Centralized multi-cloud cost insights have driven smarter reporting and proactive anomaly control
What is our primary use case?
I have used CloudZero in a multi-cloud fashion, connecting to various public cloud environments in order to observe costs and then generate reports, dashboards, cost anomalies, and everything cloud FinOps related.
I have used CloudZero to generate reports to look at costs within specific cloud accounts, and one way in which it can help is if there's a cost anomaly within a specific cloud account. I have looked at the costs across a period of days to identify when it occurred and for which resources it occurred, which enabled drilling down into exactly why that occurred, driving cost reduction.
The main use case is to build reports, but I have also used it, and my team has used it, to build out dashboards over long periods, looking at maybe Kubernetes cluster insights, setting budgets, and working out shared cost allocation. There are many features within CloudZero that have allowed us to use it in a variety of ways.
What is most valuable?
The best features of CloudZero, in my opinion, are their reporting capabilities, their right-sizing capabilities for compute instances, their asset inventory feature, and their dashboard functionality.
Probably the dashboard feature stands out most because it allows bringing together lots of different widgets to look at lots of different types of costs across different cloud accounts, allowing me to look at many pieces of data within one screen, which is very useful to refer to.
With CloudZero being a FinOps tool, it allows looking at cloud costs from a variety of vendors from many different cloud accounts. Within our organization, it has been beneficial because we are able to take costs from loads of different cloud endpoints and then make those costs more efficient, effectively helping us to reduce the costs that we spend, which is great for the business.
I don't know how much money specifically we have saved, but CloudZero has definitely helped us with cost savings the more we use it, and it allows for better data visibility, which is invaluable in the modern workplace, especially in highly technical and tech-driven companies such as ours.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvements for CloudZero, I felt there could be potential improvements in their budget section. I have used other tools before where the budget feature is a little easier to use in terms of the UI. I also found updating their business mappings quite difficult. When I first started using the tool, one of the first things demonstrated was a YAML config file that was thousands of lines long, which had to be updated and pushed for changes to occur within CloudZero. I would like a feature where you could update elements directly through the UI, as I understand they plan to bring that into the tool at a future date, since using that long YAML file can be very difficult and lead to errors.
Although CloudZero's reporting feature is very good, I feel I have used tools that have more feature-rich qualities for their reporting features than CloudZero, which could be something valuable considering their reporting feature is also popular.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used CloudZero for around several months, maybe just under a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CloudZero is very stable. I did not notice any issues with technical instability, and I can see that it scales with a large number of cloud accounts, which is impressive.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CloudZero's scalability is good. It can definitely scale to hundreds and hundreds of cloud accounts, and I imagine it can scale into the thousands as well. I have no complaints there.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support from CloudZero is great. We have interacted with a few individuals from the company and have no complaints. They were brilliant, and I really enjoyed working with them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used various FinOps tools within the organization, primarily the native public cloud tools. Within AWS, GCP, and Azure, they have their own FinOps tools, which were good, but since they are specific to the clouds, we had to use numerous tools at once rather than a single tool like CloudZero, which acts as a one-stop shop for aggregating all of that data.
How was the initial setup?
I thought the cost for CloudZero was reasonable for the tool, and the CloudZero team was interested in making it a reasonable cost as well, in terms of what we were looking for. The setup was quite seamless with them because we would meet regularly, and their initial support was very good. I definitely enjoyed that phase.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options at the same time. We were more focused on whether to continue using the cloud-native tools within the public clouds or look for a multi-cloud tool like CloudZero. Between the two, using a multi-cloud tool has definitely provided many benefits that the cloud-native tools did not.
What other advice do I have?
I rate CloudZero as nine out of ten. It is a very strong tool, and I definitely enjoy using it. I can see how it can drive cost savings and benefits for all of their customers, but there are areas for improvement just as with any tool, though there are not any standout limitations to using it, making it very strong.
I chose nine out of ten because there are some areas for improvement with CloudZero. They are very minor, and there is nothing that breaks functionality or usage. The main reason is that long YAML config file which requires thousands of lines of coding and editing, and if that were not the case, it might be a ten out of ten if I could edit directly through the UI.
I do not think there are any improvements needed for CloudZero that I have not already mentioned. It is largely just the YAML file related section and a couple of other minor improvements, but nothing large or glaring. It is a very good tool.
I cannot share specific business metrics due to data sensitivity, but I can definitely say that CloudZero can save cloud costs. It is feature-rich in terms of reporting and dashboards, and its cost anomaly aspect can help if costs ever skyrocket. I would highly recommend it to other companies looking to make their cloud costs more efficient or reduce them.
I would recommend others to use CloudZero because it is a brilliant tool, and to engage their support staff throughout the setup journey, as they are definitely experts and very helpful.
CloudZero is a great tool. I have definitely enjoyed using it and have seen business benefits from it, so I am very happy with the tool. I rate this review as nine out of ten.
Saves Time with Accurate Cost Allocation, Setup Simplicity
What do you like best about the product?
I find CloudZero incredibly useful for coast analysis as it allows monitoring every step effectively and facilitates the creation of budgets efficiently. I really appreciate how it enables proper budgeting and economic optimization, offering a precisely detailed cost allocation. The main benefit for me is the significant amount of time I save using it, which is a crucial advantage. Its integration with other tools like AWS native service, Datalog for monitoring, and Slack for alerts further enhances its usability and functionality. Additionally, the setup was straightforward, which made transitioning from AWS Cost Explorer to CloudZero an easy choice. The product outperforms AWS in management, prompting my suggestion to the team to make the switch. All these factors contribute to my high likelihood of recommending it to others, which I rated as a 9 out of 10.
What do you dislike about the product?
I find the cost formation rules in CloudZero to be complex and challenging to understand, particularly for users with less experience, which could require more time to comprehend and utilize effectively.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use CloudZero for detailed cost analysis and budget creation, which ensures economic optimization and saves me significant time. The precise cost allocation is invaluable to my team.
Cloud Cost Visibility and Optimization
What do you like best about the product?
CloudZero provides unmatched visibility into cloud costs, enabling engineering teams to track unit economics, optimize spend, and prevent surprises—all without perfect tagging.
What do you dislike about the product?
CloudZero can be pricey for smaller teams, has a learning curve for advanced features, and focuses mainly on cost intelligence rather than full governance tools.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
CloudZero solves the challenge of fragmented cloud cost visibility by providing granular insights and unit economics, helping teams prevent overruns, optimize spend, and align costs with business value
Solid engagement from Customer Success team
What do you like best about the product?
Product
- Slack alerts on anomalies
- Slack alerts on spend till date
- Dimensions and tags helps us clean up the mess we have in AWS
- Breakdown of Cost Type view
- Budgets
Service
- Strong engagement from the Customer Service team helps keep cost monitoring a priority
- Always been responsive on Slack for any questions/requests
What do you dislike about the product?
UI feels a bit clunky, but it's not a big pain point for a tool I do not use every day.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It makes cost monitoring easy. I do not want to spend too much time on it but I also don't want to neglect it. CZ helps most with cost anomalies, budgets, and quick insights in the Insights tab.
Senior Cloud Architect
What do you like best about the product?
CloudZero's Kubernetes cost reporting is accurate and very helpful to show engineering teams their share of cluster costs.
Cost Formation allows you to version dimensions/datasets. In addition, I can create dimensions much faster by defining the dimension in YAML.
CloudZero seems much more intuitive to use than other cloud cost platforms
The views are not as busy as other cost reporting platforms making it easier to read/use
What do you dislike about the product?
They need to improve their UX. I would like to add users via an API call.
We would like to see usage in gigabytes with costs for certain AWS services as well as for New Relic costs.
They need to improve their budgets so you can sort and filter
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Helping with engagement with engineering teams and leadership
Providing detailed cost dimensions/dataset to make better views. This is especially true in the Kubernetes space
The ability to notify via Slack has helped with notifications to engineering teams and leadership. Notifications no longer go to the email spam folder
Putting up soft spending boundaries with the use of budgets and budget notifications
Effective tooling to drive down cloud costs; outstanding engagement from the CloudZero team
What do you like best about the product?
The ability to measure cloud costs on a per-customer basis
What do you dislike about the product?
Configuration can be a little tricky, but the white glove engagement makes up for that
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Through increased visibilty at a granular level, and effective tooling, CloudZero help us save significant amounts on our cloud spend
Insightful when Maintained Effectively
What do you like best about the product?
CloudZero gives us great insights into our cloud spending. Its ability to allocate costs to specific teams, products, and features has significantly improved our understanding of where resources are being consumed, giving us a more wholistic view of the environment.
What do you dislike about the product?
The learning curve for using CloudZero's key features can be rough for new users. Additionally, initial setup and and jumping in when it hasn't been updated recently required a good amount of effort to ensure accurate cost attribution, and if not maintained, it obviously hurts the amount of insight that can be derived .
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Wholistic view of our spending profile and easy allocation across departments and teams
Great solution for our cloud FinOps needs
What do you like best about the product?
Support for all of our major providers, from the infrastructure providers to major other services like Snowflake, Datadog, etc. Flexible reporting and alerting, stellar customer success managers. Its like having a great tool and second set of eyes on our spend.
What do you dislike about the product?
Small company with immaturity in places, still learning, but listening and moving forward. Note this is minor and has much improved over the last couple years.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Visibility into spend. Even with a single infrastructure provider like AWS it was much improved over what they offer. But having that same visibility accross all our major spend for R&D (outside of people) is fantastic. We can track spend, report back on projects, initiatives etc. We get alerts on spikes and proactively chase unexpected cost spikes etc. We find issues before Finance notices.
An invaluable tool for understanding and attributing where your cloud spend is coming from
What do you like best about the product?
The attribution model (cost-formation) is really powerful (without being too complex). It's helped us to allocate cost at various levels of the organisation. This in combination with the great UI enables infrequent users to quickly see what they are spending.
What do you dislike about the product?
The forecasting side of the tool is pretty limited it would be great to see this evolve especially through the use of AI.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Enables us to interpret, allocate and represent our cloud spend (across multiple vendors).
We're also using the allocated data to feed back into our BI tooling and give us real time unit cost.
CZ review
What do you like best about the product?
the anomaly detection and kubernetes cost allocation are the 2 things I like best about CZ. The platform also enables cross functional collaboration
What do you dislike about the product?
Not 100% due to CloudZero but billing data can take long time to be populated.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
detailed visibility into cloud spending
