As a cloud cost intelligence solution, we often get asked where we fit among CloudHealth alternatives and competitors — and whether or not CloudZero is the right replacement. The short answer is: it depends.
The landscape of cloud cost tools is busy, with lots of different solutions that take different approaches to helping companies optimize their cloud costs.
To help answer this question, we thought we’d lay out the cloud cost landscape as we see it.
This blog isn’t intended to say any particular tool is better or worse. Instead, it’s about helping you identify a tool that best matches your use case — and maybe provide you with some other options if you’re only looking at alternatives to CloudHealth and similar bigger players.
VMware Tanzu CloudHealth (Broadcom)
Year Founded: 2012
Category: Traditional Cloud Cost Management
Best For: Enterprise companies with multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud needs.
Pricing Model (As of 2/2021 according to AWS Marketplace): Flat rate up to 100K monthly spend, then 3% of monthly spend.
CloudHealth was originally developed by CloudHealth Technologies, acquired by VMware in 2018, and then folded into Broadcom’s portfolio when Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023. Now officially branded VMware Tanzu CloudHealth, it has three core focus areas: simplifying cloud financial management, streamlining operations, and strengthening security. It might be right for you if you’re looking for traditional cloud cost management, such as right-sizing, reservation purchasing, and reporting — or if you need a solution that also covers security and compliance. Note that some customers have reported significant renewal price increases post-acquisition.
playbook
The AI Cost Optimization Playbook
Traditional cloud cost management is broken. Here’s why — and how to make the switch to cloud cost intelligence.
Why Consider CloudHealth Alternatives?
The cloud cost management landscape has shifted since Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in late 2023. VMware Tanzu CloudHealth remains a capable multi-cloud cost platform, but the ownership change has introduced uncertainty for many customers — particularly around pricing, product roadmap continuity, and long-term support commitments.
Beyond acquisition-related concerns, several factors drive teams toward alternatives. CloudHealth’s enterprise-first approach can feel heavyweight for organizations that need faster time-to-value or more granular unit cost visibility. Teams managing Kubernetes workloads, pursuing engineering-led cost optimization, or operating primarily on a single cloud provider often find that purpose-built tools deliver better outcomes than a broad multi-cloud platform.
The tools below span a range of approaches — from full-stack FinOps platforms to focused optimization engines — so you can match the right tool to your team’s priorities and cloud maturity.
What About Building Your Own Alternative To CloudHealth?
Considering a DIY approach to cloud cost management? You’re not alone.
High-profile cases like Netflix, Segment, and Lyft show it’s possible to develop tailored solutions that exceed the capabilities of off-the-shelf options. These custom tools can offer deeper insights into critical metrics, such as unit economics, and allow for the decentralization of cost data right down to the engineering level. .
However, diving into creating your custom tool comes with its own set of challenges. The investment isn’t just financial; it requires significant time and a dedicated team to build and maintain. So, before you start drafting plans for your in-house solution, here are three questions you can ask yourself before you start building your own.
Here are some of the best CloudHealth Alternatives to consider:
CloudZero
We’re CloudZero and we offer a new approach to controlling cloud cost — cloud cost intelligence. Built for software-driven companies, we put engineers in control of cloud cost by connecting technical decisions to business outcomes.
If growing your margins is an area of focus for you, we might be a great fit. Here’s where we excel:
- If you are looking to understand your cost of goods sold (COGS), we can give you a complete view of cost across your business, including AWS and Snowflake.
- If you want to build a culture of cost conscious engineering, we help you provide relevant views of product features, dev teams, and more — with context for teams to easily explore which costs are changing and why.
- If tagging, shared resources, or Kubernetes costs are a source of pain, we make it simple to map cost to your business — without tagging.
- If you are looking to measure unit cost, like cost per feature, cost per customer, and more — we can help you align cloud cost to your important business metrics.
Here’s what we’re not: If you’re only looking for a tool to right size instances and tell you which RIs to purchase — we’re not it (although we think AWS does a great job of offering those things for free).
We help you optimize your architecture — because the most disruptive companies have captured entire markets with innovative products with optimized architecture, (not by negotiating a better contract on their RIs).
IBM Cloudability (Formerly Apptio Cloudability)
Year Founded: 2011 (acquired by IBM via Apptio in 2023)
Category: Traditional Cloud Cost Management
Best For: Companies with a centralized FinOps team looking for a tool for reporting on spend.
Pricing Model: Tiered pricing starting at approximately $30,000 annually for up to $1M in managed cloud spend, scaling with usage. Contact IBM for current pricing.
Cloudability is now part of IBM’s portfolio following the $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio in 2023. The platform enables IT, finance, and DevOps teams to work together to optimize cloud resources for speed, cost, and quality. IBM was named a leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Management Tools, with Cloudability as a core component of that positioning.
Like CloudHealth, Cloudability offers traditional cost management functionality, such as reserved instance management, cost reporting, and resource decommissioning. IBM also launched Cloudability Governance and Kubecost 3.0 in late 2025, expanding the platform’s reach into policy enforcement and Kubernetes cost management. If you’re a CloudHealth customer looking for an alternative without straying too far from traditional FinOps functionality, Cloudability could be a good fit.
AWS Cost Explorer
Year Founded: 2014
Category: AWS Native Tools
Best For: Companies with relatively uncomplex spend.
Pricing Model: Free with AWS.
Cost Explorer is a free tool that AWS offers to all customers. If your requirements are relatively straightforward, and you don’t need visibility across complex, variable infrastructure, Cost Explorer might be enough for you. They also offer features like rightsizing, savings plans recommendations, and cost anomaly alerting
CloudCheckr
Year Founded: 2011 (acquired by Flexera in January 2025)
Category: Traditional Cloud Cost Management
Best For: Companies looking for more comprehensive compliance functionality, along with cost.
Pricing Model: Previously 3% of cloud spend. Now part of Flexera One FinOps — contact Flexera for current pricing.
CloudCheckr is known for pairing cost optimization with compliance management. Originally independent, CloudCheckr was acquired by NetApp in October 2021 and subsequently sold to Flexera in January 2025 for approximately $100 million. The product is now being integrated into the broader Flexera One FinOps platform, and existing partners are being migrated accordingly.
CloudCheckr might be a fit if you’re looking for compliance-oriented functionality alongside cost management, but be aware that the product is in transition under its new ownership. Evaluate whether Flexera’s roadmap aligns with your long-term needs.
ProsperOps
Year Founded: 2018
Category: Autonomous Savings Management
Best For: Companies looking for a new, modern approach to AWS savings plans and reserved instances.
Pricing Model (as of 2/2021 according to AWS Marketplace): $0.05 per dollar saved on compute and $0.35 per dollar saved on purchased/optimized convertible reserved instances.
ProsperOps is focused on Savings Plans and Reserved Instances (RIs) — using algorithms, advanced techniques, and continuous execution. Originally AWS-only, ProsperOps expanded to Microsoft Azure with its Autonomous Discount Management offering (GA in Q3 2025) and has added Google Cloud support, making it a viable multi-cloud option. If you’re looking for a modern, innovative approach to commitment management, ProsperOps is worth looking into. One of their benefits is that they only charge you for savings — not for a percentage of your spend like other tools. ProsperOps also integrates directly with CloudZero, combining autonomous savings execution with cloud cost intelligence.
Azure Cost Management
Year Founded: 2019
Category: Native Cloud Cost Management and Optimization
Best For: Companies using Azure looking for an integrated solution to monitor, allocate, and optimize cloud costs directly within their Azure environment.
Pricing Model: Free for Azure customers.
Azure Cost Management, a part of the Microsoft Azure platform, is designed to help companies manage and optimize their Azure spend. It provides tools to monitor, allocate, and control costs across Azure services and third-party Azure Marketplace services.
Its key features include cost analysis, budgeting, and cost allocation tools, which empower companies to track their spending patterns, identify inefficiencies, and implement cost-saving strategies. It also supports organizations with multiple cloud environments by offering Azure Cost Management for AWS, allowing you to manage AWS spend alongside Azure spend within the same tool.
Kubecost
Credit: Kubecost Cost Monitoring
Year Founded: 2019 (now part of IBM via the Apptio acquisition)
Category: Kubernetes Cost Management and Optimization
Best For: Organizations using Kubernetes for container orchestration who seek detailed insights and optimization strategies for their Kubernetes spend.
Pricing Model: Kubecost offers a free Foundations tier (single cluster, unlimited nodes, $100K monthly spend limit — EKS users exempt), a Business plan starting at $449/month, and custom Enterprise pricing. Kubecost 3.0 went GA in November 2025.
Kubecost is designed to provide real-time cost visibility and insights for Kubernetes workloads, helping teams monitor, manage, and optimize their Kubernetes spending across multiple clusters and cloud providers.
By integrating directly with Kubernetes, Kubecost offers detailed cost analysis, savings recommendations, and budget alerts to ensure efficient resource allocation and spending.
Xosphere
Year Founded: 2017
Category: AWS Spot instances
Best For: Managing AWS Spot instances for 100% application reliability at a fraction of the cost.
Pricing Model: The pricing model is set at 10% of the EC2 On-Demand rate per managed instance per hour or $0.001 per unit.
Xosphere is an intelligent cloud orchestration company that empowers enterprises to reduce cloud expenses while enhancing reliability. It enables seamless movement of applications to the most cost-effective and efficient locations. The Xosphere Instance Orchestrator software turns unreliable Spot Instances into dependable resources, mirroring the reliability of On-Demand instances at a substantially reduced cost and achieving savings of up to 80%.
As a partner of CloudZero, Xosphere extends its capabilities, offering enterprises visibility into their cloud spending and making it easier for businesses to achieve the highest savings and operational efficiency.
CAST AI
Year Founded: 2019
Category: Kubernetes Automation
Best For: Reducing cloud costs and boosting DevOps efficiency with AI-driven Kubernetes optimization.
Pricing Model: Free monitoring tier available. Growth plan starts at $1,000/month plus $5 per CPU/month. Enterprise pricing is custom. CAST AI raised $108M in funding in April 2025.
CAST AI was born out of the founders’ frustration with escalating cloud bills following the sale of their previous startup, Zenedge, to Oracle. Witnessing firsthand the challenges of managing cloud expenses at scale, they set out to build an automated solution — and the market has responded, with CAST AI raising $108 million in April 2025.
CAST AI is a Kubernetes automation platform that reduces cloud waste through AI-driven optimization. By integrating with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, it provides a multi-cloud approach to cost optimization that goes beyond visibility into automated action — including automated rightsizing, spot instance management, and cluster rebalancing.
Unlocking Cloud Cost Efficiency With CloudZero
Choosing the right cloud cost management platform can impact your ability to optimize costs and drive efficiency within your cloud infrastructure. Among the various alternatives to CloudHealth, CloudZero takes the crown for its approach to cloud cost intelligence. CloudZero empowers engineers to directly link technical decisions with arising costs.
Whether you’re managing complex, variable infrastructures or seeking to nurture a culture of cost-conscious engineering, CloudZero offers a new perspective on cloud cost management. By placing the power of cloud cost intelligence in the hands of engineers, it enables companies to innovate faster, reduce costs, and improve margins.
Discover the difference CloudZero can make for your company by 
or taking a product tour today. You can also explore how we compare directly in our CloudZero vs. CloudHealth side-by-side comparison. Experience firsthand how CloudZero’s innovative approach can help you understand, control, and optimize your cloud costs.
Frequently Asked Questions About CloudHealth
Who bought out CloudHealth?
VMware acquired CloudHealth Technologies in 2018. Broadcom then acquired VMware in November 2023, bringing CloudHealth into its portfolio. The product is now officially branded VMware Tanzu CloudHealth and sits under Broadcom’s Tanzu division.
How much does CloudHealth cost?
CloudHealth uses enterprise contract pricing with no public rate card. The typical structure involves a flat fee covering up to $100K per month in cloud spend, then approximately 3% of additional monthly spend, with a $1,000/month minimum. Contract terms are usually 12, 24, or 36 months. Some customers have reported significant renewal increases since the Broadcom acquisition. For current pricing, see our detailed CloudHealth pricing breakdown.
What is the difference between CloudHealth and Cloudability?
Both are enterprise FinOps platforms, but they differ in ownership and approach. CloudHealth (now under Broadcom) emphasizes multi-cloud governance and policy enforcement, while IBM Cloudability (formerly Apptio Cloudability) leans toward financial reporting and TBM alignment. For a detailed feature-by-feature comparison, see our CloudHealth vs. Cloudability vs. CloudZero guide.
Software and pricing information last verified May 2026. Features, pricing, and availability may have changed. Please verify current details with vendors before making decisions.
