Surprising but true - a staggering 69% of IT leaders exceeded their cloud budgets in 2023. 

As the cloud landscape evolves at a breakneck pace, businesses need to get smarter about managing their costs to make the most of their cloud investments. In 2024, we're seeing new trends taking the spotlight. Multi-cloud strategies are becoming a favorite, allowing companies to cherry-pick the best services from different providers. Hybrid cloud solutions are also gaining ground, especially in regulated sectors like finance and healthcare. 

Containerization and microservices are big players in cloud cost optimization these days. They let companies deploy applications more efficiently and scale up or down based on demand, which is a huge win for controlling costs. Additionally, the growth of AI workloads is pushing companies to use resources more effectively. On the other hand, AI is also being used to optimize and automate cloud management.

But with all these advancements, managing costs in dynamic, cloud-native environments isn’t getting any easier. Businesses are looking to adopt comprehensive cost management strategies and leverage advanced tools to get better visibility into spending and ultimately drive cost savings. Today, cloud cost management is all about being proactive and making sure every dollar spent is well accounted for.

Why Cloud Cost Management Must Be a Top Priority in 2024

Managing cloud environments is getting more complex for organizations. This complexity often leads to overspending and wasted resources. About 80 percent of enterprises find managing cloud spending to be a challenge.

While multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies offer great flexibility and performance, they also make cost management trickier. This is because different platforms come with diverse pricing models and varied resource use, which may lead to

• Poor visibility, making it hard to track spending.
• Over-allocation of resources, resulting in wasted costs.
• Increased storage expenses due to data growth.
• Complex pricing models that hinder spending optimization.
• Uncontrolled spending from lack of cost awareness.
• Higher expenses from cost-unaware architecture.

Without strong cloud cost management, it’s hard to keep spending in check, align with business goals, and maintain control over finances.

Core Aspects of Effective Cloud Cost Management

Understanding the key aspects of cloud cost management is crucial for today’s businesses navigating complex cloud environments. The primary areas include:

1. Cloud Cost Optimization 

Optimization is the key to achieving both cost savings and operational excellence in the cloud. However, it’s important to understand the nuances.

• Resource Optimization vs. Rate/Purchasing Optimization

Resource optimization is all about making the most of what you already have. It involves practices like rightsizing your instances, finding and shutting down idle resources, and matching workloads with the right resource levels. This helps you use your existing setup more efficiently and cut down on unnecessary costs.

On the flip side, rate or purchasing optimization is focused on getting the best deals. This means using strategies like reserved instances, spot instances, and taking advantage of any discounts cloud providers offer. It’s all about reducing your overall spending by making smart purchasing choices.

• Proactive vs. Reactive Optimization

Proactive tools make adjustments in real-time based on current usage, so you can adapt quickly to changing demands. Reactive tools, on the other hand, analyze usage after the fact, spotting inefficiencies only after costs have piled up. While both have their place, proactive optimization is becoming the go-to because it helps you avoid overspending before it even happens.

2. Cloud Cost Reporting

Good cloud cost management also hinges on solid reporting, which includes:

• Planning: Accurate forecasting and budgeting are key to controlling cloud costs. By using historical data and market trends, organizations can set realistic budgets, plan effectively, and make smarter resource decisions. It also allows for evaluating what-if scenarios to predict cost impacts before making changes.

• Reporting of Actuals: This means keeping tabs on your actual spending compared to your budget and forecasts. Tools that break down costs by service, resource, team, or project simplify this process. 

In a nutshell, as cloud environments become more intricate, the need for dedicated cost optimization tools becomes more pressing. 

Evaluating Cloud Cost Management Platforms in 2024: What to Look For?

With countless tools available, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. Here’s a checklist you can use to make a quicker and more informed choice.

1. Seamless Cloud Integration

• Integrates with AWS, GCP, Azure, and other major cloud platforms
• Offers multi-cloud optimization from a centralized dashboard

2. Real-Time Monitoring

• Provides real-time insights and alerts
• Detects anomalies and offers AI-driven remediation actions

3. Effective Budgeting

• Includes robust budgeting and forecasting features
• Provides recommended savings plans and precise financial tracking

4. User-Friendly and Scalable

• Features an intuitive interface
• Scales with your organization’s growing needs

5. Robust Security and Compliance

• Offers strong security features and compliance with industry regulations
• Includes secure access controls and multi-layered safeguards

6. Customizable Reporting

• Generates customizable reports and detailed analyses
• Provides insights into performance, cost, and errors

7. Detailed Cost Allocation

• Breaks down costs by projects, departments, and teams
• Facilitates targeted resource adjustments and cost management

8. Flexible and ROI-Driven Pricing

• Offers flexible, tiered pricing plans
• Provides ROI tracking and alerts for scaling investment

Check out our blog to discover effective ways to manage your cloud spend. Then dive into the top 18 tools we recommend to get the most out of cloud computing while staying financially savvy.

18 Best Cloud Cost Management and Optimization Tools in 2024

With so many legacy and new players in the market, choosing the right tool for your business can be challenging. To make it easier, here we have compiled a quick overview of the leading cloud cost optimization tools.

1. Sedai

Core Functionalities

Sedai helps organizations optimize cloud costs and performance autonomously with advanced AI capabilities, ensuring significant savings and efficient operations.

• Automatically reduces cloud costs by 30-50% using machine learning.
• Balances performance and cost savings by analyzing metrics and resource use.
• Uses AI and reinforcement learning to improve optimization strategies.
• Adjusts resources autonomously to minimize costs.
• Provides detailed reports on cloud spending.

Unique Feature

Sedai can optimize cost automatically without human input. Its AI algorithms learn from application behavior to adjust resources in real-time.

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Customers
Companies like Palo Alto Networks, Experian, HP, and KnowBe4 use Sedai to save costs and improve efficiency.

Pricing Model
Sedai uses a subscription model that scales with deployment needs, aligning costs with cloud usage.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Sedai is praised for delivering substantial cost savings with AI-driven recommendations across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. However, it may require new users to overcome a learning curve.

‍2. CloudHealth by VMware

Core Functionalities

CloudHealth by VMware is a multi-cloud management platform designed to optimize cloud costs and improve financial governance. 

• Manages costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Provides cost history reports to track spending trends.
• Offers rightsizing recommendations to reduce waste.
• Detects spending anomalies to alert users.
• Gives actionable insights to use resources better.

Unique Feature

CloudHealth excels in multi-cloud management with a strong focus on FinOps, offering clear insights to align cloud spending with business goals.

Customers
CloudHealth is used by companies like Accenture, Cognizant, Pure Storage, Amazon, and Fujitsu, mainly in the IT sector.

Pricing Model
CloudHealth uses a subscription model that adapts to the organization's needs and scale. This helps them match costs with their cloud usage.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

CloudHealth excels in comprehensive multi-cloud management with strong cost allocation and rightsizing features. On the downside, it requires precise tagging and can be complex to set up.

3. Flexera

Core Functionalities

Flexera offers a cloud cost optimization solution that helps organizations manage their cloud spending and implement FinOps processes effectively.

• Manages costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Automates cost allocation using tags in billing data.
• Provides detailed cost visibility and reporting to identify savings.
• Recommends rightsizing and usage optimizations.
• Detects spending anomalies to prevent unexpected costs.

Unique Feature

Flexera integrates financial management with IT asset management (ITAM). This offers a unified view of cloud and IT costs to support better decision-making.

Customers

Flexera's customers include Cisco, SAP, GE, Accenture, and Coupa Software.

Pricing Model

Flexera uses a subscription-based pricing model that varies based on the number of managed assets and organizational needs.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Flexera is preferred for its unified view of IT costs across cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments. Yet, it has a steep learning curve, complex initial setup, and relies heavily on tagging for accurate cost allocation.

4. Apptio Cloudability

Core Functionalities

Apptio Cloudability is a cloud financial management platform that helps organizations optimize cloud spending and implement FinOps practices.

• Manages and optimizes costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Uses AI to provide personalized rightsizing recommendations.
• Offers detailed cost visibility with interactive reports and dashboards.
• Sets budgets and sends alerts to prevent overspending.
• Recommends commitment-based discounts like Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.

Unique Feature
Cloudability’s True Cost Explorer visually breaks down costs and identifies cost drivers to explore optimization scenarios and understand financial impacts.

Customers
Used by Cisco, GE, Accenture, SAP, and government agencies.

Pricing Model
Subscription-based pricing with tiers based on cloud accounts and usage. It also features custom solutions for additional services or integrations.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Apptio Cloudability provides comprehensive financial accountability for cloud spending with AI-powered insights for better decision-making. But it can be complex for new users and may require contacting sales for pricing and setup.

5. Spot by NetApp

Core Functionalities

Spot by NetApp, formerly Spot.io, is a cloud management platform that optimizes costs using spot instances to help organizations reduce expenditures.

• Automates spot instance management, cutting costs by up to 90%.
• Offers dashboards and reports for detailed insights into spending.
• Provides predictive analytics to forecast future costs.
• Gives real-time rightsizing recommendations.
• Integrates with existing cloud environments and tools.

Unique Feature

Spot Intelligence combines AI with real-time market data to optimize spot instance use and predict interruptions, balancing cost and performance.

Customers

Used by NetApp, Cisco, SAP, Accenture, and various IT and software development companies.

Pricing Model

Subscription-based with pay-as-you-go and tiered pricing based on usage and features.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Spot by NetApp automates spot instance management, greatly reducing costs and providing real-time spending visibility. On the flipside, it has limited features for non-spot instance management and may need additional tools for complete cost optimization.

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6. Turbonomic (IBM)

Core Functionalities

Turbonomic, an IBM company, is an AI-driven platform for optimizing performance, cost, and compliance in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

• Optimizes workloads in real-time based on application needs.
• Automates resource allocation and offers cost-saving recommendations.
• Manages costs across hybrid and on-premises data centers.
• Provides actionable insights and automated recommendations.
• Features Executive Dashboards for cost justification and simplified IT operations.

Unique Feature
Turbonomic’s real-time, application-aware optimization adjusts resources dynamically to balance performance and cost efficiently.

Customers
Used by J.B. Hunt, Komatsu, Providence, Experian, Palo Alto Networks and others.

Pricing Model
Offers tiered pricing based on the number of managed resources and specific optimization needs.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Turbonomic excels in application-aware workload optimization and real-time adjustments to maintain performance while managing costs. However, its setup and configuration can be complex, and users may face a steep learning curve for advanced features.

7. nOps

Core Functionalities

nOps is an automated cloud management platform designed to optimize AWS costs. It uses advanced automation and analytics to reduce waste and improve financial governance.

• Automates tasks like pausing idle resources, managing Reserved Instances, and rightsizing EC2 instances.
• Provides real-time tracking of AWS usage and spending.
• Analyzes resource use and suggests rightsizing.
• Detects unusual spending patterns using machine learning and alerts users.
• Automates scheduling and pausing of resources during non-peak hours.

Unique Feature

Compute Copilot manages EC2, RDS, and EKS resources, optimizing spot and reserved instances to maximize savings and maintain reliability.

Customers

Used by Camlin, Cargo Chief, Mode2, and various AWS-focused startups and enterprises.

Pricing Model

Subscription-based, charging a fee based on a percentage of the cloud spend it optimizes.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

nOps is appreciated for its detailed cost insights and automated resource management focused on AWS. However, it is criticized for being limited to AWS and having a less user-friendly interface.

8. Economize

Core Functionalities

Economize is a cloud cost optimization tool that helps organizations manage and reduce their AWS and Google Cloud expenses through actionable insights and automation.

• Connects AWS and Google Cloud accounts quickly for immediate access to cost data.
• Monitors cloud spending and sends alerts for potential savings.
• Analyzes resource use to identify underutilized assets for downsizing or termination.
• Offers a centralized dashboard for tracking all cloud assets and their costs.
• Tracks historical cost changes to identify trends and address cost spikes.

Unique Feature
Dynamic cost-saving concierge service delivers tailored recommendations based on real-time usage and spending analysis.

Customers
Used by Netcore, Adapt, ShopUp, and others focusing on AWS and Google Cloud.

Pricing Model
Economize is subscription-based with tiered pricing depending on the number of accounts and services needed. Free trial available.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Economize is preferred for its quick integration and tailored cost-saving recommendations for AWS and Google Cloud. On the flipside, it may lack advanced features and has limited user feedback.

9. Lucidity

Core Functionalities

Lucidity is a cloud cost optimization platform focused on managing block storage costs. It automates the detection of storage inefficiencies and optimizes scaling, helping organizations reduce cloud expenses.

• Identifies inefficiencies and highlights areas for cost savings.
• Adjusts storage resources in real-time to avoid overprovisioning.
• Tracks storage costs and performance for proactive management.
• Reduces manual intervention, easing the burden on DevOps teams.
• Allows tailored resource management policies and performance optimization.

Unique Feature

Integrates Storage Audit and Auto-Scaler, achieving up to 70% cost savings by automatically adjusting resources based on real-time demand.

Customers

Lucidity is used by Decacorns and Fortune 500 companies.

Pricing Model

Lucidity offers a subscription model with flexible options tailored to different business needs​.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Users value Lucidity's Live Block Storage Auto-Scaler for its automated, downtime-free resource adjustments, resulting in major cost savings. However, its focus on block storage may limit its usefulness for organizations needing broader cloud cost management solutions.

10. CloudZero

Core Functionalities
CloudZero is a cloud cost intelligence platform that offers deep insights and real-time visibility into cloud spending. It helps organizations optimize costs by aligning expenditures with business goals.

• Automates cost allocation across teams, projects, and services.
• Offers insights into cost per unit metrics, such as per customer or per feature.
• Uses AI to detect unusual spending patterns and sends real-time alerts.
• Provides insights into discounts, such as reserved instances and savings plans.
• Offers expert guidance from FinOps Account Managers for personalized support.

Unique Feature
CloudZero’s Cloud Cost Intelligence connects real-time data with business context to show how costs align with specific teams and services.

Customers
Serves Validity, Skyscanner, and various enterprises in tech, finance, and healthcare.

Pricing Model
Subscription-based with tiered pricing based on cloud usage and connected accounts. Free trial available.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

CloudZero is appreciated for translating technical metrics into business metrics, especially for SaaS companies. On the flipside, it is primarily focused on SaaS and has limited on-premises cost management features.

11. Anodot

Core Functionalities

Anodot is an AI-driven platform for cloud cost management. It helps organizations monitor, forecast, and optimize cloud spending with advanced analytics and machine learning.

• Provides instant visibility into cloud costs with continuous real-time monitoring.
• Offers automated recommendations to reduce costs, saving up to 40%.
• Detects unusual spending patterns with advanced anomaly detection and sends alerts.
• Delivers granular insights and detailed reporting on cloud usage and costs.

Unique Feature
Anodot’s AI-driven cost management engine learns from usage patterns to offer tailored optimization recommendations.

Customers
Includes Payoneer, Trax, and Aqua and other enterprises across various sectors.

Pricing Model
Subscription-based with tiered pricing and a free trial option.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Anodot is praised for its AI-driven insights and real-time anomaly detection. However, it is criticized for requiring significant setup time and challenges with data integration.

12. Zesty

Core Functionalities

Zesty is a cloud management platform that automates AWS discount optimization, focusing on Reserved Instances (RIs). It helps organizations maximize savings and reduce manual effort.

• Automates AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances management.
• Provides actionable insights and recommendations for cost optimization.
• Analyzes usage patterns to make accurate cost-saving suggestions.
• Offers detailed performance metrics and reports on Reserved Instances usage and costs.

Unique Feature
Zesty’s AI-driven discount optimization engine learns from usage patterns to provide tailored recommendations, maximizing savings and minimizing overcommitment risk.

Customers
Includes Zoopla, Motorola Solutions, Siemens, and other large corporations using AWS services.

Pricing Model
It features a subscription-based model with tiered pricing, and possibly performance-based fees linked to savings generated.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Zesty is preferred for automating AWS Reserved Instances and maximizing savings. On the downside, it is limited to AWS and requires a good understanding of AWS pricing models.

13. Datadog

Core Functionalities

Datadog is a monitoring and analytics platform that helps organizations optimize cloud costs. Its main focus is on application performance and infrastructure observability, but it also includes cost optimization features.

• Monitors and allocates cloud costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Detects unusual spending patterns and sends alerts.
• Predicts future cloud costs based on historical data and trends.
• Provides detailed cost analysis to help identify potential savings.
• Integrates with tools like CloudHealth and Cloudability for combined cost management.

Unique Feature
Datadog’s comprehensive monitoring across performance, infrastructure, and logs supports cost optimization by providing deep insights.

Customers

Datadog is used by Shell, Siemens, Samsung, Deloitte, and other enterprises. 

Pricing Model
Datadog offers flexible pricing based on data volume and hosts, with plans including Pro, Enterprise, APM, and Log Management, plus a free trial.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Datadog is appreciated for integrating cost data into engineering workflows with detailed breakdowns. However, it is criticized for being primarily a monitoring tool, lacking comprehensive cost management features, with complex pricing.

14. Cast.ai

Core Functionalities

CAST AI is an autonomous cloud management platform focused on optimizing Kubernetes applications. It automates cloud cost management to help organizations reduce expenditures while maintaining performance.

• Provides granular visibility into costs by project, cluster, namespace, and deployment.
• Offers comprehensive cost monitoring and reporting with detailed insights and savings opportunities.
• Utilizes automated bin packing to maximize resource utilization.
• Provides security and compliance reports for Kubernetes clusters.

Unique Feature
CAST AI’s unique feature is its autonomous optimization engine, which dynamically adjusts resources in real-time to achieve cost reductions of over 50% with minimal manual intervention.

Pricing Model
CAST AI has a subscription-based pricing model with a Free Plan for basic features, a Growth Plan for advanced features, and an Enterprise Plan for larger organizations.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

It is praised for automating Kubernetes resource optimization and providing real-time insights. On the flipside, it is focused only on Kubernetes and lacks customization options.

15. Kubecost

Core Functionalities

Kubecost is an open-source cloud cost management platform designed for real-time visibility and control over Kubernetes spending. It provides detailed insights into cost allocation, monitoring, and alerts to optimize cloud costs effectively.

• Offers flexible cost allocation by namespace, deployment, service, and more.
• Monitors costs across multiple clusters and multi-cloud environments from a single view or API.
• Tracks both in-cluster costs (CPU, memory, storage, network) and out-of-cluster expenses (tagged RDS instances, BigQuery, S3).
• Provides rightsizing recommendations to balance cost and performance based on service requirements.

Unique Feature
Kubecost’s unique feature is its comprehensive cost allocation capabilities, allowing for precise showbacks and chargebacks to streamline cost monitoring.

Customers
Kubecost is used by startups and large enterprises, including Thomson Reuters, Instacart, and Zendesk.

Pricing Model
Kubecost offers a freemium model, with a free plan for basic features and paid plans starting at $449 per month for 100 nodes. Paid plans include additional features like multi-cluster monitoring and advanced support.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Kubecost is preferred for its detailed visibility into Kubernetes costs and multi-cluster support. However, it is criticized for being mainly Kubernetes-focused, which may not suit non-containerized workloads.

16. Yotascale

Core Functionalities

Yotascale is a cloud cost management platform designed for dynamic multi-cloud environments. It provides granular insights into cloud spending to support effective cost optimization strategies for engineering and financial teams.

• Automates cloud cost allocation to teams, applications, and resources.
• Detects anomalous spending patterns using machine learning.
• Includes robust budgeting and forecasting tools to predict future expenses.
• Provides collaboration and reporting tools to enhance communication between finance, operations, and engineering teams.

Unique Feature
Yotascale’s unique feature is its predictive analytics, which uses machine learning to forecast future expenses and optimize budget control.

Customers
Yotascale serves organizations like Zoom, Hulu, Flatiron Health, and ClickUp.

Pricing Model
Yotascale uses a subscription-based model with tiered pricing based on cloud usage and resources managed, and offers custom quotes for tailored pricing.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Yotascale is appreciated for automating cost allocation and providing strong anomaly detection. On the downside, it may require additional integrations for comprehensive reporting and has a learning curve.

17. Harness Cloud Cost Management

Core Functionalities

Harness Cloud Cost Management (CCM) is a solution that helps organizations optimize cloud expenditures through automation and detailed cost analysis, providing visibility and insights for effective cost management.

• Automatically stops idle cloud resources to save up to 75% on costs.
• Provides detailed cost insights by projects, teams, and resources.
• Detects unexpected spending spikes in real time and sends alerts.
• Optimizes Kubernetes environments for additional savings.
• Creates custom reports and forecasts for better financial planning.

Unique Feature
Harness CCM’s unique feature is its AutoStopping function, which automatically eliminates idle costs without manual intervention.

Customers
Harness serves a variety of industries with customers including NCR, Kohl's, Discover Financial, Nationwide Insurance, and McAfee.

Pricing Model
Harness offers a subscription model with tiered pricing and custom quotes based on needs.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Harness CCM is praised for its intelligent automation and granular cost visibility, especially for Kubernetes. However, it is criticized for having a complex initial setup and limited features for non-cloud environments.

18. Virtana

Core Functionalities

Virtana is a cloud cost management platform that optimizes expenditures across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offering tools for effective monitoring and management.

• Provides real-time visibility into spending across multiple cloud providers.
• Automates cost allocation to teams, projects, and applications.
• Detects and alerts users to unusual spending patterns.
• Enables what-if scenario analysis for strategic planning.
• Allows creation of custom governance policies for tailored savings.

Unique Feature
Virtana's unique feature is its AI-powered insights, offering intelligent, data-driven recommendations for balancing performance, risk, and cost.

Customers
Virtana serves customers like Curo Financial and Global 2000 companies in finance, healthcare, and technology.

Pricing Model
Virtana uses a subscription-based model with tiered pricing and custom quotes based on needs.

Review Snapshot - What Users Say

Virtana is preferred for its real-time multi-cloud visibility and AI-powered insights. On the flipside, some users find its interface less intuitive, and the initial setup can be complex.

Wrapping Up

In 2024, effective cloud cost management is critical to stay competitive. Organizations are forming dedicated cost management teams and using advanced automation tools to optimize resources in real time. They're also turning to third-party solutions, which offer better visibility and customization than the standard tools from cloud providers.

On top of that, there's a growing emphasis on AI-driven predictive analytics to not only forecast costs but also suggest ways to avoid overspending before it happens. This shift from being reactive to being predictive helps you stay in control of your cloud spending. It also ensures your investments align better with your business goals.

When choosing a cloud cost management tool, it's important to consider several key factors. Scalability is essential - your tool must keep up as your cloud usage grows and becomes more complex. Look for innovative solutions that leverage the latest technologies to adapt to your changing needs. Compatibility is also crucial - the tool should seamlessly integrate with your existing cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others. A good tool helps align your cloud costs with your business goals, allowing you to make informed decisions. 

Looking to the future, embracing AI-driven cost optimization will be a game-changer. By leveraging AI-driven insights and automation, you ensure that your cloud investments support your strategic priorities and deliver maximum value. Discover Sedai’s autonomous, AI-powered cloud cost management and optimization solution, designed to position you for success in the ever-evolving cloud landscape.