How to Audit and Reduce Your Team's SaaS Spend by 40%
Most engineering teams are paying for tools they don't use. Here's a systematic approach to identifying waste and rightsizing your stack.
The EveryPerk Team
Editorial
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The average SaaS company now uses 130+ software tools. Engineering teams are often the heaviest users. After conducting SaaS audits for 20+ engineering teams, here's what consistently reduces spend.
Step 1: The Full Inventory
Most engineering leaders don't know exactly what's being paid for. Start by pulling all company credit card statements and identifying every recurring SaaS charge.
Step 2: The Usage Audit
For each tool, answer three questions:
- Who used this in the last 30 days?
- What would break if we cancelled it tomorrow?
- Is there a tool we already pay for that does this?
This typically surfaces 15-25% of tools that are unused or redundant.
Common Redundancies We Find
- Multiple analytics tools - Teams often have Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude simultaneously. Pick one.
- Multiple project management tools - Jira, Linear, and Notion all being used by different subsets.
- Multiple monitoring tools - Datadog, Sentry, and CloudWatch with overlapping coverage.
Conclusion
A quarterly SaaS audit takes about 4 hours and typically saves 30-40% of current spend. Make it a habit, not a crisis response.