5 Best SaaS Buying Platforms in 2024

Fortunately, various SaaS buying platforms streamline the procurement and management of your SaaS applications. This allows you to simplify the complex process of discovering, evaluating, and purchasing SaaS solutions while gaining visibility and control over your entire SaaS portfolio.
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There are multiple options on the market. We understand that it's challenging and time-consuming to sort through them and determine which SaaS purchasing tool is right for you.

To help you decide, we published an in-depth comparison of the 5 best SaaS buying platforms (as of 2024).

1. Spendflo

2. Zluri 

3. Vendr 

4. Zylo 

5. Tropic 
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Disclaimer: Spendflo is our own SaaS buying platform. We've done our best to present the information evenly because we want you to make an educated decision. That said, we are proud of our platform and built it with the features and ease that organizations would want to streamline their SaaS procurement and management processes (and we use it ourselves every day). Talk to our SaaS procurement experts and join dozens of companies who use us, like Wodify, Tabby, Drip Capital, Urban Company, and more…
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What is a SaaS buying platform?
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Imagine this scenario: You're the IT manager at a fast-growing company. Your team used a handful of SaaS tools a couple of years ago, but as the company expanded, teams started adopting their favourite SaaS apps. 

Soon, you lost count of how many subscriptions were being paid for.

Keeping track became a nightmare. Who used what? When were renewals due? Were all paid licenses utilized? Duplicate tools across teams made collaboration a hassle due to a lack of integration. Ensuring SaaS vendors complied with data regulations was another worry. The tedious back-and-forth with multiple vendors didn't help either.

Now, just the thought of evaluating and procuring from different vendors gives you a headache. 

That's when a good SaaS purchasing platform comes to your rescue - a centralized solution that streamlines the entire lifecycle of procuring, managing, and optimizing your SaaS applications. It provides visibility into your entire portfolio through a single dashboard, allowing you to identify underutilized or redundant apps and optimize spend.

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Pros and Cons of Evaluating the Right SaaS Buying Platform
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When you search for 'SaaS buying platforms', you're likely looking for a solution to streamline your SaaS procurement, management, and optimization. While these platforms can offer significant benefits, it's important to understand that they're not a magic bullet for all your SaaS challenges.

So, we have listed the pros and cons to help you understand what you can expect when evaluating and implementing a SaaS buying platform.

Pros

• Streamlined procurement process that consolidates SaaS discovery, evaluation, and purchasing in one place
• Centralized visibility that provides a comprehensive view of your entire SaaS portfolio for better management and decision-making
• Spend optimization insights to identify underutilized or redundant tools and optimize your SaaS spend
• Enhanced vendor management with centralized contract and license management for better control and negotiation
• Seamless integration and collaboration between different SaaS tools

Cons

• Significant time and effort required to evaluate and select the right platform thoroughly
• Resource-intensive implementation process that may involve complex integrations with existing systems
• Ongoing investment and resources are needed to fully leverage and customize the tool
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What Defines a SaaS Buying Platform as the 'Best'?
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1. It should save time and money

Think about how much time and money you spend managing your SaaS subscriptions. Are you wasting hours comparing pricing plans or tracking renewal dates? 

A great SaaS buying platform should simplify these tasks by consolidating all your SaaS info in one place, making it easy to make smart decisions quickly. It should also help you identify and eliminate redundant or underused apps to optimize your SaaS budget.
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2. Provide real-time visibility into SaaS spending and usage analytics and enables data-driven buying

Consider how you're currently making decisions about your SaaS investments. Are you relying on guesswork or gut feelings? 

The best SaaS buying platforms provide real-time visibility into your SaaS spending and usage, giving you the hard data you need to make smart, informed choices. This data-driven approach eliminates the uncertainty and helps you create a more effective SaaS strategy.
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3. Have easy-to-set-up and customized approval workflows

Every organization has its own way of handling purchases, so look for a platform with customizable approval workflows. This ensures that the right people are always involved in the decision-making process and prevents purchases from getting held up by red tape. Maybe every purchase request needs to go through your department head, then to the IT team for a security check, and finally to the finance department for budget approval. If you're using a SaaS buying platform that doesn't let you customize these steps, you will run into some serious roadblocks.
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4. Uncomplicate procurements

Dealing with multiple SaaS providers can be time-consuming and frustrating. Look for a platform that allows you to manage all your vendor relationships in one place, from contracts to performance tracking. This simplifies communication and reduces the back-and-forth, so you can focus on more important tasks.

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 5 Best SaaS Buying Platforms: 2024’s Top SaaS Procurement Software
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1. Spendflo SaaS buying platform

Spendflo specializes in optimizing your procurement processes through dedicated expertise in assisted buying, providing you with vendor insights, and offering intuitive intake-to-procure solutions. 

Spendflo has robust SaaS buying features, including usage tracking and license optimization, along with AI-powered vendor management for risk assessment and compliance tracking, ensuring you efficiently allocate resources. Spendflo also offers you a Slack-first procurement system, delivering prompt alerts and notifications for seamless communication and swift responses throughout your procurement lifecycle.
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Key Features of Spendflo

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#1 You don't have to stretch your procurement team thin when you can augment their capabilities by tapping into assisted buying as a service with guaranteed ROI

Traditional procurement methods and tools are ill-equipped to handle the unique nuances of SaaS buying. From understanding evolving SaaS pricing models to mapping actual usage against contracted commitments, your team needs purpose-built capabilities to optimize SaaS procurement. This is where a SaaS-focused procurement solution like Spendflo can transform how you manage your organization's SaaS portfolio. 

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Spendflo's benchmarks and specialist buyers also ensure you never overpay for SaaS by providing data-driven insights into appropriate pricing tiers and bundling opportunities tailored to your organization's needs. Renewal dates are consolidated, and smart workflows streamline the renewal process.

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‍Streamline your Procurement Process

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#2 More than Just Software - The Trifecta Approach Prevents Your SaaS Stack from Hitting a Wall

You know how it goes with SaaS procurement - it's a fragmented, inefficient mess. Your team lacks the specialized expertise to negotiate renewals for specific SaaS categories, overpaying because they don't understand the nuances of pricing models and bundling strategies. 

Meanwhile, your processes are completely ad-hoc, with renewal dates tracked haphazardly and no standardized workflows.

To top it off, you're flying blind without comprehensive data on appropriate SaaS pricing and market benchmarks. How can you identify areas to push for better terms when you can't compare deals against other companies?

It doesn't have to be this way. 

Spendflo blends deep domain expertise, optimized processes, and robust data with granular pricing intelligence powered by real market data, not guesswork. 

Plus, with a customizable workflow, you can make sure the right people are looped in at the right times. So, if the IT team has some security concerns about the new tool, they can chime in and work with you to find a solution before things move forward. Or, if the finance team has questions about the pricing plan, they can hash it out with you directly, instead of the request getting bounced back and forth.

Spendflo takes the headache out of purchasing new tools and makes sure everyone who needs to be involved is in the loop.

 Automate your SaaS Procurement
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#3  Data-driven procurement

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With Spendflo, you can optimize your SaaS procurement process using data-driven insights. Analyze spending data to identify underutilized or duplicated tools, track supplier performance to negotiate better terms, manage contracts centrally to never miss a renewal, forecast demand to right-size licensing, and standardize SaaS tools across your organization to secure volume discounts.
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Spendflo SaaS Buying Platform Rating - 4.7 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️(70 Reviews on G2)

Checkout Customer Case Studies on how Spendflo is helping companies  save thousands on their SaaS Procurement

Learn how Drip Capital achieves 4X ROI & saves 100+ hours in Procurement

How Airmeet achieved 3X faster procurement and SaaS spending optimization.
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Get complete visibility on your SaaS stack
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2. Zluri SaaS Buying Platform

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Zluri is a SaaS purchasing platform designed to help IT teams get a handle on their cloud-based services. It provides a centralized dashboard where you can find, manage, and optimize all your SaaS applications. No more juggling spreadsheets or hunting for data across different systems.

Here are the key features of Zluri:

• Centralized dashboard to discover, manage, and optimize SaaS applications
• Eliminates manual processes like spreadsheet updates
• Allows for centralizing data in one place for use across multiple deployments
• Intuitive user interface for effective collaboration among stakeholders
• A popular choice for larger enterprises to streamline SaaS management
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SaaS Buying Platform Zluri Reviews 

Rating - 4.7 on G2

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See how much you can save on your SaaS Spend

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3. Vendr SaaS Buying Platform

Vendr is a SaaS buying platform that helps companies streamline their software purchasing process. It offers a centralized platform for managing the entire SaaS buying lifecycle, from discovery and evaluation to procurement and ongoing management. 

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Here are some key features of Vendr:

• SaaS buying experts navigate complex purchases
• Simplified procurement: negotiations, contracts, payments
• Centralized SaaS subscription management
• Spend optimization through usage and spending data analysis
• Vendor insights: profiles, pricing benchmarks, reviews

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SaaS Buying Platform Vendr Reviews 

Rating - 4.6 on G2

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Save 30% on your SaaS Stack

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4. Zylo SaaS Buying Platform

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Zylo is a SaaS management platform that helps organizations discover, manage, and optimize their software investments. Zylo provides visibility into an organization's entire SaaS ecosystem, helping IT, procurement, and finance teams make data-driven decisions to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve overall SaaS governance.

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Key features include:

• Automated SaaS discovery and inventory
• Centralized management of all SaaS applications
• Utilization tracking and optimization insights
• Renewal management and alerts
• Vendor contract and compliance management
• Integration with SSO, HRIS, and financial systems
• Reporting and analytics on SaaS spend and usage

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SaaS Buying Platform Zylo Reviews 

Rating - 4.8 on G2

Alt Text: Zylo Best SaaS Buying Platform Reviews

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See how much you can save on your SaaS Spend

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5. Tropic SaaS Buying Platform

Tropic is a comprehensive SaaS procurement solution that helps businesses optimize their software spend from start to finish. It streamlines spend management, automates procurement workflows, and offers the option to fully outsource procurement and renewals for all SaaS contracts, ensuring maximum value for the organization's budget.
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Key features include:

• End-to-end SaaS procurement optimization
• Streamlined spend management
• Automated procurement workflows
• Optional full outsourcing of procurement and renewals
• Maximizes value for software spending

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SaaS Buying Platform TropicReviews 

Rating - 4.6 on G2

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Save 30% on your SaaS Stack

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Save on SaaS with the best SaaS buying platform – Spendflo

Choosing the right SaaS buying platform can make or break your software procurement strategy. With Spendflo, you'll finally have the tools and insights you need to take control of your SaaS buying process. No more guesswork or spreadsheet headaches. You'll be able to easily identify areas where you're overspending, consolidate duplicative tools, and negotiate better deals with vendors. 

So, if you're tired of feeling like your SaaS buying process is working against you, it's time to make a change. Choose Spendflo and experience the difference that a smart, streamlined, and strategic approach to procurement can make. Your team (and your budget) will thank you.

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See how much you can save with Spendflo