The Best Tropic Alternatives to Reduce Your SaaS Spend by Thousands of Dollars

Introduction

“How can I reduce my SaaS spend?” That is the question in the minds of many finance directors all across the world. And it’s likely that some of them have resorted to Tropic to learn how to save money on SaaS. 

Founded in 2019, Tropic is one of a small number of all-in-one SaaS vendor management and procurement platforms. For a long time, Tropic has marketed itself as a holistic SaaS management tool. In a nutshell, it promises to streamline your SaaS workflows while saving you money on SaaS procurement. It can also take care of software contract negotiations for you, which is no mean feat.

However, not everything that shines is gold with Tropic. To start with, Tropic was developed to help finance companies first and foremost. That means that its efficacy is not proven in other industries. 

Most importantly, Tropic is what we call a SaaS double agent. Apart from doing procurement, Tropic works for SaaS vendors to find buyers for their software. As you’ve probably guessed by now, this can lead to a potential conflict of interest. 

All in all, Tropic is not the ideal SaaS management platform if you want to save money on procurement. But don’t worry – we’ve chosen some of the best alternatives on the market to help you save.

Key points

• Desperate to learn how to save money on SaaS? Then, you might have come across Tropic – an all-in-one SaaS procurement and management platform.
• Unfortunately, Tropic is also a SaaS vendor management tool – meaning it might take advantage of a potential conflict of interest. But don’t worry – there are plenty of Tropic competitors out there.
• To help you find an alternative, we have chosen three of the best Tropic alternatives on the market: Quolum, Vendr, and Zylo. We have also delved deeper into their pros and cons to ask the following question: will any of them save you money in the long run?

Why look for a Tropic alternative?

There are a few reasons why you should look for a Tropic alternative. As previously mentioned, Tropic works for companies looking to purchase SaaS software and for SaaS vendors. Will it really help you to save money on procurement when it also has to make money for SaaS vendors? Probably not.

To make things worse, Tropic is not the all-in-one SaaS management tool it seems at first. Unlike other SaaS procurement platforms, Tropic doesn’t entirely replace procurement. Instead, it provides more of a helping hand. But when it comes down to it, you’ll still need to hire in-house SaaS procurement experts. 

As explained in the following verified review, Tropic will only take care of part of the procurement process. It will negotiate your subscription price for you, but you’ll still have to do the rest of the work:

And there’s even more you need to know about Tropic:

• It doesn’t let you set up your own self-managed workflows – meaning you won’t reach peak efficiency.
• Tropic doesn’t include enough automation features – you’ll still have to do a lot of manual inputting.
• At the moment, SaaS spend control is still being beta tested – meaning savings aren’t a priority.
• Similarly, SaaS security is heavily overlooked by Tropic.
• Tropic is known for needlessly delaying contract negotiations to push its prices up.

• Unlike competitors like Quolum, Tropic doesn’t have a savings guarantee in place.

Not convinced by Tropic? Don’t worry. Fortunately, there’s a good number of Tropic alternatives on the market. Let’s delve deeper into them.

The Ultimate Guide to The Best Tropic Alternatives

Are you after a SaaS procurement platform that helps you slash your SaaS spend? Then, you need to ensure that your chosen platform has been developed by SaaS experts, not salesmen. Only a team of dedicated SaaS experts can truly push prices down when negotiating contracts on your behalf.

Why? First of all, because they’ve got the necessary industry expertise to know a fair price when they see it. And secondly, because they follow a data-driven approach to contract negotiations. That way, they can get you the SaaS apps that you need at the best possible rates.

With this in mind, we have chosen the three best Tropic competitors on the market. Let’s have a look at them.

1. Quolum

Do you know how to save money on SaaS? If you don’t, ask the founders of Quolum. Unlike many of its peers, Quolum is a genuine all-in-one SaaS management and procurement platform. Because it has been developed by SaaS procurement experts, Quolum can take over the entirety of the procurement process – from research and contract negotiation to management and compliance.

On top of that, Quolum can save you more money than any other Tropic alternatives on the market. A one-of-a-kind SaaS management platform, Quolum has saved its customers an average of 30% in SaaS procurement.

Best of all, Quolum is the only SaaS procurement tool with a savings guarantee in place. That means that you’ll only have to pay for it if it saves you money. In the rare scenario that Quolum doesn’t help you save, it won’t cost you a single dime.

But Quolum is much more than savings:

Pros of Quolum

• Unlike Tropic, Quolum is a genuine all-in-one SaaS management and procurement platform.
• Because of that, it doesn’t require you to hire an in-house SaaS expert – meaning you’ll save even more money.
• Quolum provides you with great in-depth insights into your SaaS usage, so you’ll always know which apps are essential and which ones are dispensable.
• Because every person involved with Quolum is a SaaS expert, we can send you tailor-made SaaS recommendations to specifically help your business processes.
• Quolum can reclaim unused seats for you, so you don’t have to pay for software you’re not using.

• Unlike Tropic, Quolum tracks feature wide usage of each product, ensuring you only pay for what you use.
• Thanks to its app discovery function, it minimizes the risk of shadow IT and improves your security posture.
• Similarly, it actively removes shelfware to avoid compliance issues.
• Quolum can source SaaS apps and negotiate SaaS contracts for you to get you the best deals.
• Unlike many of its competitors, Quolum’s pricing is fully transparent – no hidden fees, no small font.
• Quolum has a slew of financial integrations, including with Brex, providing much more visibility on spend than any other provider.

At Quolum, we’re honest and upfront about what we do. That’s why we have also listed some of the not-so-good things about our platform:

Cons of Quolum

• At the moment, Quolum is a desktop-only tool – unlike some other SaaS management apps, there’s no mobile version yet.
• It doesn’t automate employee onboarding and offboarding, so you’ll have to do that manually.
• It’s a holistic platform that needs to be used by all departments to reach its full potential.

In spite of these quirks, Quolum is one of the best SaaS management platforms on the market. If you want your company to start slashing its SaaS spend from the get-go while being as productive as ever, waste no more time and get in touch with one of our savings experts today.

2. Vendr

Formed in 2018, Vendr has been growing at an incredibly fast pace. Nowadays, it’s one of the biggest names in the SaaS management world. The reason behind this growth? Probably that Vendr was one of the first SaaS management platforms to also offer procurement.

In fact, Vendr used to be a procurement-only platform. But in 2022, it bought the SaaS management tool Blissfully. Since then, Vendr has turned into an all-in-one tool that promises to take over every little step in your SaaS procurement and management processes.

But does it really deliver on its promises? Let’s have a look. 

Pros of Vendr

These are some of the reasons why Vendr is one of the biggest SaaS management platforms out there:

• Vendr can take over SaaS software sourcing and contract negotiations from beginning to end.
• That means that you won’t need to hire an in-house SaaS procurement expert.
• It can provide you with valuable insights into market trends and your SaaS usage.
• It can help with SaaS compliance, which is a big plus for companies working with large volumes of customer data.
• Vendr is a very comprehensive tool that keeps adding new features every now and then.
• Similarly, it can help you coordinate security reviews.
• Vendr allows you to tailor its settings and purchase processes to fit your specific business needs.

Thanks to this good range of perks, Vendr is one of the best Tropic competitors on the market. However, there are a few cons that you need to take into account before making a decision.

Cons of Vendr

• The biggest con of Vendr is that it doesn’t provide access to the data insights it uses to make procurement decisions – meaning its transparency is questioned.
• On a similar note, it is known to have caused friction between companies and SaaS vendors.

• Like with Tropic, contract negotiations can take longer than expected to push prices up artificially.
• Because Vendr implements new features without testing them properly, it can be too buggy – freezing and unexpected errors are not uncommon.
• Similarly, it can be hard to use for beginners.
• Vendr doesn’t provide you with monthly usage reports, so you’ll have to run them yourself if you want to track your SaaS usage.
• Vendr’s automation features aren’t quite there yet, so there’s a lot of manual inputting to be done

There’s no doubt that Vendr is a great Tropic alternative. But when it comes to helping you save money, the jury’s still out. Vendr’s delay in contract negotiations and lack of transparency are hurdles that can’t be easily overcome. 

3. Zylo

Zylo is one of the most popular SaaS management platforms out there. On top of ramping up the efficiency of your SaaS portfolio, it can take over contract negotiations and software sourcing.

In fact, Zylo claims to be the most comprehensive SaaS management tool on the market. But how true is that, really? One of the main things that you need to know about Zylo is that it only recently started offering procurement services – and only as an add-on.

Let’s delve deeper into Zylo to see how well it fulfills its lofty promises.

Pros of Zylo

• Zylo includes a wide range of app integrations.
• It helps with shadow IT and makes catalogs of approved applications.
• It has been designed by SaaS experts who know the ins and outs of the industry.
• Zylo can save you time by taking over the procurement process, from software tracking to subscription negotiation.
• It provides you with insightful usage data.
• It sends reminders to let you know that your SaaS software is up for renewal.
• Zylo is one of the most comprehensive tools on the market.

Cons of Zylo

• Unlike some of its competitors, Zylo has limited expertise in procurement – meaning you won’t get the best deals with it.

• Unfortunately, Zylo relies too much on Okta integrations for automating SaaS workflows – meaning not all essential processes are automated.
• Unlike with Quolum, Zylo’s pricing is not transparent, and it is completely dependent on the add-ons that you pay for.
• Recently, there have been plenty of security concerns regarding Zylo’s data protection measures.

• Zylo doesn’t offer a savings guarantee.

Zylo is certainly one of the most promising SaaS management platforms at the moment. But it needs more experience with procurement to really be on the top of the list of Tropic competitors. 

We’ve gone through the main Tropic alternatives on the market and seen what their pros and cons are. At this point, it’s clear who the winner is…

Take control of your SaaS spend with Quolum, the best Tropic alternative

Why is Quolum better than the other Tropic competitors? The main reason is that Quolum sees savings as a top priority. In a world where SaaS costs are skyrocketing, saving has never been more important. And at Quolum, we’ve got all the right tools to trim down your SaaS spend while ensuring that you’re more productive than ever before.

Thanks to our data-driven SaaS procurement processes, we save our clients around 30% in SaaS procurement – and all without overlooking data security and compliance. But that’s not all. Remember that because we have the only savings guarantee on the market in place, we’re a zero-risk investment.

So, if you’re looking for a SaaS management platform that can also save you thousands of dollars on procurement, let us congratulate you – you’ve already found it. All you need to do now is get in touch with one of our savings experts – you won’t regret it.

FAQs

What does Tropic do?

Tropic is an all-in-one SaaS management and procurement platform that can streamline your SaaS workflows and negotiate your software subscriptions for you. However, Tropic is also a SaaS vendor management platform. This means that it also helps SaaS vendors to make money – potentially leading to a conflict of interest.

Who are Tropic’s competitors?

These are some of Tropic’s competitors: Quolum, Zylo, Zluri, Vendr, and Productiv. But out of these, Quolum is the only one with a savings guarantee in place.

Who is Quolum for?

Quolum is for any company that wants to stop spending a fortune on SaaS. Unlike some Tropic software alternatives, we work with companies from all walks of life – big and small, from finance and HR to gaming and visual design.