Too many SaaS subscriptions: consolidating your tools

Software subscriptions pile up without anyone really deciding they should. One department signs up for a tool for a specific need, another picks a similar one, and three years later finance discovers a budget line that has doubled. Here is a method to take back control, without replacing everything on principle.

To compare your subscriptions with a custom tool, the SaaS vs custom calculator gives you the break-even point in seconds.

Why subscriptions pile up

The SaaS model makes signing up easy: a credit card, a few minutes, and the tool is live. That is its strength. The drift comes from the same place:

• decentralized sign-ups, by department or by employee, outside procurement;
• licenses that are never reassigned after someone leaves or changes roles;
• overlapping tools: two project management tools, three ways to share files;
• oversized plans, chosen for a feature used by two people;
• price increases accepted by default at renewal.

The cost is not only financial. Every additional tool scatters information and creates re-entry between applications that do not talk to each other.

Step 1: take inventory

Build a single table, fed by invoices, bank statements and expense reports. For each tool, record the actual annual cost, the number of licenses paid for and used, the owner and the features actually used.

An illustrative example, with made-up tools and amounts to replace with your own:

Step 2: classify each tool

Each line falls into one of these categories:

• cancel: unused or fully duplicated tool;
• reduce: too many licenses or a plan that is too high;
• consolidate: two tools doing the same thing, keep one;
• keep: a specialized tool, well used, at the right price;
• replace: several tools together serve one business process, with re-entry between them.

The first three categories require no development and often deliver most of the savings. Start there.

Step 3: assess replacing tools with a business app

The “replace” category is where a custom tool can make sense. The typical sign: an online form, a spreadsheet, a project management tool and an automation service are stitched together to run a single process, such as tracking service calls.

In that case, compare over 3 years:

• the combined cost of the subscriptions involved, taking headcount growth into account;
• the time lost on re-entry and checks between tools;
• the cost of a single tool covering the process.

The calculation method is detailed in the 3-year total cost of SaaS versus custom software, and the estimator gives you a range based on the features you need. If the re-entry mostly comes from tools not being connected, see automating data flows between tools without Zapier.

When not to replace your subscriptions

Custom software is not the answer to everything. I advise against replacing a SaaS tool when:

• the tool is specialized, regulated or hard to replicate (payroll, accounting, e-signature, video conferencing);
• it is well used and its cost remains moderate compared with the value it delivers;
• it does not create re-entry with your other tools;
• you have not yet cleaned up licenses and overlaps.

The guide on custom apps versus SaaS goes through the criteria for each type of tool.

Step 4: take action

1. Cancel and reduce first: unused licenses, overlaps, oversized plans. Note renewal dates so you are not caught by automatic renewals.
2. Assign an owner to each tool, responsible for approving new licenses.
3. Identify one process where several tools are stacked and re-entry costs time.
4. Have it assessed: an audit or a 30-minute call tells you whether a business app would pay off, or whether better use of what you already have is enough.

If a business app is the answer, the project follows the usual steps: scoping with a fixed quote, mockups, development in batches, migration of data from the tools being replaced, and three months of support. The corresponding subscriptions are cancelled once the new tool is in production and approved.