Over the past eight years, the FinOps tooling landscape has rapidly evolved, growing from a handful of early solutions to more than 190 tools, according to the FinOps Foundation’s Landscape. Notably, the vast majority of these platforms are built primarily to support AWS.
What’s driving this surge in tools? First-generation platforms are working to stay relevant. Second-generation contenders are competing for dominance. Niche tools are gaining traction with specialized features. And now, a wave of AI-powered platforms is entering the market, each positioning artificial intelligence as a key differentiator.
In such a fragmented market, even experienced FinOps practitioners can find it hard to keep up. That’s where this guide comes in.
In this blog, we’ll help you cut through the noise with a curated list of six standout third-party AWS cost optimization tools worth your attention.
But first, let’s discuss the limitations of AWS-native FinOps tools.
Limitations of AWS-native FinOps tools
For cost monitoring, AWS offers several built-in tools (to help users manage, monitor, and optimize their cloud spending), like:
While these tools are undoubtedly helpful for getting started with FinOps on AWS, they tend to show their limits as your cloud environment grows more complex.
Let’s take a closer look at where these AWS-native tools start to fumble.
- Short look-back periods: Most AWS-native tools offer only limited historical data, typically around two weeks. That’s not nearly enough for identifying long-term trends or making strategic budget forecasts.
- Customization constraints: AWS-native tools work well for generic use cases, but they don’t bend easily to fit every organization’s FinOps strategy.
- Not a full FinOps solution: AWS-native tools focus almost exclusively on cost tracking and resource-level optimization. But FinOps is broader. Native AWS tools weren’t built to handle the full lifecycle of FinOps operations. Additionally, they fall short in multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
This is why AWS actively partners with cost optimization tools. They recognize their platform’s limitations and see the value in collaborating with third-party solutions to extend cost visibility and control.
What to consider before choosing your next AWS tool?
There’s no shortage of AWS FinOps tools out there. And it’s tempting to just grab whichever makes big claims. But before you jump in, there are a few things you seriously need to consider. Why? Because not every tool will fit your workload, budget, or sanity levels.
- Look for tools that provide granular insights into costs, usage patterns, and resource utilization across teams, accounts, and services. Bonus points if they let you tie those numbers back to actual business outcomes.
- Every organization has unique needs, so your AWS cloud cost management tools should let you take control. By control, we mean customizing dashboards, building alerts that matter to your team, and integrating with third-party platforms like Slack, Jira, or your favorite observability tools.
- Don’t forget scalability. You might be managing a small workload today, but tomorrow? Who knows? Your tool should grow with you, not break the minute your environment gets more complex.
- User experience is important. If the interface looks like it was built in 2002 and needs a PhD to navigate, it’s going to slow your team down. The ideal tool is easy to use for all skill levels.
Despite these tips, you’ll likely struggle to choose the right one from the sea of AWS FinOps tools. We created the Ultimate FinOps Buyers Guide to help you out of this exact situation.
Top 6 third-party AWS cost optimization tools
1. Ternary
Ternary is a purpose-built FinOps platform that supports AWS cost optimization and multi-cloud environments. The platform helps finance, operations, and engineering teams make informed decisions based on real-time cost data and actionable insights.
Organizations that are managing complex workloads across teams or regions often turn to Ternary because of its user-centric design and deep AWS compatibility.
Here’s what makes it useful for AWS:
- Granular tagging and cost allocation. Ternary allows custom tagging strategies and cost allocation rules. This is crucial for tracking spend across departments, projects, or environments, especially when aligning cloud usage with internal budgets or external billing.
- AWS-specific cost optimization. The platform identifies opportunities to cut costs by recommending instance rightsizing, deleting idle resources, and purchasing Reserved Instances or Savings Plans. This enables better usage of key services like EC2, S3, Redshift, and RDS.
- Real-time anomaly detection. The platform helps detect unexpected changes in cloud spend quickly. You can easily configure alerts and thresholds so your team is notified as soon as anything out of the ordinary happens.
2. CloudHealth
CloudHealth (formerly VMware Tanzu CloudHealth by Broadcom) is a multi-cloud platform. But its depth with AWS specifically makes it a popular choice for teams focused on cost governance, efficiency, and compliance. If your organization leans toward controlled processes and centralized oversight, CloudHealth fits that mold.
Let’s break down its key features:
- Cost visibility across accounts. The platform provides detailed insight into costs by AWS accounts, business units, or applications. Its FlexOrgs organizational hierarchy and Perspectives for business groupings are popular features.
- Sophisticated cost optimization. CloudHealth offers several key features to help purchase, manage, and exchange commitment-based discounts. These features allow for automated actions to be taken directly from the platform.
- Governance and compliance features. You can define policies for tagging, spending, and security to ensure that cloud operations stay aligned with company standards.
3. Finout
Finout is a FinOps software vendor headquartered in Israel. It just might be the most well-known tool established in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region.
Key features that make Finout a top-rate AWS cost optimization tool include:
- Cost monitoring and usage tracking. Finout’s patented MegaBill feature lets you easily view cloud cost and usage data in one place. It works across multiple cloud providers.
- Financial planning. The platform lets users create financial plans to track budgets and forecasts. These plans are customizable by hierarchy, virtual tag, etc.
- Waste detection. Finout’s CostGuard feature flags idle resources, underutilized instances, and savings opportunities so you can take action before costs balloon.
4. IBM Cloudability
IBM Cloudability (previously from Apptio) has been around since FinOps was barely a buzzword. It’s a first-generation AWS cost management tool. Cloudability is particularly useful for finance-driven FinOps teams that want structured multi-cloud reporting and forecasts.
Here are Cloudability’s key features:
- Comprehensive business mapping. Cloudability lets you group AWS cloud costs by business units, projects, or functions for cost visibility and reporting.
- Detailed cost optimization. The platform provides Reserved Instance and Savings Plan tracking, forecasting, and planning.
- Gamification with scorecards. Promotes accountability and efficiency across teams by tracking key KPIs.
For practitioners interested in adopting a suite of tools, IBM now offers several FinOps solutions. These include Cloudability for cloud cost management, IBM Turbonomic for application resource management and cloud optimization, Kubecost for Kubernetes native cost visibility and optimization, and IBM Instana for observability.
5. ProsperOps
ProsperOps, a niche solution for autonomous discount management, is regarded as one of the top rate optimization solutions for AWS.
Its AWS FinOps capabilities include:
- Automated optimization of discount instruments. ProsperOps intelligently manages your Reserved Instances and Savings Plans by blending them to achieve the highest possible cost savings based on real-time usage.
- Clear financial impact visualization. It provides transparent reporting that shows exactly how Reserved Instances and Savings Plans are contributing to cost savings.
- Risk-free pricing model. ProsperOps only charges based on the savings it generates. That means if you don’t save, you don’t pay.
6. Vantage
Vantage is a cloud cost observability tool built for self-serve AWS cost visibility. Its co-founders Ben Schaechter and Brooke McKim come from an AWS background.
Below are some of Vantage’s key features:
- Easy setup and reporting. It’s quick to set up compared to first-generation cost management platforms. All you have to do is connect your AWS billing data and start reporting on costs.
- Autopilot for Savings Plans. It automates AWS Savings Plan purchases based on usage insights across EC2, RDS, and OpenSearch.
- Network flow reporting. Vantage lets you visualize AWS network traffic costs and spot waste tied to data movement.
Honorable mentions
While many multi-cloud FinOps platforms support AWS cost optimization, it’s worth highlighting a few additional tools in the market that stand out.
- Kubecost is a niche FinOps solution in the AWS ecosystem. It’s tailored specifically for managing Kubernetes workloads, particularly Amazon EKS.
- PointFive, a newer entrant to the market is becoming known for coining the term Cloud Efficiency Posture Management. It’s a niche solution that helps teams eliminate deep infrastructure waste.
- CloudZero is a top 10 AWS FinOps tool known for its unit economics functionality. CloudZero is a ProsperOps partner for cloud cost optimization.
Why Ternary is the best FinOps tool your business needs
You’ve seen the top AWS cost optimization tools and tips on how to choose the right one. Now, here’s why Ternary stands out:
- People who know what they’re doing. Ternary is built by FinOps pioneers who’ve spent years in the trenches. Our team has tested the limits of first-generation tools, taken notes, and built something smarter.
- A process rooted in transparency. Many vendors sell a one-size-fits-all solution. We don’t. If Ternary isn’t the right fit, we’ll tell you. If it is, you get a flexible platform that adapts to your business needs, not the other way around.
- Technology built for a multi-cloud setup. Ternary’s open data platform supports AWS, Azure, and GCP. It includes agentless Kubernetes cost monitoring and delivers optimization recommendations you can actually implement.
- Transparent pricing. Ternary offers a fixed rate subscription tied to your cloud spend tier. That means you can plan your budget without bracing for impact when the invoice arrives.
- Collaboration that bridges teams. Ternary enables collaboration between finance, engineering, and operations. It does so by allowing users to create shared cases, automate workflows, and turn insights into action fast.
Final thoughts
AWS FinOps tools are complex and constantly evolving. But in a sea of options, few stand out like Ternary. With transparent pricing, frictionless setup, multi-cloud support, and a strong commitment to user-driven design, Ternary is a platform built with real-world cloud cost challenges in mind.
Get started with AWS cost optimization.
FAQ
What are the cost elements in AWS pricing?
AWS pricing includes compute costs (like EC2), storage costs (like S3), data transfer fees, and additional charges for services like support or premium features. These can vary based on usage type, region, and commitment models like Reserved Instances or Savings Plans.
What are FinOps best practices in AWS?
Some of the best FinOps practices in AWS include:
- Tagging resources consistently
- Setting budgets and alerts
- Purchasing Reserved Instances or Savings Plans
- Rightsizing underused services
- Adopting a clear cost accountability structure across teams
What key performance indicators (KPIs) should I track?
You should track KPIs like cost per service, cost per business unit, idle resource rate, budget variance, and forecast accuracy. These help monitor efficiency, predict spending, and ensure alignment with business goals.
