# Best Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools for Small Business *By [Tian Lin](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/tian-lin)* Products classified in the overall Software Asset Management Tools category are similar in many regards and help companies of all sizes solve their business problems. However, small business features, pricing, setup, and installation differ from businesses of other sizes, which is why we match buyers to the right Small Business Software Asset Management Tools to fit their needs. Compare product ratings based on reviews from enterprise users or connect with one of G2's buying advisors to find the right solutions within the Small Business Software Asset Management Tools category. In addition to qualifying for inclusion in the Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools category, to qualify for inclusion in the Small Business Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools category, a product must have at least 10 reviews left by a reviewer from a small business. ## Category Overview **Total Products under this Category:** 60 ## Trust & Credibility Stats **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 2,400+ Authentic Reviews - 60+ 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. ## Best Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools At A Glance - **Best for Small Businesses:** [Alloy Navigator](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews) - **Best for Mid-Market:** [CloudEagle](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudeagle/reviews) - **Best for Enterprise:** [FlexNet Manager](https://www.g2.com/products/flexnet-manager/reviews) - **Highest User Satisfaction:** [Alloy Navigator](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews) - **Best Free Software:** [Zluri](https://www.g2.com/products/zluri/reviews) --- **Sponsored** ### Desk365 Desk365 is an AI-powered ticketing system for teams of all sizes. The Desk365 platform empowers agents to enhance productivity, automate workflows, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. With advanced features like AI-agent, approval management, ITAM, and Microsoft 365 integration, Desk365 stands for better service, better products, and AI that truly delivers. 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[Alloy Navigator](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews) Alloy Navigator is an AI-powered IT service and asset management solution that enables organizations of all sizes to manage their IT operations. This solution offers fully integrated help desk, network inventory and knowledge base capabilities, plus ITIL standards such as change and configuration management. Navigator creates relationships automatically between meaningful data while providing a comprehensive view of IT infrastructure components. Alloy Navigator’s service desk manages tickets, assets, incidents, changes, work orders and more within a single interface. Workflow management engine inside Alloy Navigator enables users to design custom IT processes. These can be altered to the specific needs of the business and personnel and might even include AI-driven steps. The solution also offers an online web portal, self-service portal for end users, and mobile apps for technicians and end-users. The Self-Service Portal is equipped with an AI Assistant to resolve routine questions of end-users, freeing IT for bigger challenges. Alloy Navigator gives users the ability to one-click audit their entire network, conduct a physical inventory with a barcode scanner and ensure compliance in software licensing. End users and admins also have access to interactive dashboards, scheduled reporting and real-time views for timely analysis. **Average Rating:** 4.8/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 100 **User Satisfaction Scores:** - **Automated end user license provisioning:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Customized alerts:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10) - **Approved app catalogue:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 8.4/10) - **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) **Seller Details:** - **Seller:** [Alloy Software](https://www.g2.com/sellers/alloy-software) - **Year Founded:** 2002 - **HQ Location:** Bloomfield, NJ - **Twitter:** @AlloySoftware (469 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/alloy-software/ (17 employees on LinkedIn®) **Reviewer Demographics:** - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Marketing and Advertising - **Company Size:** 79% Small-Business, 32% Mid-Market #### Pros & Cons **Pros:** - Asset Management (26 reviews) - Ease of Use (25 reviews) - Ticketing System (21 reviews) - Ticket Management (21 reviews) - Automation (18 reviews) **Cons:** - Learning Curve (11 reviews) - Complex Setup (9 reviews) - Limited Customization (8 reviews) - Setup Difficulty (8 reviews) - Poor Interface Design (7 reviews) ### 2. [USU](https://www.g2.com/products/usu/reviews) USU is an IT Management software provider headquartered in Boston, MA, specializing in solutions designed to enhance operational efficiency and financial management for mid-market and enterprise organizations across North America and Europe. The company's offerings are tailored to meet the specific needs of various stakeholder groups within IT, Finance, Procurement, Customer Service, and Cloud Operations. By providing system-wide visibility and reducing costs, USU empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of hybrid and multi-cloud environments effectively. Our Product Suite: - IT Asset Management - SaaS Management - Multicloud Monitoring - FinOps - Customer Service Knowledge Management IT Asset Management The product suite includes standalone solutions that address critical operational and financial challenges faced by modern IT departments. For instance, USU IT Asset Management (ITAM) offers comprehensive visibility and control over software licensing and cloud entitlements. With features such as deep vendor optimization intelligence and seamless integration with ServiceNow, organizations can typically reduce software overspend by up to 30%, mitigate audit risks, and enhance negotiation outcomes. This solution is particularly beneficial for IT departments seeking to streamline their asset management processes. SaaS Management USU SaaS Management is a purpose-built solution that gives organizations complete visibility and control over their SaaS ecosystem. It helps IT, Finance, and Procurement teams reduce costs, improve governance, and streamline renewals by identifying underused, redundant, or unauthorized applications. Key Capabilities: \>\> Auto-discover all SaaS apps, including shadow IT \>\> Monitor usage to eliminate underused licenses \>\> Centralize renewals and contract data \>\> Control access and enforce policies Proven Results: \>\> Save 15–25% on SaaS spend \>\> Reduce tool sprawl and shadow IT \>\> Improve SaaS governance and renewal outcomes Multicloud Monitoring | Observability USU Multicloud Monitoring further enhances operational capabilities by offering real-time visibility into applications, services, and infrastructure. With AIOps-driven event correlation and automated root cause analysis, IT Operations and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams can resolve incidents more swiftly and prevent outages, thereby minimizing user impact. FinOps USU FinOps brings financial visibility and accountability to your cloud environment. It helps teams optimize usage, control budgets, and drive cost-aware decision-making across AWS, Azure, GCP, and hybrid clouds. Key Capabilities: \>\> Real-time cloud cost tracking \>\> Budgeting, forecasting, and alerts \>\> Identify and eliminate idle resources \>\> Enable showback and chargeback Proven Results: \>\> Cut cloud waste by 20–50% \>\> Improve budget accuracy \>\> Align finance and engineering teams Customer Service Knowledge Management USU also provides Customer Service Knowledge Management (CSKM), which enhances support efficiency through an AI-assisted knowledge platform. This tool ensures that content remains consistent and easily maintainable, resulting in reduced handling times and improved customer satisfaction (CSAT) across contact centers and service desks. Overall, USU's solutions focus on delivering practical ROI and measurable efficiency gains. By combining advanced software capabilities with expert advisory support, USU enables organizations to reduce costs, improve performance, and operate confidently in complex IT environments. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies and recognized in multiple Gartner Market Guides, USU is committed to fostering partnerships that ensure customers achieve and sustain meaningful results across their entire IT landscape. **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 49 **User Satisfaction Scores:** - **Automated end user license provisioning:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Customized alerts:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10) - **Approved app catalogue:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.4/10) - **Ease of Use:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) **Seller Details:** - **Seller:** [USU](https://www.g2.com/sellers/usu) - **Company Website:** https://www.usu.com - **Year Founded:** 2000 - **HQ Location:** Boston, MA - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/usu-solutions-en/00137992 (201 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** ETR: OSP2 **Reviewer Demographics:** - **Top Industries:** Consumer Services, Computer Software - **Company Size:** 56% Enterprise, 30% Small-Business #### Pros & Cons **Pros:** - Ease of Use (5 reviews) - Product Quality (5 reviews) - Data Management (4 reviews) - Integrations (3 reviews) - Monitoring (3 reviews) **Cons:** - Complex Configuration (2 reviews) - Inadequate Reporting (1 reviews) - Integration Issues (1 reviews) - Limited Automation (1 reviews) - Limited Customization (1 reviews) ### 3. [Licenseware](https://www.g2.com/products/licenseware/reviews) Licenseware connects with any IT data source (drag and drop or API) and applies complex SAM logic and context, allowing for rapid answers regarding your software licensing, compliance and cost optimisation potential. 🏆 ITAM Technology Innovation of the Year - ITAM Review Excellence Awards 2023 YTL Utilities UK 💬 "Licenseware made our Microsoft EA renewal simple, all of the complex manual work was removed entirely." Accenture 💬 "We're saving up to 50% of the time required to finish large projects". **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 23 **User Satisfaction Scores:** - **Automated end user license provisioning:** 7.8/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Customized alerts:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10) - **Approved app catalogue:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.4/10) - **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) **Seller Details:** - **Seller:** [Licenseware](https://www.g2.com/sellers/licenseware) - **Year Founded:** 2020 - **HQ Location:** Bucharest - **Twitter:** @licenseware (26 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/licenseware/ (13 employees on LinkedIn®) **Reviewer Demographics:** - **Top Industries:** Consulting, Computer Software - **Company Size:** 48% Small-Business, 30% Mid-Market ## Parent Category [IT Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/it-management) ## Related Categories - [SaaS Management Platforms (SMP)](https://www.g2.com/categories/saas-management-platforms-(smp)) - [SaaS Spend Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/saas-spend-management) - [IT Asset Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/it-asset-management) --- ## Buyer Guide ### What You Should Know About Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools ### What are Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools? Software asset management (SAM) tools allow businesses to manage the software licenses used across their company. These tools have traditionally supported on-premises software license management, but many tools also support SaaS assets, as well. Software asset management software helps companies monitor and manage software deployment, software licenses, license compliance, and ultimately license spend for all end users involved in the application. The primary use case of SAM is to keep the business compliant as software vendors don’t want the business using more of their software than they purchased or licensed. Vendors often conduct software compliance audits to ensure companies use the specific application correctly. If they are not compliant, a fee or penalty may incur. An excellent SAM practice prevents vendor audits and penalties.  SAM tools discover on-premises software by scanning databases, system logs, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. This not only shows the software used, but it also prevents unsanctioned software use, known as shadow IT, since it uncovers unreported software. After the discovery, SAM tracks the software compliance with metrics like renewal dates, the maximum number of users and devices, etc. SAM software will go through a normalization process that pulls these metrics out of contracts. Normalization can be partially automated, but due to the complexity of software contracts, manual entry may still be necessary for accuracy. After all key fields are pulled and tracked, SAM tools visualize the metrics and software usage to check for compliance. This visualization informs companies if there are any overuse cases so they can act early to avoid penalties.  Additionally, companies can make the most of their tech stack by ensuring every application is being utilized correctly and not paying for unused licenses. A visualization of usage ensures companies that their money is being spent most efficiently. **What Does SAM Stand For?** SAM stands for software asset management. It is a business practice for software compliance and procurement. SAM software does most of the heavy lifting by discovering software, tracking licenses, and visualizing usage data. Some SAM software also tracks SaaS and cloud applications, but they focus more on usage optimization than compliance. ### What are the Common Features of Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools? The following are some core features within SAM tools that can help users in monitoring software compliance, tracking usage data, and preventing vendor audits: **Software discovery:** A software management tool maintains a centralized software database. It should automatically discover and document software used on company devices. Manual entry at scale is impractical because it is too time-consuming and inaccurate. **Usage visualization:** SAM tools should track software usage from the time of procurement to their disposal. By monitoring usage by users, central IT can make important purchasing and license allocation decisions based on who is overusing or underusing the software in real time. **Alerting:** Once there is an overused case or expiring license, the system should alert the IT manager. Without this functionality, IT managers cannot discontinue or adjust software license agreements on time. Therefore, SAM plays a critical role in the IT service management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes. **Compliance documentation:** A software license agreement can be extremely complex. To document these compliance requirements, SAM tools should document the specific metrics and conditions in its database from the agreements. SAM experts would need to input this information into a centralized SAM database for any SAM tools to work. ### What are the Benefits of Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools? **Cost saving:** SAM gives companies a usage view of their software estate. This allows companies to cut underused licenses in vendor negotiations, saving them an average of 10-20% on software spending.  **Improves vendor relationship:** Vendors are less likely to perform an audit if they are informed of their client’s license entitlements. Suspicious software licensing changes are the top reason why vendors conduct audits. Constant auditing and frequent penalties waste time and deteriorate client relationships. Companies lower software audit risk by informing vendors on license changes, headcount changes, usage data, etc. **Prevents shadow IT:** Shadow IT is when employees secretly procure their desired hardware or software. There are security risks associated with unknown software, but there is also the threat of non-compliance. Unapproved software, which is therefore not covered by an organization’s license terms, could trigger a software vendor audit. SAM tools should tackle red tape, long delays, and missed requests from employees so they are less likely to procure unauthorized software.  ### Who Uses Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools? **IT managers:** The primary users of this software are IT managers. They are responsible for setting up the SAM tool and tracking all the software. SAM tools also enable them to negotiate better terms with vendors by identifying their real software requirements.  **Finance teams:** Finance teams can determine how many software licenses they can cut based on usage. This also provides them with a clear understanding of software costs in budget planning. #### Software Related to Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools [IT asset management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/it-asset-management): IT asset management (ITAM) software helps users document their IT hardware and software inventory. SAM is a part of the ITAM process since it only manages software inventory. [SaaS operations management software](https://www.g2.com/categories/saas-operations-management): SaaS operations management, or SaaSOps, is a process of managing, governing, and securing SaaS products within a business. This is similar to SAM but it mostly covers cloud applications. Some vendors today offer comprehensive tools that manage both SAM and SaaSOps practices.  ### Challenges with Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools **Data normalization:** Data normalization is part of the SAM automation process that identifies and formats key data from application codes. Normalization turns unstructured data into readable metrics to show compliance status and usage information. SAM tools automate this process with the correct configuration. The challenge is that it is time-consuming to set up the correct metrics (what is the limit for per device, per user, etc.) with complex software contracts. To correctly identify all the metrics, the legal, finance, and IT teams should work together for an extended period. Companies with new SAM processes should aim for a few critical software licenses to start. **Data integration:** Not all applications can be integrated with every SAM tool. Some SAM vendors offer specific SAM tools for leading vendors such as Microsoft, while some SAM vendors claim to offer all-in-one solutions for all applications. Companies should review their requirements and ask vendors to demonstrate whether or not their tools can integrate specific applications. ### Which Companies Should Buy Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools? **Enterprise** : Companies with 500 or more employees should consider buying SAM tools. Manual software license tracking is difficult with this many employees, typically enterprise businesses will hire license management solution companies to facilitate this task. Vendors also actively target enterprises for vendor audits, making them more likely to receive penalties.  ### How to Buy Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools #### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools Whether a company is looking for its first SAM software or trying to replace an existing one, g2.com can help find the best tool. The company’s needs when searching for SAM software often relate to specifically desired data and metrics. For example, the user may be most interested in monitoring their software usage. Buyers should make a ranked list of the SAM features that most directly address the problems they’re trying to solve, then reference G2 reviews to find the right fit. Prioritizing the desired feature set can help narrow down the potential pool of SAM solutions, allowing teams to then apply further considerations for budget, ease of integration with other systems, security requirements, and more. This holistic approach empowers buyers to move forward with a focused checklist, which can be used in conjunction with G2 scoring to select the best SAM product for the business. #### Compare Software Asset Management (SAM) Products **Create a long list** When searching for SAM software, companies need to identify compatibility with existing ERP, HR, and other business management software. Buyers should make a list of important existing software that needs to be integrated, then filter out the SAM tools that can’t be integrated with existing software. **Create a short list** It helps to cross-reference the results of initial vendor evaluations with G2 reviews from other buyers, the combination of which will help to narrow in on a short three to five-product list. From there, buyers can compare pricing and features to determine the best fit. Some vendors don’t charge implementation costs while some do.  **Conduct demos** As a rule of thumb, companies should make sure to demo all of the products that end up on their short list. During demos, buyers should ask specific questions related to the functionalities they care most about; for example, one might ask to be walked through a typical performance issue from alerting to license reconciliation within the SAM tool.  #### Selection of Software Asset Management (SAM) Tools **Choose a selection team** Regardless of a company’s size, it’s important to involve the most relevant personas when beginning the SAM software selection process. Larger companies may include SAM specialists, procurement teams, IT managers, and developers who will be working with the software most closely. Smaller companies with fewer employees might just need IT managers to fill the role. **Negotiation** Many vendors offer full software license platforms that go beyond SAM (on-premises) to include SaaS license management and spending platforms. While some companies will not budge on the configurations of their packages, buyers looking to trim costs should try to negotiate down to the specific functions that matter to them to get the best price. For example, a vendor’s pricing page where SAM functionality is only included with a robust all-in-one monitoring package, whereas a sales conversation may prove otherwise.  **Final decision** After this stage, it is important to perform a trial run if possible with a small selection of IT professionals or developers. This will help to ensure that the SAM software of choice integrates well with an IT administrator’s systems setup or a developer’s day-to-day work. If the SAM tool is well-liked and well-utilized, the buyer can take that as a sign that their selection is the right one. If not, looking back at the other options may be necessary.