Remember the days when you needed a large crew of in-house IT professionals to handle numerous apps and tools? When on-premise hosting costs were hefty, and you needed to be at the office to access most of your work tools?
That’s a distant reality in 2022. Now, anyone in the company can download software tools to help them be more productive. These tools are commonly referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS).
With so many SaaS tools available and in use, a SaaS management platform is essential for any modern business, especially for those embracing remote or hybrid work. If you need a way to manage and gain oversight of the software tools in your company, then this article is a perfect guide!
In the following, we will bring forward why every company should invest in a good SaaS Management Platform like Zylo or Cledara.
Sure, you may be asking yourself, "which one of the two?”. The truth is, when it comes to finding the right SaaS Management platform, there's not just one option. In this blog, we explore two solutions, each offering something unique, depending on your company’s needs.
What is SaaS?
Software as a service (SaaS) is a distribution model in which software is hosted and maintained by a vendor and available on the cloud. Apart from being a cost-effective solution, you can access SaaS 24/7 from any device. Plus, with updates handled by the vendor, feature improvements are frequent and often available at no extra cost.
But SaaS apps also come with risks.
What are the risks of SaaS?
Nowadays, it's no longer enough to simply have an app - you need SaaS (Software as Service) apps which come at a cost. The remote era means we rely heavily on these services. Still, there can be risks in doing so, such as having licenses for different areas across the globe result in over-expenditure or lack of visibility when managing your company’s IT resources.
Let's highlight three major problems with this type of decentralized application management:
- Lack of software visibility: There may be licensing redundancies and a resulting impact on costs if each department purchases subscriptions to different apps.
- Inefficient processes: If each area handles its own app licensing, your company will be repeating processes such as purchasing, onboarding, etc., over and over again.
- Security and compliance: Because data is stored in the vendors' hosting, it is important to ensure all acquired apps comply with the company's policies and present no risks of identity theft or privacy issues.
Why use a SaaS management tool?
According to Gartner's Market Guide for SaaS Management Platforms, 50% of organizations using multiple SaaS applications will use a management platform by 2026, an increase from less than 20% in 2021.
Why?
App management software allows you to monitor and manage the tools used by your company.
As a result, you will get three main benefits:
- Budget optimization: Having complete visibility of the company's software will allow you to eliminate subscription redundancies and find saving opportunities based on current usage.
- Management and automation: These tools offer workflow automation features, collaborative spaces, vendor management, and application onboarding/offboarding for employees – useful functionalities that can increase productivity, reduce inefficiencies and make happier teams.
- Security features: Most of these tools offer app security to ensure all purchased applications are secure and compliant.
Related: 5 Best SaaS Management Tools to Keep Track of Your Apps in 2022
Brief introduction to our previous research
In one of our previous articles, we discussed competitors that we considered to be the top on the market. Among them were both Zylo and Cledara.
Let's do a quick recap on Zylo vs Cledara.
What is Zylo?
Zylo is an excellent discovery and renewal management tool for software. As a tool for spotting and preventing shadow IT, it relies mostly on other software and does not enable SaaS purchase integration.
What is Cledara?
Cledara is a SaaS management and payment platform ideal for fast-growing startups and scaleups with numerous cloud-based apps. Among its highlighted functionalities, Cledara incorporates SaaS purchasing.
Our rating criteria
In our previous research, we defined the following 5 criteria to determine which was the best SaaS management tool:
- Free trial
- Reviews
- User experience (UX)
- User interface (UI)
- Advanced features
Here is a side-by-side comparison table that synthetizes our analysis of Zylo and Cledara:
Based on this comparison, Cledara has an edge over Zylo. Book a demo now and see why 600+ customers choose Cledara over any other tool of similar type.
To learn more about Zylo vs Cledara, keep reading.
Zylo vs Cledara: budget optimization
As we already discussed, budget optimization is one of the main benefits SaaS Management Platforms offer. So, let's check what functionalities our featured competitors offer.
On the one hand, Zylo has some interesting possibilities:
- Renewal management: Receive renewal alerts and notifications via Slack or email.
- Portfolio, Popular Application, and Price Benchmarks: Check anonymous industry data to understand if the price you are paying is within a reasonable range.
- Users and sentiment feedback: Collect inputs from end-users to understand if the SaaS applications you are using are worth renewing.
On the other, Cledara has several features that can help optimize your budget:
- SaaS Purchasing: Manage spending requests and budget approvals online.
- Virtual card: Assign each employee a secure unique virtual card for every subscription needed. Avoid hidden costs by setting a spending limit and avoid the risks of corporate card failure.
- Cash flow management: Create separate accounts for each country to be able to track cash flow and – at the same time – handle finances from a central location.
- Software Usage Monitoring: With real-time software visibility, track the usage of each software, including those outside of your approved software stack with Cledara Engage.
So, who gets the point for budget optimization features?
While Zylo's price benchmarking database is an interesting functionality, Cledara's tools go the extra mile with collaboration features that allow full cross-department visibility and help speed the process. This point goes to Cledara.
Zylo vs Cledara: management and automation
Regarding management and automation, Zylo provides:
- AI-powered discovery engine: Automatic detection and classification of all SaaS applications.
- SaaS contract management: Keep track of payments and save all of your contract documents on the platform.
- Extensive integrations: With integrations to Slack, Zoom, Google, and more, you can extend the platform's functionalities.
Cledara, meanwhile, offers:
- Real-time reporting: Find opportunities for savings or plan future budgets in a snap.
- Invoice automation: The system matches invoices to payments and automatically syncs them to your accounting system.
- Renewal reminders: Set automated reminders for your upcoming renewals and ensure you never miss a deadline.
While Zylo claims to be the only platform with an AI-powered discovery engine, Zylo also has a software discovery functionality. Reporting tools and reminders can also be found in both tools.
So, let's dig into the differences.
Contract management is a great tool, no dispute there. But invoice automation can also be beneficial. Did someone say a tie in the management and automation field?
Zylo vs Cledara: security and compliance
Regarding security, Zylo is clearly concerned about shadow IT, offering useful features to limit it:
- App Catalog: Publish IT-approved SaaS and share pre-vetted applications to prevent shadow IT.
- Shadow IT discovery: Zylo automatically finds any SaaS application that has not been approved by IT to ensure compliance with IT policies.
Cledara's features go all the way to include embedded compliance features and data security monitoring. Check it out:
- Compliance management: With embedded SaaS compliance features, Cledara ensures you follow the steps required by ISO27001 and SOC2 in your company’s processes.
- Financial compliance management: If you offer financial services or are a fintech, you’ll find this tool handy. Zylo's competitor Cledara embeds the key steps required by the EBA to comply with the new Guidelines for Outsourcing Arrangements.
- Information security: Evaluate and monitor all supplier's security measures consistently.
While conducting research, we noticed that Zylo's webpage does not mention data protection. This serious flaw leaves customers vulnerable to potential violations of personal information they may be providing when purchasing products or services from the company.
So, we dug a bit deeper.
In a safety report by Protective, they concluded that even when the overall data infrastructure is good, “Our analysis of Zylo's privacy policy didn't find a solid commitment to notify users in case of a policy update or a data breach.”
Hence – without a doubt – this point goes for Cledara.
Conclusion
SaaS management tools are becoming more popular in today's business world. With the exponential growth of these types of apps, it is important that you have an all-inclusive toolset to make your life easier and ensure security compliance with regulations like GDPR or PCI certification standards - which will save money as well!
Zylo's price benchmarking database, contract administration tools, and AI-powered discovery engine are just some beneficial services available through the platform. It is, in truth, a formidable competitor.
Nevertheless, it may be vulnerable to security risks and rely too much on integrations, which could cause the platform to run slowly.
That said, Cledara is the undisputed champion of this contest. With virtual debit and credit cards, collaboration tools, invoice automation, accounting integration, and embedded compliance management, the tool offers an easy-to-use, intuitive aid that will make it easier to handle your software.
And on top of this, Cledara gives 2% cashback on all your software purchases.
Are you ready to try Cledara? Book a demo today.
FAQ
What are the top alternatives to Zylo?
According to our research, the top SaaS management alternatives to Zylo are:
- Cledara
- BetterCloud
- Blissfully
- Productiv
- Torii
- Zluri
- Benadox
Which is better Zylo or Cledara?
Cledara. While Zylo offers useful features such as a price benchmarking database, contract management tools, and an AI-powered discovery engine, Cledara's advanced features include virtual debit and credit cards, collaboration tools, invoice automation, accounting integration, and embedded compliance management. Plus, it gives 2% cashback on all your software purchases.
Which is cheaper Zylo or Cledara?
Zylo's pricing is customized upon request. Cledara offers three pricing tiers, which start at $125/month for an Essential plan, $250/month for a Standard plan, and $650/ month for a Pro plan. Cledara also provides 2% cashback on all software purchases.
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