Understanding AWS costs has always been a challenge, especially when it comes to Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans. These pricing models offer meaningful discounts compared to On-Demand, but they require committing to a fixed amount of usage over time. For organizations with changing workloads, that commitment can be risky and often leads to unused spend.

Zesty was created to make AWS commitments more flexible. By automatically adjusting Reserved Instances and compute resources, it helped companies with variable usage capture savings without constant manual oversight. Over time, it added features like EBS volume and Kubernetes optimization, but its core appeal has always been reducing the risk of underutilized commitments.

As cloud environments continue to grow in scale and complexity, many teams are re-evaluating how they approach commitment management — and what tools are best suited to ensure every dollar delivers maximum savings.

10 Zesty Alternatives

The list of Zesty competitors includes:

1. nOps

nOps integrates commitment management into a broader, end-to-end savings strategy. Unlike traditional commitment platforms, nOps doesn’t just automate RI and SP purchases—it optimizes across every cost lever, including rightsizing, Spot optimization, and engineering visibility. With the industry’s only 100% utilization guarantee, every dollar committed delivers savings. This approach maximizes flexibility, minimizes financial lock-in, and ensures that savings extend well beyond commitments.

Pros

  • 100% utilization guarantee ensures no wasted commitments

  • Shared savings model means it’s risk free—you only pay from actual savings delivered

  • Optimization extends across commitments, rightsizing, Spot, and visibility

  • Prevents waste and overcommitment through continuous automation

  • Strong support for Kubernetes and dynamic AWS environments

Cons

  • Primarily AWS-focused (not designed for multi-cloud environments)

Best For
Organizations running AWS at scale—especially Kubernetes or dynamic workloads—that want a platform combining commitment management with broader FinOps automation to maximize savings while avoiding financial lock-in.

Year Founded
2017

Pricing
Shared savings model: customers only pay a percentage of realized savings, making it risk free since you will always come out ahead.

G2 Rating
4.7/5 (recently rated #1 in cloud cost management category)

2. ProsperOps

ProsperOps platform screenshot

Year Founded
2018

Pricing
Percentage-of-savings model

G2 Rating
4.7/5

ProsperOps is a platform focused on automated AWS commitment management. It manages Reserved Instances and Savings Plans on your behalf, adjusting coverage as usage changes to maximize effective savings. The platform is designed to take the complexity out of long-term commitments by optimizing coverage and utilization automatically, without requiring teams to manually forecast or rebalance.

Pros

  • Automated RI and SP management reduces manual forecasting and management

  • Transparent reporting shows realized savings over time

  • Outcome-based pricing aligns costs with delivered results

Cons

  • Savings are tied only to RI and SP optimization, not to other cost levers 

  • Less flexibility for organizations seeking Kubernetes visibility or end-to-end FinOps workflows

  • No 100% Utilization Guarantee

3. Archera

Archera, originally launched as Reserved.ai in 2019, positions itself as a risk-mitigation platform for cloud commitments. Rather than focusing only on automation, Archera introduces financing and “insurance” options for Reserved Instances and Savings Plans. This approach is designed to give organizations flexibility to scale usage up or down without being stuck with long-term commitments, while still capturing discounts compared to On-Demand pricing.

Pros

  • Offers financing and “insurance” to reduce the risk of overcommitting

  • Predictive analytics help forecast usage patterns

  • Can transfer commitments across linked accounts for broader coverage

Cons

  • Pricing is based on a risk-based premium, so you may pay regardless of whether savings are realized

  • Focus is more on financial protection than maximizing raw savings

  • Unclear long-term sustainability as AWS tightens restrictions on transferring or reselling commitments

  • Limited beyond AWS commitments—no rightsizing, Spot, or Kubernetes cost management

Best For
Organizations that are highly risk-averse about making AWS commitments and would prefer to trade some potential savings for financial “insurance” and flexibility.

Year Founded
2019

Pricing
Premium-based model: customers pay for commitment “insurance” and flexibility rather than a shared-savings structure.

G2 Rating
4.5/5

4. Spot by NetApp

Spot started as Spot.io, focusing on automating the use of Spot Instances to cut compute costs. Over time, it expanded into broader cloud cost management, including commitment management features. With Spot Eco, the platform analyzes AWS usage and automatically purchases and optimizes Reserved Instances and Savings Plans. The emphasis is on combining commitment management with Spot Instance automation to maximize overall compute savings.

Pros

  • Automates both Spot Instances and commitments for broader coverage

  • Strong history and expertise in Spot Instance optimization

  • Integrates commitment management with workload-aware scheduling

  • Supports multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Cons

  • Commitment management features are narrower compared to specialized platforms like nOps or ProsperOps

  • Complexity can be high due to multiple products in the Spot suite

  • Pricing and feature clarity sometimes difficult, as commitment tools are packaged with broader portfolio offerings

Best For
Organizations looking for a multi-cloud platform that combines Spot Instance optimization with automated management of AWS RIs and SPs, particularly if Spot usage is already a large part of their cost strategy.

Year Founded
2015 (acquired by NetApp in 2020)

Pricing
Percentage-of-savings model, with fees tied to the savings delivered across Spot and commitments.

G2 Rating
4.4/5

5. Flexera

Flexera One is an enterprise-grade FinOps and cloud cost optimization platform that provides comprehensive visibility into hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It enables automated cost allocation, governance, policy enforcement, and optimization of Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, compute usage, and more. Its strength lies in offering a unified dashboard for cloud spend, IT asset management, SaaS optimization, and FinOps collaboration.

Pros

  • Supports AWS, Azure, GCP, and private cloud—ideal for multi-cloud visibility

  • Rich FinOps capabilities: policy automation, cost governance, budgeting, and forecasting

  • Combines cost management with SaaS and IT asset management for holistic insight

  • Recognized as a leader in enterprise cloud financial management

Cons

  • Expensive—pricing starts around $50,000/year or ~5% of cloud spend, with multi-year contracts required

  • Steep learning curve and complex setup; best suited for large enterprises

  • Cost insights are less granular than modern cloud-native tools

  • Dashboard usability and integrations may lag behind more cloud-native platforms

Best For
Large organizations running multi-cloud or hybrid environments that need advanced governance, policy-driven cost control, IT asset management, and SaaS optimization within a unified FinOps framework.

Year Founded
1988

Pricing
Fixed annual pricing starting around $50,000 for ~$1M cloud spend (~5% of spend), scaling with contracts and including overage fees—structured as long-term (12–36 months) commitments.

G2 Rating
4.2/5

6. CloudZero

CloudZero positions itself as a cloud cost intelligence platform, focusing on delivering granular visibility into cloud spend. Instead of emphasizing commitment management alone, CloudZero helps organizations allocate costs by team, feature, product, or customer, making it easier to connect cloud costs to business outcomes. While it does not directly purchase or optimize RIs and SPs, it provides deep analytics to guide commitment decisions and integrates with engineering workflows.

Pros

  • Granular visibility: break down costs by team, product, or feature

  • Strong business alignment, connecting cloud costs to revenue and unit economics

  • Supports AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes

  • Helps engineering teams understand the financial impact of their workloads

Cons

  • Does not automate RI/SP purchasing—commitment management is advisory, not hands-off

  • Savings depend on how well teams act on insights, not automatic optimizations

  • Primarily a visibility and analytics platform rather than a full optimization suite

Best For
Organizations that want cost allocation and business context above all else, with detailed visibility to inform engineering and finance decisions. Best suited for teams prioritizing FinOps culture and accountability over automation of commitments.

Year Founded
2016

Pricing
Custom pricing based on cloud spend and features required; generally structured as a SaaS subscription rather than percentage-of-savings.

G2 Rating
4.6/5

7. Nutanix

Nutanix dashboard

Nutanix started as a hyperconverged infrastructure company and has expanded into multi-cloud management with its Nutanix FinOps capabilities. Through its Cloud Manager (formerly Xi Beam), Nutanix provides cost governance, budgeting, and rightsizing tools across AWS, Azure, GCP, and private cloud. Commitment management is supported as part of broader multi-cloud cost optimization, helping enterprises monitor and optimize Reserved Instances and Savings Plans alongside other cost levers.

Pros

  • Strong multi-cloud and hybrid support (AWS, Azure, GCP, and private cloud)

  • Integrated with Nutanix infrastructure stack for unified management

  • Provides governance, budgeting, and rightsizing in one platform

Cons

  • Commitment management capabilities are not as advanced as dedicated platforms like nOps or ProsperOps

  • Focused more on enterprise governance than deep, real-time automation

  • Can be complex to deploy if not already a Nutanix customer

Best For
Large enterprises using Nutanix for private or hybrid cloud that want integrated FinOps capabilities with governance and multi-cloud cost visibility, including basic commitment management.

Year Founded
2009

Pricing
Subscription-based pricing; varies depending on deployment size and products licensed. Typically enterprise-level contracts.

G2 Rating
4.3/5

8. IBM Turbonomic

IBM Turbonomic Dashboard

Turbonomic, acquired by IBM in 2021, is an application resource management (ARM) platform with FinOps capabilities for cloud optimization. It focuses on ensuring applications always get the resources they need while minimizing cost. For cloud, Turbonomic provides rightsizing, scaling, and placement automation across AWS, Azure, and GCP. While it includes Reserved Instance and Savings Plan optimization, its main strength lies in dynamically managing performance and cost trade-offs across large enterprise environments.

Pros

  • Automates rightsizing and scaling decisions for applications and infrastructure

  • Multi-cloud support: AWS, Azure, GCP

  • Strong integration with IBM’s broader automation and observability suite

Cons

  • Commitment management is supported but not the core focus compared to specialized tools

  • Can be complex to deploy and integrate at enterprise scale

  • Pricing and contracts skew toward large organizations

  • Less Kubernetes-native than modern cloud-native FinOps tools

Best For
Large enterprises needing automated resource optimization across hybrid and multi-cloud, especially those prioritizing application performance and already using IBM’s ecosystem.

Year Founded
2009 (acquired by IBM in 2021)

Pricing
Enterprise subscription-based pricing; generally customized based on workload size and deployment scope.

G2 Rating
4.5/5

9. CloudHealth

CloudHealth by VMware dashboard

CloudHealth is one of the earliest enterprise cloud cost platforms, now part of Broadcom. It’s best known for its governance and policy automation, giving enterprises a way to enforce budgets, tag compliance, and cost guardrails across AWS, Azure, and GCP. While it provides RI and SP recommendations, its strength lies in being a centralized management hub for finance and IT teams. This makes it ideal for large enterprises that need strict governance but not necessarily real-time optimization.

Pros

  • Mature platform with strong adoption in large enterprises

  • Multi-cloud support: AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware environments

  • Detailed reporting and budgeting tools for finance teams

Cons

  • Commitment management features are basic compared to modern automated platforms like nOps or ProsperOps

  • Less engineering-focused; dashboards and reports skew toward finance and governance users

  • Broadcom’s acquisition has raised questions about pricing, support, and roadmap stability

  • Limited innovation compared to newer, cloud-native FinOps tools

Best For
Enterprises running multi-cloud or hybrid environments that want centralized visibility, governance, and financial reporting, and are less concerned with real-time automation of commitments or Kubernetes cost allocation.

Year Founded
2012 (acquired by VMware in 2018, Broadcom in 2023)

Pricing
Enterprise contracts, typically based on a percentage of overall cloud spend; exact pricing is negotiated and generally targeted at large organizations.

G2 Rating
4.1/5

10. Apptio Cloudability

Cloudability: Cloud Cost Management Platform

Cloudability, now under IBM Apptio, focuses on the financial management side of cloud. It offers strong budgeting, forecasting, and chargeback/showback reporting across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Rather than automating commitments, it equips finance teams with tools to model different scenarios and allocate costs to business units. This makes it particularly useful for organizations where finance and FP&A drive cloud decisions, complementing engineering-led platforms but not replacing them.

Pros

  • Mature, widely used platform with strong financial governance features and multicloud support

  • Strong budgeting, forecasting, and cost allocation capabilities

  • Integrates with Apptio’s broader IT financial management suite

Cons

  • Commitment management is limited to recommendations—no automated execution

  • Interfaces and reporting can feel dated compared to modern FinOps tools

  • Focused more on finance than engineering or operations

  • Pricing is on the higher end of the market, raising ROI concerns for some users

Best For
Large enterprises seeking budgeting, forecasting, and chargeback tools across multi-cloud environments, particularly if already invested in Apptio’s IT financial management ecosystem.

Year Founded
2011 (acquired by Apptio in 2019, IBM in 2023)

Pricing
Enterprise contracts, generally based on a percentage of cloud spend; often higher cost compared to newer platforms.

G2 Rating
4.2/5

Comparison Chart

FeaturenOpsArcheraProsperOpsSpot (NetApp)FlexeraCloudZeroNutanixTurbonomicCloudHealthCloudability
Fully Automated RI & SP Management✅✅✅✅✅❌ (advisory only)✅✅✅✅
Commitment Monitoring & Visibility✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
100% Utilization Guarantee (or refund of fee)✅❌❌ (99% with manual claim)❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
Financing / “Insurance”❌✅❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
Fee Structure Aligns with Savings✅❌ (premium-based)✅✅❌ (license-based)❌ (subscription)❌ (subscription)❌ (enterprise license)❌ (license-based)❌ (license-based)
Official AWS Partner✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
Cloud Coverage❌ (AWS only)❌ (AWS & Azure)❌ (AWS only)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP, private)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP, private)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP)✅ (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Spot Instance Optimization✅❌❌✅❌❌❌❌❌❌
Rightsizing / Idle Resource Optimization✅❌❌✅✅❌✅✅❌❌
Kubernetes Cost Optimization✅❌❌❌❌✅❌❌❌❌
Budgeting & Governance✅❌❌❌✅✅✅✅✅✅
G2 Rating4.74.54.74.44.24.64.34.54.14.2

The Bottom Line

Many tools in this space solve pieces of the commitment management challenge, from automating RI and SP adjustments to offering financial protections or layering commitments into broader governance platforms. nOps goes further by guaranteeing 100% utilization on commitments, eliminating any risk of wasted spend. With its shared savings model, you never pay out of pocket unless nOps delivers net savings, making it the only risk-free option that aligns directly with customer outcomes.

More importantly, nOps integrates commitment management into a broader cost optimization strategy. Instead of treating commitments in isolation, it optimizes across Spot, rightsizing, storage, and Kubernetes costs, ensuring every dollar works harder. This holistic approach maximizes savings and flexibility while avoiding the financial lock-in that comes from relying on commitments alone—making nOps the most effective solution for AWS customers looking to balance cost efficiency with operational agility.

nOps was recently ranked #1 with five stars in G2’s cloud cost management category, and we optimize $2+ billion in cloud spend for our customers — book a demo with one of our AWS experts to try it out for yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s dive into some FAQ about Zesty alternatives.

Which is better: Zesty vs nOps?

Zesty focuses on automating commitment management for EC2 and RDS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, making it useful if your main need is dynamic coverage for commitments. nOps goes broader, covering not just commitments but also Kubernetes visibility, container rightsizing, showbacks, and full FinOps automation. 

How much does Zesty cost?

Zesty does not publish standard pricing, instead offering custom quotes based on environment size and usage. Its model is usually a percentage of the savings achieved, so costs scale with how much it reduces your bill. This outcome-based approach aligns incentives but can feel expensive compared to fixed-fee or broader FinOps platforms. 

What’s the best cloud cost allocation tool?

The best cloud cost allocation tool depends on your needs. AWS Cost Explorer and Cost & Usage Reports provide a solid baseline, while Kubecost is strong for Kubernetes-only environments with allocation by namespace, workload, or label. nOps is the most comprehensive, enabling granular allocation and showback across AWS accounts, teams, SaaS, and AI services. 

What is cost management in AWS cloud?

Cost management in AWS involves tracking, controlling, and optimizing your spend across accounts and services. It includes allocating costs to teams, setting budgets and forecasts, and identifying ways to cut waste. AWS provides Cost Explorer, Budgets, and Savings Plans for native management, but these often require manual effort.