - **Seller:** [SKYXOPS](https://www.g2.com/sellers/skyxops) - **Year Founded:** 2023 - **HQ Location:** Austin, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyxops/ (10 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 9. [Spendview for snowflake](https://www.g2.com/products/spendview-for-snowflake/reviews) Build trust in your Snowflake Data Cloud by creating transparency across your organization. Spendview provides visibility and clarity into Snowflake consumption across the enterprise.​ Zoom into compute, storage, and usage spend to reduce inefficiencies and optimize costs. **Who Is the Company Behind Spendview for snowflake?** - **Seller:** [DataOps.live](https://www.g2.com/sellers/dataops-live) - **Year Founded:** 2020 - **HQ Location:** London, England, United Kingdom - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/dataopslive (38 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 10. [Spot Insights](https://www.g2.com/products/spot-insights/reviews) Spot Insights, powered by CloudPilot AI, is like a crystal ball for cloud developers: it shows real-time spot instance prices, interruption rates, and historical trends across availability zones. Stay ahead of price spikes, avoid interruptions, and make smarter cloud cost decisions—all in one simple dashboard. **Who Is the Company Behind Spot Insights?** - **Seller:** [CloudPilot AI](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cloudpilot-ai) - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Twitter:** @Cloudpilot_ai (8 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudpilotai (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 11. [StackSpend](https://www.g2.com/products/stackspend/reviews) StackSpend is a spend control platform for lean teams. It unifies your cloud and AI costs across providers like AWS, GCP, Azure, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others into one dashboard, so you can see where money is going in real time. Instead of digging through multiple billing portals, founders get clear visibility into cost drivers by provider, service, team, and project, plus alerts and reporting that help catch spikes early. The goal is simple: reduce waste, improve forecasting, and protect runway without adding finance overhead. **Who Is the Company Behind StackSpend?** - **Seller:** [StackSpend](https://www.g2.com/sellers/stackspend) - **HQ Location:** London, GB - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/stackspend/ (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 12. [SubTrackHub](https://www.g2.com/products/subtrackhub/reviews) SubTrackHub is a cloud-based SaaS subscription management platform designed to help individuals, startups, and growing teams track and analyze their recurring software expenses. The platform provides a centralized dashboard where users can record and monitor all active subscriptions, renewal dates, billing cycles, and associated costs. By consolidating this information in one place, SubTrackHub helps users maintain visibility into their recurring digital expenses and make informed decisions about subscription usage. Modern businesses often rely on multiple SaaS tools for development, communication, analytics, marketing, and infrastructure. As the number of tools increases, subscription costs can become difficult to track and manage. SubTrackHub addresses this challenge by providing structured tracking and analytics that allow teams to understand where their subscription spending is occurring and how frequently services renew. Many organizations discover that unused or forgotten subscriptions can accumulate over time, resulting in unnecessary recurring charges. Tools designed for subscription management help prevent this by providing visibility and reminders for upcoming billing events. SubTrackHub enables users to add and organize subscriptions from various categories such as software tools, cloud infrastructure services, digital platforms, and online memberships. Each subscription entry can include information such as price, billing cycle, start date, renewal date, and service provider. The platform then aggregates this data to generate monthly and yearly spending insights. Key capabilities of SubTrackHub include subscription tracking, renewal reminders, spending analytics, and structured organization of recurring services. Users can monitor upcoming renewal dates, analyze subscription spending patterns, and identify services that may no longer be actively used. The system also helps users understand how subscription costs evolve as teams adopt additional tools. The platform is designed for freelancers, startup founders, developers, and small teams who use multiple SaaS products in their daily workflows. By providing visibility into recurring expenses and subscription usage, SubTrackHub supports better financial planning and helps users maintain control over their digital service portfolio. **Who Is the Company Behind SubTrackHub?** - **Seller:** [Autonomix Labs](https://www.g2.com/sellers/autonomix-labs) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/autonomix-labs (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 13. [Superstream](https://www.g2.com/products/superstream/reviews) Superstream Is An AI-based Engine That Reduces Your Kafka Expenses And Boosts Its Performance by 75% Without Changing a Single Component or Your Existing Kafka! **Who Is the Company Behind Superstream?** - **Seller:** [Superstream](https://www.g2.com/sellers/superstream) - **Year Founded:** 2022 - **HQ Location:** Palo Alto, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/superstreamai (14 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 14. [SurPaaS](https://www.g2.com/products/surpaas/reviews) SurPaaS® Ops not only helps you deploy a large number of applications on to the Cloud but also manages the complete lifecycle of your applications and makes it easy for you to redeploy your applications as robust scalable applications on the Cloud. **Who Is the Company Behind SurPaaS?** - **Seller:** [Corent Technology](https://www.g2.com/sellers/corent-technology) - **Year Founded:** 2010 - **HQ Location:** Aliso Viejo, US - **Twitter:** @CorentTech (753 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/corent-technology/ (282 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 15. [Tagbot](https://www.g2.com/products/tagbot/reviews) Tagbot is a simple tool that uses AI/ML to expose the tag coverage in your AWS environment and addresses the business impact associated with how well-tagged your infrastructure is.It addresses one of the simplest, yet most poorly utilized capabilities inherent in most important AWS services; the ability to apply tags for effective oversight of one's infrastructure. **Who Is the Company Behind Tagbot?** - **Seller:** [TrackIt](https://www.g2.com/sellers/trackit-3cbad6f8-15bd-44f6-873c-007e66d1447d) - **Year Founded:** 2014 - **HQ Location:** Marina Del Rey, US - **Twitter:** @TrackItCloud (189 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/trackitcloud/ (71 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 16. [Taloflow](https://www.g2.com/products/taloflow/reviews) Taloflow is the leading technology selection platform to get a detailed requirements table, filter solutions based on your priorities, and evaluate vendors for your exact use case. In addition, we offer a money-back guarantee that you'll pick the best solution for your use case within 1 week. Our service is unique. Within minutes, you'll have a matrix of vendor pros and cons, a shortlist of vendors, and an objective analysis as to who wins and why. Tap into 10s of thousands of vendor data points curated by top analysts with experience at Gartner. Asynchronously build consensus on requirements between leaders and contributors in IT, product and engineering using our collaborate notebook. Get started today with a free report in any one of 30+ categories. **Who Is the Company Behind Taloflow?** - **Seller:** [Taloflow](https://www.g2.com/sellers/taloflow) - **Year Founded:** 2017 - **HQ Location:** Santa Monica, US - **Twitter:** @TaloHQ (311 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/taloflow (11 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 17. [Teevity](https://www.g2.com/products/teevity/reviews) Teevity provides a cloud costs analytics and management service to help companies deal with pay-per-use IT services. **Who Is the Company Behind Teevity?** - **Seller:** [Teevity](https://www.g2.com/sellers/teevity) - **Year Founded:** 2009 - **HQ Location:** N/A - **Twitter:** @teevity (156 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/teevity/about/ (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 18. [TENET](https://www.g2.com/products/tenet-tenet/reviews) TENET is a risk intelligence platform purpose-built for the Microsoft ecosystem to deliver unified visibility and proactive risk assessment across Azure and M365. It serves as a single source of truth for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating cloud risk at scale—enabling organizations to shift from reactive firefighting to continuous, intelligence-driven security operations. Key Features: - Attack surface management: Identify risky entry points, misconfigurations, and third-party exposures. Visualize attack paths, map findings to MITRE ATT&CK, prioritize remediation, and manage incidents from a unified cloud risk view. - Anomaly detection: Detect issues early with real-time analysis of cloud workloads, identities, and applications, helping teams identify abnormal behaviour and mitigate risks before they become incidents. - Compliance readiness: Simplify audits with continuous compliance monitoring, guided remediation, and risk-prioritized insights. Reduce costs and manual effort while shrinking audit preparation from weeks to hours. - Microsoft 365: Gain visibility into external sharing, device risk, license utilization, and Copilot agents. Understand how identities, configurations, and data exposures combine to create risk across your cloud environment. - Access governance: Monitor human and non-human identities, analyze effective permissions across Entra ID and RBAC, and maintain clear visibility into who can access resources across your cloud estate. - AI monitoring: Discover and inventory AI models, agents, and cognitive services. Continuously monitor performance, reliability, and security posture while identifying AI-specific risks and prioritizing remediation. - Intelligent insights: Investigate and resolve issues faster with BriteAI. Transform live data into actionable insights, identify root causes through natural language queries, and receive precise remediation guidance. Core Value: TENET eliminates blind spots and reduces mean time to remediation (MTTR) through end-to-end Microsoft cloud visibility and guided remediation. It lowers compliance and audit overhead, enables teams to proactively identify and mitigate risks before they escalate, and scales security operations efficiently with AI-powered insights and autonomous remediation with full context via the TENET MCP server. For more information, visit www.aesonsolutions.com. **Who Is the Company Behind TENET?** - **Seller:** [AESON Solutions](https://www.g2.com/sellers/aeson-solutions) - **Year Founded:** 2025 - **HQ Location:** Lodz, PL - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/aeson-solutions/ (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 19. [Ternary](https://www.g2.com/products/ternary-inc/reviews) Ternary is a multi-cloud FinOps platform. The company is headquartered in the United States and was founded in 2020. Trusted by enterprises and managed service providers (MSPs), Ternary manages over $7.5 billion in annual cloud spend. Designed for finance, engineering, and FinOps teams, Ternary eliminates cloud cost friction and brings teams into a shared workflow to make data-informed decisions. With detailed cost breakdowns, customizable dashboards, anomaly detection, and integrations with tools like Slack and Jira, Ternary helps your business scale efficiently. Ternary’s platform enables organizations to control costs, reduce waste, and improve financial accountability. **Who Is the Company Behind Ternary?** - **Seller:** [Ternary](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ternary) - **Company Website:** https://ternary.app/ - **Year Founded:** 2020 - **HQ Location:** San Mateo, US - **Twitter:** @ternaryinc (104 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/71642228 (38 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 20. [Tevico](https://www.g2.com/products/tevico/reviews) Tevico is a cloud governance platform for your AWS cloud. With Tevico, you get guidance with respect to Cloud financial management, security management, inventory management and many more things which are crucial for your AWS governance. Additionally, Tevco has automation features which allow you to automate your cloud management workflows. **Who Is the Company Behind Tevico?** - **Seller:** [Comprinno Technologies](https://www.g2.com/sellers/comprinno-technologies) - **Year Founded:** 2013 - **HQ Location:** Bangalore, IN - **Twitter:** @comprinnotech (43 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/comprinnotech (79 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 21. [The GlobalSolutions](https://www.g2.com/products/the-globalsolutions/reviews) The GlobalSolutions is a consulting firm specializing in providing innovative solutions across various industries, including technology, business strategy, and environmental sustainability. With a mission to drive transformative change, The GlobalSolutions collaborates with organizations worldwide to address complex challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities. The firm is known for its expertise in leveraging cutting-edge technology and strategic insights to deliver measurable results that align with global standards and sustainable business practices. Their services are tailored to help businesses optimize operations, enhance efficiency, and foster growth in an increasingly competitive market. Key Features and Functionality: - Cost Optimizer: A dashboard that allows users to analyze cloud expenditures, identify unused AWS resources, and implement machine learning-based actions to reduce costs. - AWS Marketplace Applications: Over 60 pre-configured application stacks available for subscription, enabling quick deployment without the need for extensive setup. - Cloud Security Solutions: Tools to scan AWS infrastructure for security vulnerabilities and manage patching of EC2 instances across regions from a centralized interface. Primary Value and Solutions Provided: The GlobalSolutions addresses critical business needs by offering tools that reduce cloud spending, enhance security, and improve developer productivity. Their solutions enable organizations to efficiently manage cloud resources, deploy applications swiftly, and maintain secure environments, thereby allowing businesses to focus on core operations and innovation. **Who Is the Company Behind The GlobalSolutions?** - **Seller:** [The Globalsolutions](https://www.g2.com/sellers/the-globalsolutions-0855637b-f0a1-4584-aa9c-452d1da6e9ae) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **Twitter:** @the_Gsolutions (4 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/42330783 (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 22. [Turn It Off](https://www.g2.com/products/turn-it-off/reviews) Turn it Off is an intelligent, no-code FinOps platform that reduces cloud bills and cloud waste, by turning off applications, environments and resources which are not in use. Using smart automation and intelligent scheduling, Turn it Off minimises cloud waste, cutting both expenses and carbon emissions. Best of all, it’s a solution that pays for itself, with savings starting from day one. Instant Savings, Immediate Impact Turn it Off begins saving you money from day one. By identifying and automatically shutting down idle resources, it gives businesses instant control over cloud costs, providing an immediate return on investment (ROI) and clear, transparent savings. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Beyond cost savings, Turn it Off offers a way to make a positive environmental impact. By cutting cloud waste, businesses also reduce their carbon footprint, aligning with eco-friendly practices that benefit both the planet and the bottom line. Simple to Set Up, Easy to Use Turn it Off integrates seamlessly with major cloud providers like AWS and Azure, and setup takes only minutes. Our user-friendly interface makes tracking and managing savings straightforward, even for non-technical users, with real-time dashboards displaying both cost and carbon savings. Smart Scheduling, Minimal Effort The intelligent scheduling feature ensures resources are off when not in use, automatically managing cloud environments so teams can focus on their core priorities. Pay As You Save With our pay-as-you-save model, Turn it Off charges only based on the savings it generates, delivering value from day one and directly benefiting the bottom line. Empowering Businesses with Cloud Control Turn it Off gives businesses effortless control over their cloud usage, empowering them to reduce both costs and carbon without sacrificing performance. **Who Is the Company Behind Turn It Off?** - **Seller:** [Turn It Off](https://www.g2.com/sellers/turn-it-off) - **HQ Location:** London, GB - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/turn-it-off/ (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 23. [USU FinOps](https://www.g2.com/products/usu-usu-finops/reviews) Cloud optimization software like USU FinOps help you understand your cloud spend and find real savings. Use Virtual Tags to easily set up complex business rules and allocate costs exactly where they belong. As your software and solutions partner, we’ll help you build a strong, end-to-end FinOps strategy that fits your business needs. **Who Is the Company Behind USU FinOps?** - **Seller:** [USU](https://www.g2.com/sellers/usu) - **Year Founded:** 2000 - **HQ Location:** Boston, MA - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/usu-solutions-en/00137992 (198 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** ETR: OSP2 ### 24. [Viio](https://www.g2.com/products/viio/reviews) Viio is a comprehensive spend management solution designed to help businesses optimize their software investments. By centralizing software spending, Viio provides organizations with the tools they need to gain complete control over their expenditures, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to their strategic goals. This platform is particularly beneficial for finance teams, procurement specialists, and IT departments looking to streamline their software management processes while maximizing value. The target audience for Viio includes mid-sized to large enterprises that face challenges in managing multiple software licenses, contracts, and vendor relationships. With the increasing complexity of software ecosystems, companies often struggle to keep track of their spending, leading to inefficiencies and wasted resources. Viio addresses these challenges by offering AI-driven insights that identify cost-saving opportunities and highlight unnecessary expenses, allowing organizations to make informed decisions about their software investments. Key features of Viio include proactive license and contract management, which helps organizations stay compliant with software agreements and reduces the risk of security breaches. By uncovering potential threats and ensuring that all software is used in accordance with licensing agreements, Viio not only protects businesses from financial penalties but also enhances overall security posture. The platform’s centralized dashboard provides a clear overview of software usage and spending patterns, enabling teams to identify areas for improvement and implement cost-saving measures effectively. In addition to its robust management capabilities, Viio offers expert compliance support, ensuring that businesses remain up-to-date with industry regulations and standards. This feature is particularly valuable for organizations operating in highly regulated sectors, where compliance is critical to maintaining operational integrity. By simplifying software spend management, Viio empowers teams to focus on strategic initiatives that drive real value, rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks. Overall, Viio stands out in the spend management category by combining advanced technology with practical insights and expert support. This unique approach not only helps businesses save money but also fosters a culture of accountability and strategic thinking within organizations, ultimately leading to more effective software investment strategies. **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 11 **How Do G2 Users Rate Viio?** - **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 9.3/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Viio?** - **Seller:** [Viio](https://www.g2.com/sellers/viio) - **Year Founded:** 2020 - **HQ Location:** Copenhagen, DK - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/viioio/ (43 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Company Size:** 64% Mid-Market, 18% Enterprise #### What Are Viio's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Cost Saving (4 reviews) - Ease of Use (4 reviews) - Intuitive (4 reviews) - Cost Savings (3 reviews) - Customer Support (3 reviews) **Cons:** - Integration Issues (3 reviews) - Insufficient Information (2 reviews) - Access Control (1 reviews) - Complexity (1 reviews) - Limited Cloud Integration (1 reviews) ### What Do G2 Reviewers Say About Viio? *AI-generated summary from verified user reviews* **Pros:** - Users value the **cost-saving insights** from Viio, facilitating effective management and optimization of SaaS expenditures. - Users find Viio's software extremely **intuitive and user-friendly** , enhancing their experience with seamless implementation and excellent support. - Users find Viio to be **intuitive and user-friendly** , making it easy to navigate and implement effectively. - Users benefit from **significant cost savings** with Viio by streamlining procurement and managing subscriptions effectively. - Users commend Viio for its **excellent customer support** , enhancing the overall experience and fostering vendor relationships. **Cons:** - Users face **integration issues** with third-party services, wishing for more options and better management of licenses. - Users find the **insufficient information** on essential features in Viio limits its financial utility and justification for usage. - Users express frustration with the **limited visibility** of third-party integrations caused by access control restrictions. - Users find the **complexity of license packages** challenging, making it difficult to navigate options effectively. - Users desire **more cloud integrations** with Viio to enhance functionality and streamline complex license management. #### What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Viio? **"[Viio provides overview and savings](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/viio-review-11159376)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Rasmus Steenberg A.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/viio-review-11159376) --- **"[Helped us show potential savings](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/viio-review-11035229)"** **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars *— Andrew H.* [Read full review](https://www.g2.com/survey_responses/viio-review-11035229) --- ### 25. [WiseOps](https://www.g2.com/products/wiseops/reviews) WiseOps is a cloud cost optimization platform that helps businesses reduce their AWS (Amazon Web Services) costs and improve application performance. The platform provides over 100 actionable recommendations that can be implemented with a single click and are reversible by default. It includes solutions like: Wise Tuner: Optimizes the compute performance of various AWS services such as EC2, ECS, ASG, RDS, K8S, Data Transfer Cost, Sagemaker, and Open Search to achieve the lowest costs. Wise Scheduler: Utilizes AI algorithms to determine when AWS services are not in use, particularly in development and staging environments, and automatically turns them off to save costs. Wise Manager/Cleaner Acts like a CT scan for your AWS environment by finding and eliminating unused or 'zombie' resources. Wise Analyst Provides a comprehensive dashboard to help users understand their costs and savings across all their AWS accounts. The platform is designed to be a co-pilot for engineering teams, continually working to lower cloud costs through its various tools and solutions. It operates on a success-based fee model, meaning it charges its clients based on the savings it delivers, ensuring alignment of incentives. **Who Is the Company Behind WiseOps?** - **Seller:** [Wise Operations](https://www.g2.com/sellers/wise-operations) - **Year Founded:** 2023 - **HQ Location:** Hyderabad, Telanagana - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/wiseopsai/ (6 employees on LinkedIn®) ## What Is Cloud Cost Management Tools? [IT Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/it-management) ## What Software Categories Are Similar to Cloud Cost Management Tools? - [Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-infrastructure-monitoring) - [Cloud Compliance Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-compliance) - [Cloud Management Platforms](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-management-platforms) --- ## How Do You Choose the Right Cloud Cost Management Tools? ### What You Should Know About Cloud Cost Management Tools ### What are Cloud Cost Management Tools? Cloud cost management tools are software platforms a company utilizes to manage all costs related to cloud resources, optimization, and management. The software allows organizations to manage the costs associated with cloud computing. Managing cloud computing costs is done primarily with one focus in mind—to maximize cloud usage and increase operational efficiency. Cloud computing has been at the forefront due to its subscription or pay-per-use model. However, as companies wish to scale in terms of operations, tracking the cost of cloud services becomes a complex task and is not as transparent as “pay-per-use”. Numerous functions within an organization would have access to their cloud computing platforms, and having this decentralized approach could rack up massive amounts in cloud computing costs. Hence, having a cloud cost management tool ensures that cloud spend is kept in check and that the cloud resources are optimized and worth every penny spent. Cloud cost management focuses on understanding the different costs associated with cloud computing. Some key costs associated with the cloud include software licenses, web services, compute and storage costs, network costs, virtualized infrastructure/virtual machine instances, and additional costs such as training staff and personnel. As more companies move to the cloud, either partially or entirely, cloud storage costs do not remain the same. When a company needs to scale, IT staff can easily focus on acquiring more cloud services to ensure and support daily work activities without keeping concern for costs. Engineers or developers need to ensure that their products have a shorter time to market, thereby spinning up more cloud resources. This could have a huge impact on the business since there are no savings, but a huge cloud bill. Regardless of the cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, among several others, it is certain that money will be spent across resources that may or may not be utilized. When different cloud infrastructure is involved, cloud cost management software can make it much easier for companies to support cost optimization. For example, customers that have opted for multi-cloud environments. Cloud cost optimization needs to be given priority since different cloud service providers are being used. Hence, costs may vary across all providers, making it complex and difficult to track. By understanding the costs, companies can focus on cost optimization and ensure accountability. Cloud cost management is therefore, not just about cost control, it's about resource optimization, forecasting and budgeting, and reducing wastage. ### What are the Common Features of Cloud Cost Management Tools? Cloud cost management software has several features that makes it a strong choice for companies that want to keep track of their spending on cloud. The following are some core features within the software that can help users in several ways: **Automatic scaling:** The promise of unlimited scalability is one of the biggest pros of cloud computing technology. Automatic scaling ensures that resources are used and available when needed, and powered down when not in use. Companies do not need to spend large amounts on unutilized cloud resources. The software helps companies automate governance of costs, compliance, security, and cloud operations. Planning for maximum utilization all the time when using only some percentage of it is extremely expensive in the long run. **Instance management:** A key cost driver for cloud computing is the number of unused instances that a company opts for. If a firm is not using an instance, the cloud cost optimization software can track and alert the customer if there is no need for the instance and help to save costs. The software can also find discount instances that can be used for non-critical workloads that do not need to run constantly, thereby driving more savings. **Automated alerts and notifications:** Cloud spend management platforms allow users to set up automated alerts and budgets. These alerts warn the user when there are authorization failures, sudden cost spikes, untagged infrastructure, and when budget limits are crossed. Having alerts sets is critical to ensure business continuity and keep costs optimized. **Cost allocation:** A key feature of cloud cost management tools is that it allows the user to keep track of the team spends on cloud computing resources. This will allow management to set up appropriate budgets and track spends by various company functions.  **Chargeback:** Chargeback is a feature where the cost of cloud services is applied or “charged-back” to the business unit responsible for the cloud expense. The chargeback feature in different cloud cost savings platforms allows companies to track the departments that are making the most (and least) use of cloud costs—this information is useful while making budgeting decisions. ### What are the Benefits of Cloud Cost Management Tools? Benefits of cloud spend management platforms include: **Reduce cost:** This is understandably the most important benefit of cloud cost management software. Companies use cloud cost management software to ensure cloud optimization. Companies can monitor and track their spending, ensure optimal resource allocation, and take advantage of discounts offered by cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP. Companies can even use this software to visualize and understand their cost profile when evaluating cloud migration, deploying new cloud security policies, and maintaining cloud health. **Eliminate waste:** By understanding and tracking their cloud usage and cloud bills, companies can reduce waste and ensure that they are making the best of their cloud resources. Techniques that support this include automatic scaling and load balancing. **Improve business performance:** A business needs to ensure its cloud strategies align closely with its business goals. Overprovisioning of cloud resources means significant wastage of company profits and underprovisioning could cause workloads and applications to suffer if there is no proper cloud support. In such a situation, planning for the right cloud cost management solution is key to ensuring smooth performance in any environment—whether on a public, private, hybrid, or moving from on-premises to cloud. **Gain visibility into cloud storage costs:** Cloud spend management platforms provide visibility into cloud resource costs that are kept idle, unallocated, over-utilized. Some cloud cost management software provide an hourly granularity as well. Having a single pane of glass dashboards ensures a single point for admins to manage, organize and optimize their cloud environment. **Get recommendations to cut costs:** One of the key benefits is that the software can provide recommendations to reduce costs. These recommendations are based on analyzing different workloads and their cloud requirements. Costs are analyzed down to the root sources, and recommendations are made to the user. **Improve reporting and analytics:** Data-driven decisions will help the user make better decisions regarding their cloud spending. By tracking patterns in cloud spending, cloud cost management tools can provide their users with graphs or tables of data that can be used for data analysis—these analytics can be cross-referenced with business outcomes to ensure the company is on the right track with its cloud strategy. Major cloud providers provide reporting as part of their subscription packages such as AWS Cost and Usage report.  ### Who Uses Cloud Cost Management Tools? **Cloud architects:** Cloud architects manage the technical requirements of cloud architecture and oversee a company’s cloud environment and strategies. A cloud architect is the main persona that uses cloud cost management software. Understanding how to manage cloud spends and optimize cloud resources falls upon the cloud architect. A cloud architect doesn't just work with engineering and development, they also work closely with HR, finance, logistics, and security to ensure that cloud strategies are being optimized. **Cloud cost managers:** Cloud cost managers handle various tasks such as forecasting, budgeting, business development practices and processes, identification of trends and opportunities, cloud governance best practices, among many others. Managers can use the analytics dashboard to keep track of cloud strategies and propose changes and suggestions to decision makers based on derived insights. **IT teams and admins:** IT admins use cloud cost management tools to optimize cloud infrastructure and ensure all resources are being used judiciously. Cloud admins can use the software to set up real-time monitoring, budget, notifications, and alerts. Administrators gain access and control the cost view over the company cloud through a web-based interface they can access from anywhere. **Cross-functional teams:** Cloud computing has become an integral part of enterprises across the globe. Several cross-functional teams such as engineering teams and application development and testing teams within an organization depend on cloud to ensure they create and release products with a much lower time to market. The heads of cross-functional teams within an organization can keep track of how spending on cloud resources to ensure they are well within the budget provided. **Cloud service providers:** Cloud service providers offer cloud cost optimization options. Having internal cost management options that are reliable, scalable, consistent, and available as required is a key benefit for several customers. Some of the biggest names in cloud platforms include AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and several others have their specific cloud spend management platforms such as Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Budgets, Azure Cost Management, Cost management by Google Cloud, among several others. Integrated cost management tools along with billing support are offered at no additional costs by these cloud giants. #### Software Related to Cloud Cost Management Tools [Cloud management platforms](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-management-platforms) **:** Cloud cost management forms a key part of cloud management platforms. A cloud management platform is a set of unified software tools which help companies monitor and control cloud computing resources. This software brings the administrative visibility and capability of cloud cost management solutions. [Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/infrastructure-as-a-service-iaas) **:** Cloud cost management tools are typically paired with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings to minimize the costs of a pay-as-you-go model. Companies also use a combination of these tools to increase the efficiency of their cloud service usage—these solutions often provide reporting features to outline waste and redundancies.  [SaaS spend management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/saas-spend-management) **:** Cloud cost management software has some overlap with SaaS spend management software, but the latter is used to monitor and manage spending on cloud applications rather than cloud infrastructure. ### Challenges with Cloud Cost Management Tools Cloud cost optimization solutions can come with their own set of challenges.  **Billing challenges:** Complexity in billing practices and not understanding what the customer bill contains is a key challenge. Without understanding the bill itself, optimizing costs is a difficult task since the customer cannot identify avenues for cost optimization. **Approach towards policies:** Each team would follow their respective budgets allocated and manage their cloud resources and cost. Having a cloud cost management tool could generate some backlash since costs by each team are being monitored, which could be quite tricky to manage. **Budget forecasting:** Cloud cost optimization is difficult when there are plans in the pipeline to add new products and services, handle unexpected business demand, or make any changes to software design. Forecasting is complex, and cloud spend management platforms must rapidly adjust to capacity or alerting users of sudden spikes in cost due to such scenarios. **Cloud sprawl:** One of the biggest challenges that companies face is that in the excitement of cloud computing technology, they end up moving entire databases and applications without a plan. This leads to cloud sprawl, wherein an organization does not have a complete view of all the cloud infrastructure. Organizations will end up managing several cloud instances, providers, services, and therefore are unable to view or maintain accountability for all cloud components. Even with cloud cost management software, organizations might not be able to understand and deploy the full use of this software due to cloud sprawl. **Lack of skilled resources:** Finding the right talent to invest, track, and optimize all cloud resources within an organization is tough. Identifying the type of skills required and finding the right fit is a huge challenge. ### How to Buy Cloud Cost Management Tools #### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Cloud Cost Management Tools When researching cloud cost management platforms, the first and foremost step is to ask one question—what issues could potentially be solved using a cloud cost management tool? It is essential to understand cloud spend inefficiencies and identify the ones harming the buyer’s organization. Taking into consideration the reasons for cost inefficiencies is critical. Some of the key reasons that cause companies to rack up huge cloud bills are:  **Poor resource management caused by oversizing:** Companies usually end up spending a lot on acquiring resources but only utilize half of that at any point in time. A capacity that isn't needed is a part of the wasted cloud costs. Rightsizing ensures that costs are being optimized and the company is not facing copious amounts in bills. **Software inefficiency:** Since several different teams would be using the cloud resources within the company, it becomes quite difficult to keep track of the cloud storage costs. Failure to measure software efficiency or not having set targets can lead to an increase in the wastage of cloud computing resources. **Forecast issues:** As discussed earlier, scaling is a key feature of cloud computing. However, when companies fail to forecast their needs (which is a difficult task) such as developing new services or changing existing ones, it could rack up unintentional costs since the company would be over or underprepared for the additional needs. **Architectural design:** With the hype around moving to cloud, several companies are moving to cloud just to enter the hype; realizing later that it is much more expensive than anticipated. Workloads might not be suitable for some specific cloud environments or not supported, additional licensing might be required, governance issues might crop up, and a host of other problems that would only drive costs further up. Once a company has identified the issues and cost inefficiencies, it becomes much easier for the customer to filter out and identify what type of cloud cost management they are looking for. If the buyer prefers having a single software solution owner, they could opt for a single cloud provider with inherent cloud cost optimization capabilities. However, if the buyer prefers a separate tool to manage various cloud environments like hybrid and multi-cloud environments, they could opt for another stand-alone solution altogether. Customers can use reviews here at G2.com as a guide to move forward with choosing the software. #### Compare Cloud Cost Management Tools Products **Create a long list** This step involves creating a long list of cloud cost management software providers that assist buyers in cost optimization plans. Some key factors to consider include automation, server instances tracking, billing methods, dashboard functionality, cost reduction, security support, data privacy, etc. In this step, it is important to note that many top cloud service providers provide cloud cost optimization as a part of their cloud offerings (on a subscription basis), hence it is important to evaluate whether the added functionality is sufficient or a stand-alone solution is required. **Create a short list** Once the long list of cloud cost management tools has been identified, it is time to remove software that does not meet all the business criteria. For this, it is important to fall back on the assessment made earlier on what is to be done before choosing a cloud spend management solution. Based on the assessment, buyers can further shorten their list and only choose those software vendors that meet all the business requirements. **Conduct demos** Once the list has been reduced to a couple of vendors, buyers may begin to request a demo. The demo will give them an idea of how the software will work once and help them assess all the various features the software has to offer. Having a demo on resources and applications is a good way to ensure the best fit. At this step, the buyer should ask several questions to the vendor about after-service support, staff training, and other additional features that can be provided. Understanding the dashboard and visualization of the cost parameters is essential during demos. #### Selection of Cloud Cost Management Tools **Choose a selection team** Choosing the right team to work together on choosing the software is a critical part of the process. This team will be in charge of identifying pain points to finally overseeing the entire implementation of the cloud management software. The team should include a mix of different personas who have the required skills, interest, and time. Some roles include cloud architects and cloud admins, IT admin and staff, department heads, and finance managers (for budget allocations).  **Negotiation** When choosing a cloud cost management tool, bringing in negotiation factors is very important especially on pricing. Since a buyer’s requirement for the cloud might change based on the types of workloads being run and applications being developed, buyers should ensure that the software accurately reflects the resources being utilized at that point in time and account for possible changes in the future. This is necessary to ensure that the customer is not being overcharged. Bringing such discussions to the negotiation table is key. In addition, it is important to negotiate possible additional costs that might come in for the remainder of the contract. **Final decision** Once all the steps are complete, the final decision is made weighing all factors and scenarios. Buyers can first try to run cloud cost management software with a smaller number of instances and monitor the cost savings and resources being optimized. Based on this feedback, it can be used for enterprise-wide cloud cost management.