The four tool families
| Family | Examples | Strengths | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native tools | Azure Cost Management, Azure Advisor, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Trusted Advisor, Google Cloud Billing | Free, complete for their cloud, built-in budgets and alerts | One cloud only, little link to the CMDB, generic recommendations |
| FinOps platforms | Apptio Cloudability, CloudHealth, Flexera One, Vantage, Finout | Multi-cloud, advanced allocation, showback and chargeback | License cost, integration project, vendor dependency |
| Kubernetes tools | OpenCost, Kubecost, AKS cost analysis | Costs per namespace and label, requests versus real usage | Only cover clusters |
| Custom tooling | Cost exports, Microsoft's FinOps toolkit, Power BI, KQL | Fit your organization and your CMDB, no license | Need skills to build and maintain |
What native tools do well
Azure Cost Management and AWS Cost Explorer provide the essentials for free: costs by service and resource, budgets and alerts, reservation recommendations, daily exports. For an SME on a single cloud, they are largely enough, as long as they are configured (budgets per scope, alerts to the owner, scheduled exports).
Their limit: Azure Advisor or Trusted Advisor recommendations are generic. They ignore your context (an underused VM waiting for a load peak, a UAT environment used one week a month). That's why we build a recommendation engine whose rules are defined with your IT department.
When a FinOps platform pays off
- Several clouds, plus SaaS, to consolidate into a single view.
- Complex allocation rules: shared costs, chargeback by business unit.
- A large organization that wants a standard tool, with roles and workflows.
Before buying, compute the total cost (license, integration, run) against the expected savings, and check support for the FOCUS format, which makes switching tools easier.
Our approach: start simple, tool what matters
- Daily cost exports, in FOCUS format when possible.
- Mapping to the CMDB through an application tag: that is what turns a bill into costs per owner.
- A Power BI dashboard refreshed daily, fitted to your organization.
- A recommendation engine fed by usage metrics, tracked all the way to the bill.
- A market platform only if the need justifies it.
For a first look without installing anything, our free analysis tool reads an Azure cost export directly in your browser.