CloudHealth and Cloudability are first-generation cloud cost management software solutions. They entered the market early, with CloudHealth launching in 2012 and Cloudability in 2011.
But are these first-generation platforms well equipped for the multi-cloud needs of today’s organizations? Have they kept pace with modern FinOps tools like Ternary that excel at multi-cloud cost management and optimization?
In this blog, we’ll compare Ternary vs. CloudHealth vs. Cloudability. We’ll break down each solution and compare them to help you decide which tool is the leading platform for managing cloud costs today.
Comparison overview
Let’s look at how Ternary, CloudHealth, and Cloudability differ (or are similar) in terms of essential FinOps capabilities.
| Criteria | Ternary | CloudHealth | Cloudability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment | SaaS or Self-Hosted | SaaS | SaaS |
| Built for | FinOps teams, Finance, Engineering, and MSPs | FinOps teams, Engineering, Cloud Ops, and MSPs | FinOps teams, Finance, Engineering, and MSPs |
| Multi-cloud support | AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, & Alibaba | AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Alibaba Cloud, & Data Center | AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, & IBM Cloud |
| Partner platform |  |  |  |
| MSP-specific dashboard with multiple views |  |  |  |
| Cost allocation |  |  |  Reallocations don’t appear in the reporting engine |
| Anomaly management with root cause analysis |  Connected to Ternary Reporting Engine |  Connected to FlexReports |  Documentation lacks mention of root cause analysis |
| Forecasting |  |  |  |
| Unit economics |  |  Unclear how this is handled |  Unclear how this is handled |
| Workload optimization |  AWS, Azure, & GCP |  GCP support is limited to GCE rightsizing only |  |
| Rate optimization |  AWS, Azure, & GCP |  Does not offer commitment management for GCP |  |
| Professional services |  Ternary is built in a way that customers don’t need Professional Services. |  |  |
Now that you have seen a comparison of Ternary vs. CloudHealth vs. Cloudability, we’ll explain them individually in detail.
Ternary
Modern organizations rarely live in a single cloud anymore. They run workloads across Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, Oracle, and countless third-party SaaS providers to support agility and innovation.
Organizations running multi-cloud workloads generate millions of billing line items every day, which makes managing cloud costs increasingly complex. Ternary is a modern FinOps platform that solves this challenge by consolidating billing data from multiple cloud providers into one accurate, unified source of truth.
Since each cloud provider has their own terminologies for similar billing data, Ternary normalizes them into a consistent format using the FOCUS™ (FinOps Cost and Usage Specification) standard to eliminate the friction of managing multiple billing dialects and accelerate multi-cloud analysis.
By doing so, the platform provides the visibility and analytical tools needed for finance, engineering, and FinOps teams to make informed decisions about cloud spending.
Ternary supports mid-market organizations, large enterprises, and managed service providers (MSPs). It’s the leading FinOps solution for MSPs managing multi-cloud customers. Since launching in 2021, Ternary has operated with a channel-first approach. Its multi-tenant architecture and dedicated MSP Dashboard enable providers to streamline operations and automate accurate, transparent billing for their clients with ease.
Additionally, our complete cloud cost management software offers budget tracking, anomaly detection, usage discount recommendations, and cost optimization opportunities.
Key Ternary features
- Offers both SaaS and self-hosted deployment options to meet data governance and compliance requirements.
- Enables accurate chargeback and showback with custom labels that map spend to cost centers, applications, or teams.
- Detects anomalies in cloud spend with machine learning and allows users to set custom thresholds that reduce noise.
- Comprehensive MSP dashboard that provides insights into cost trends, anomalies, savings opportunities, integrations, and user activity across customers.
Ternary pricing
- Fixed-fee subscription based on cloud spend tier.
CloudHealth (VMware by Broadcom)
CloudHealth belongs to the first generation of cloud cost tools in the industry.
The platform aggregates and analyzes data across on-premises, public, and hybrid cloud environments, as well as containerized workloads, to give users a unified view of their entire cloud ecosystem. While CloudHealth is a multi-cloud platform, it excels in AWS-heavy multi-cloud environments. Its capabilities in other clouds are not as robust.
CloudHealth organizes cost data through a feature called Perspectives. As the name suggests, Perspectives are dynamic business groupings that let different teams view reports and dashboards according to their specific needs. For example, finance teams can use Perspectives to group costs by cost center. But engineering teams would be more interested in grouping the same cost data by application or team lead.
That said, CloudHealth’s ownership history has created challenges for its users. CloudHealth Technologies was founded in 2012, before VMware acquired it in 2018. Then it became VMware Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth before being rebranded to VMware Tanzu CloudHealth. In 2023, Broadcom acquired the business and subsequently spun out go-to-market functions to Arrow Electronics.
Despite its turbulent history, CloudHealth continues to have a loyal MSP user base with a heavy AWS customer portfolio.
Key CloudHealth features
- Advanced role-based access control and customized business groupings with its FlexOrgs and Perspectives features, respectively.
- Automated commitment-based discount management for AWS.
- Governance policy engine to enforce budget, optimization, and security rules etc.
- Partner generated billing for managed service providers.
CloudHealth pricing
- Percent (%) of annual cloud spend, with annual uplift
IBM Cloudability
IBM Cloudability is a first-generation AWS cloud cost management platform (dating back to 2011) that now supports multiple clouds.
The platform appeals particularly to finance-driven FinOps teams who want high-level standardized multi-cloud reporting.
Cloudability was acquired by Apptio in 2019, before IBM acquired it in 2023. It is well suited to enterprises that are ready to invest in FinOps discipline. On the flip side, organizations needing rapid setup or tighter total cost of ownership may face trade-offs in complexity, cost, and speed of implementation.
The managed service provider (MSP) market only recently became a focus for Cloudability, with its entry in May 2024, years after competitors had already developed mature, partner-ready platforms. Despite the late arrival, the platform offers deep FinOps expertise and strong integration with ApptioOne, giving MSPs and customers access to advanced IT financial management (ITFM) and chargeback capabilities powered by IBM’s broader enterprise ecosystem.
Key Cloudability features
- Business mapping to group costs by business units, projects, or functions.
- Reserved instance purchasing strategies and workload planning so that businesses can match upcoming demand to the right instance types ahead of time.
- KPI scorecards for gamification and driving efficiency across teams.
- Natively connects with ApptioOne for IT financial management and can be bundled with IBM Turbonomic for application resource management and cloud optimization, Kubecost for Kubernetes native cost visibility and optimization, and IBM Instana for observability.
Cloudability pricing
- Percentage (%) of cloud spend with additional license charges for add-on products (e.g., Cloudability TotalCost, Cloudability Savings Automation, etc.)
Top alternative to CloudHealth and Cloudability
After comparing Ternary vs. CloudHealth and Ternary vs. Cloudability, it’s clear that Ternary stands out as a purpose-built, modern alternative to retrofitted legacy FinOps tools.
With flexible deployment options for regulated industries and an intuitive experience built for both engineers and finance professionals, Ternary delivers a forward-looking FinOps platform that evolves in step with how modern cloud teams operate today.
Modernize your FinOps practice today.
