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Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools in 2025

Last updated

September 30, 2025

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Last updated

September 30, 2025

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Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools in 2025

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Explore the top 10 AWS cost optimization tools in 2025 that help engineering teams cut costs, boost efficiency, and optimize cloud resources effectively.
AWS cost optimization tools are critical for managing rising cloud expenses. These tools help engineering teams monitor usage, identify inefficiencies, and make informed decisions to minimize waste. AWS native tools offer basic cost visibility and recommendations, but they often require manual intervention and lack automation. As cloud environments become more complex, traditional tools no longer suffice. This highlights the growing need for third-party tools that offer automation, real-time optimizations, and deeper insights, allowing teams to manage costs and align cloud spend with business goals proactively.

Engineering leaders know how quickly AWS bills can spiral. The problem isn’t a lack of discipline but the reality of how AWS is structured. AWS, one of Amazon’s strongest revenue drivers, generating $115 billion in 2024, dominates the global cloud infrastructure market with a 30%  share. Yet, despite its growth, 33% of AWS cloud spend is wasted on overprovisioned and idle resources, a gap that costs U.S. enterprises billions each year.

The rise of AI-first infrastructure has only raised the stakes. Workloads are more dynamic, experiments run hotter, and the margin for inefficiency gets thinner by the day. Old cost strategies are buckling under this new demand. It’s no wonder that  63% of organizations have made cloud cost control their top priority for 2025.

That is why AWS cost optimization tools are becoming increasingly important as cloud environments grow. But most tools stop at pointing out inefficiencies and push the hard work back on engineers. The result is a “FinOps tax”: more reports, more manual tuning, and little relief for teams who already spend on constant oversight of their infrastructure..

This is why we’ve created this guide. This blog will cover the top AWS cost optimization tools in 2025, showing where each one fits and why the shift toward autonomous systems is becoming critical for teams that want to balance efficiency with innovation.

Understanding AWS Cost Optimization

Cost optimization is not about cutting resources blindly. It is about aligning spend with business value. In other words, the goal is to deliver the right performance at the lowest possible cost. McKinsey notes that companies combining cloud adoption with business transformation achieve up to 180% return on investment. To reach these outcomes, engineering teams must optimize compute, storage, networking, and licensing. The challenge is continuous because workloads, pricing models, and business requirements evolve.

AWS cost optimization refers to the practice of reducing AWS cloud spending without compromising on performance. It’s about aligning cloud resources with business objectives, ensuring that the resources you are paying for are being fully utilized.

Why AWS Cost Optimization Matters to Engineering Teams?

Every engineering leader has felt the sting of an AWS bill that ballooned faster than anyone predicted. It is rarely the result of a single bad decision. More often, it is the steady drip of small inefficiencies that add up to millions.

A FinOps in Focus 2025 report reveals that most developers lack access to real‑time data on idle resources; they need 31 days on average to identify and eliminate waste. Meanwhile, 71% do not orchestrate Spot instances, 61% do not rightsize, 58% do not use Reserved Instances, and 48% do not shut down idle resources. 

Without automation and shared accountability, even small inefficiencies accumulate. Another study by the FinOps Foundation highlights that workload optimization and waste reduction are the top priorities for practitioners. These findings highlight the need for better tools and processes.

What Are AWS Cost Optimization Tools?

When we look at AWS cloud infrastructure, one of the most valuable assets is data, data on how resources are utilized, when costs spike, and where savings can be made. AWS cost optimization tools are essentially the means to extract and make sense of that data, turning raw information into actionable insights.

These tools range from basic services provided directly by AWS (native tools) to more advanced, feature-rich third-party solutions. They help engineering leaders visualize cloud spend, track resource utilization, and automate the optimization process without sacrificing performance.

Both categories have their place. Visibility tools help teams understand their cost drivers and build accountability across finance and engineering. Action-oriented tools help ensure that optimization actually happens, continuously, not just once a quarter when someone finally has time to review the bill.

In 2025, the market offers a spectrum of options across these two categories. Some are AWS-native, others are third-party platforms with specialized capabilities. The common thread is that the best tools align cloud spend with business value while reducing the operational burden on engineering teams.

AWS Native Cost Optimization Tools

AWS provides several built‑in services that help visualize and control spending. These tools are foundational. They offer data and recommendations, but typically require manual follow‑through. Below is a summary of the main native options.

AWS Cost Optimization Tools — Functionality & Limitations
Tool Functionality Limitations
Cost Explorer Provides cost and usage visualizations, forecasts, and Rightsizing recommendations for EC2 and RDS. Limited historical data (up to 12 months), and primarily focuses on AWS. It lacks deep analytics and custom business metrics.
Budgets Enables users to set cost, usage, or reservation thresholds and receive alerts when they are approached. Alerts alone do not save money — manual actions are required to correct overspending.
Cost and Usage Report (CUR) Delivers detailed line-item data via S3 to enable granular analysis. Requires additional tooling to analyze; large volumes of data can be unwieldy.
Trusted Advisor Offers best-practice checks across cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance; identifies unused or underutilized resources. Recommendations may be generic. No automated remediation.
Cost Anomaly Detection Uses machine learning to spot unusual spending patterns and send alerts. Focuses on anomalies rather than continuous optimization. Configuration can be complex.
Compute Optimizer Analyzes historical utilization to suggest EC2 and RDS instance sizes. Limited to certain resource types; does not manage scaling or scheduling.
Cost Optimization Hub and Billing Console Consolidate recommendations and billing dashboards. Provide visibility but not automated actions.

Comparing Native vs Third-Party Tools

One of the first questions we hear from engineering teams is simple: when do native AWS tools stop being enough?

Native tools are the baseline. They give you visibility into where money is going and surface broad recommendations, but they stop short of taking real action. They also tend to look backward: limited historical data, AWS-only scope, and manual follow-through. For a single account or a relatively static workload, that might be fine. For dynamic, multi-team environments, the cracks show quickly.

This is where third-party platforms step in. They’re built to address the day-to-day realities engineering leaders face: spend spread across dozens of accounts, commitments that are hard to manage, and workloads that shift faster than human operators can adjust. The best of these platforms don’t just highlight waste; they tie into engineering workflows, surface richer analytics, and in some cases, apply automation to continuously rightsize and manage resources.

And that’s the real inflection point. Native tools tell you what happened yesterday, while third-party platforms help you stay ahead of tomorrow. For teams pushing multi-cloud strategies or scaling aggressively on AWS, the difference between the two is not just convenience. It’s the difference between always reacting to bills and actively keeping costs aligned with business goals.

Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools for Engineering Leaders

Choosing the right tool is often the difference between saving a few percentage points off your AWS bill and fundamentally changing how your organization manages cloud spend. 

AWS’s built-in tools can get you part of the way: budgets, dashboards, and usage reports are table stakes now, but most engineering leaders quickly realize that surface-level visibility isn’t enough.

Most vendors will tell you their tool “allocates costs,” “tracks anomalies,” and “optimizes usage.” That’s fine, but dashboards don’t save money. Actions do. That’s why the best AWS cost optimization platforms in 2025 don’t just analyze. They execute. They act safely, autonomously, and in real time.

With that in mind, here are the top 10 AWS cost optimization tools worth your attention this year. Let’s start with the one that actually lives up to that promise.

Sedai is #1. Shocker, right?

Sedai is #1. Shocker, right?

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: we put ourselves at the top of this list. Not because we enjoy self-congratulation, but because engineering leaders keep telling us that what we’re building actually solves the problem they’ve been wrestling with for years.

Engineering teams are caught in a constant struggle to manage cloud costs while maintaining system reliability. Traditional tools lack the context and ability to act on those insights. This leaves engineering teams scrambling to act on those insights manually.

Sedai takes a different path. Instead of waiting for engineers to react, it acts autonomously:

  • Learns how your services and applications behave over time.
  • Understands the ripple effect of changes across distributed systems.
  • Acts proactively to cut costs and resolve issues automatically.

Sedai supports both autonomous scaling and co-pilot-based executions, where users are empowered to make key decisions on which workloads to execute, while the system handles other scaling actions automatically. This real-time intelligence is what sets Sedai apart. 

Key Capabilities and Results

  • Comprehensive Cost Management: Sedai drives 30–50% savings by autonomously rightsizing resources, tuning workloads, and optimizing commitments. For instance, Palo Alto Networks saved US$3.5 million by allowing Sedai to automatically manage thousands of changes.
  • Proactive Uptime Automation: By detecting anomalies early, Sedai reduces failed customer interactions by 50% and improves performance up to 6x. 
  • Autonomous Optimization: Sedai adjusts compute, storage, and network resources in real-time without requiring human input. It supports major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, and more.
  • Release Intelligence: With Sedai, every release automatically adapts to the optimal configuration, providing performance scores and ensuring releases go smoothly.
  • Smart SLOs: Sedai helps define and enforce Service Level Objectives (SLOs), proactively adjusting configurations to ensure services meet these goals.
  • Scalability and Continuous Learning: Sedai executes over 100,000 production changes safely, reducing latency by up to 75%. It learns from past behaviors, adapts to new patterns, and continuously improves its efficiency over time.
  • Security and Compliance: Sedai ensures that optimizations are made with full consideration of security and compliance requirements, safeguarding data integrity and governance.

Best for: Enterprises managing large-scale, multi-cloud environments that need real-time optimization without constant manual adjustments and engineering teams who want to reduce cloud costs without adding more manual tasks to their plate.

2. CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth by VMware is a powerful cloud management platform used by organizations worldwide to optimize their AWS costs. This tool provides detailed insights into cloud usage, allowing businesses to improve their cloud resource management and minimize unnecessary spending. CloudHealth offers cost visibility, governance tools, and optimization features to help engineering leaders maximize their cloud investments and maintain tight control over cloud expenditure.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud cost management and optimization (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Automated budget alerts and cost forecasting tools.
  • Detailed cost reporting and resource allocation insights.
  • Security and compliance monitoring alongside cost management.
  • Customizable governance policies to ensure consistent cloud cost management.

Best for: Enterprises with complex, multi-cloud environments that need centralized cost management, security oversight, and compliance monitoring. Ideal for organizations requiring a comprehensive approach to both cost and governance across different cloud platforms.

3. Spot by NetApp

Spot by NetApp

Spot by NetApp is a cloud cost management solution that focuses on optimizing cloud infrastructure to help organizations reduce their AWS costs. With its powerful data-driven approach, Spot leverages cloud automation to continuously optimize cloud infrastructure for cost savings. It is particularly effective in environments with flexible workloads, providing savings of up to 90% on EC2 costs.

Key Features:

  • Automated Spot Instance management to ensure optimal instance selection.
  • Intelligent scaling of workloads to utilize the most cost-effective resources.
  • Cost forecasting based on historical usage and trends.
  • Automatic rightsizing recommendations for EC2 instances.
  • Seamless integration with AWS Auto Scaling for dynamic workload adjustments.

Best for: Organizations looking to maximize savings on variable, fault-tolerant workloads. It is ideal for businesses that heavily utilize EC2 instances and want to take advantage of Spot Instances to significantly reduce their AWS bills.

4. Densify

 Densify

Densify is a cloud optimization platform that uses machine learning to analyze cloud resource utilization and make recommendations for cost-saving improvements. It focuses on rightsizing both traditional and containerized workloads to help organizations maximize efficiency and minimize cloud waste. Densify is an excellent choice for complex environments with hybrid or multi-cloud infrastructures.

Key Features:

  • Machine learning-powered optimization for cloud resources across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Real-time recommendations for rightsizing cloud instances, storage, and containers.
  • Cost-saving insights on EC2, Kubernetes, and containerized workloads.
  • Support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offering visibility and optimization across all platforms.
  • Automated optimization through continuous monitoring and adjustments based on workload changes.

Best for: Enterprises and organizations with hybrid or multi-cloud environments that need automated, intelligent cost optimization across a variety of platforms. It’s particularly useful for teams working with containers and Kubernetes.

5. CloudCheckr

CloudCheckr

CloudCheckr is a comprehensive cloud management and optimization tool that provides deep insights into cloud usage, costs, and security. It is specifically designed to help organizations manage and optimize their AWS, Azure, and GCP resources. CloudCheckr offers an easy-to-use platform that helps teams gain visibility into their cloud spend while ensuring compliance and security standards are met.

Key Features:

  • Cross-cloud visibility for AWS, Azure, and GCP, providing a unified dashboard for cloud cost management.
  • Cost allocation and reporting to track and manage cloud spending by department, team, or project.
  • Security and compliance monitoring to ensure that cost optimization doesn't compromise data security.
  • Automated cost optimization recommendations, including reserved instance management and rightsizing.
  • Budget tracking and alerting to prevent overspending and ensure financial accountability.

Best for: Organizations that require strong security and compliance capabilities alongside comprehensive cost optimization.

6. ProsperOps

ProsperOps

ProsperOps is an automated FinOps platform that focuses on optimizing Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans for AWS workloads. With ProsperOps, engineering teams can optimize cloud costs without manual intervention, ensuring that companies always leverage the best discount plans based on their cloud usage. The tool uses advanced algorithms to continuously optimize RI portfolios, ensuring maximum savings without compromising performance.

Key Features:

  • Automated Reserved Instance (RI) and Savings Plan optimization.
  • Continuous execution to adjust RI purchases in real-time for maximum cost efficiency.
  • Real-time cost analysis to align spending with current and future cloud usage.
  • AI-driven algorithms for accurate recommendations and portfolio management.
  • Zero-risk pricing model that charges a percentage of savings generated.

Best for: Organizations with complex, fluctuating AWS usage that want a fully automated solution to maximize the value of Reserved Instances and Savings Plans without requiring dedicated FinOps expertise.

7. CloudBolt

CloudBolt

CloudBolt is a multi-cloud cost management platform that provides visibility and control over AWS, Azure, GCP, and other cloud environments. It offers robust governance and optimization capabilities, enabling organizations to identify waste, control costs, and optimize resource usage across all their cloud platforms. CloudBolt allows for seamless cost allocation, budgeting, and governance to ensure that cloud spending stays under control.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud cost visibility for AWS, Azure, GCP, and more.
  • Automated cost optimization recommendations across hybrid cloud environments.
  • Cloud cost forecasting and budgeting tools to plan for future spending.
  • Customizable cost allocation and tagging for better resource tracking.
  • Governance and compliance to enforce cost optimization policies across teams.

Best for: Enterprises managing multi-cloud environments that need centralized governance, cost forecasting, and automated optimization to keep spending in check across multiple cloud providers.

8. Yotascale

Yotascale

Yotascale is an enterprise-grade cloud cost management platform that focuses on delivering deep insights into AWS and multi-cloud infrastructure spending. It helps organizations reduce cloud costs by providing automated cost allocation, forecasting, and optimization for cloud resources. Yotascale integrates seamlessly with engineering teams to provide real-time visibility into cloud usage and cost drivers.

Key Features:

  • Real-time cost anomaly detection and alerting.
  • Automated cost allocation to various teams, projects, or departments.
  • Cloud usage forecasting to predict future cloud costs and trends.
  • Comprehensive cost analysis across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
  • Workload optimization recommendations for cloud cost reduction.

Best for: Large organizations with complex multi-cloud environments looking for an enterprise-grade solution to automate cost allocation, track cloud usage, and optimize spending across different cloud platforms.

9. Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability is a cloud financial management platform that allows organizations to optimize and manage their AWS and multi-cloud spend. Cloudability helps teams understand where their money is going, track cost trends, and implement savings initiatives that align with their business goals. The platform integrates with financial operations (FinOps) practices, making it easier to enforce budget adherence and financial accountability across teams.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud financial management for AWS, Azure, GCP, and more.
  • Cost forecasting and budgeting tools to track and manage cloud expenses.
  • Cloud financial governance to enforce budget and cost policies.
  • Detailed reporting and visibility into cloud resource utilization and spending.
  • Integration with FinOps to align engineering and finance teams on cost management.

Best for: Organizations with a centralized FinOps team or those looking to integrate cloud financial management into their overall financial operations for better visibility, budgeting, and governance.

10. Harness

Harness

Harness is a cloud management platform that combines cost optimization with DevOps automation. It provides engineering teams with the tools they need to track, optimize, and manage AWS costs in a fully automated way. Harness’s unique focus on integration with DevOps workflows makes it especially useful for teams looking to optimize costs without disrupting development cycles.

Key Features:

  • Automated cloud cost management integrated into DevOps workflows.
  • Cost visibility and analytics to track spending trends across AWS services.
  • Cost anomaly detection with real-time alerts for unexpected spending spikes.
  • Cost allocation and reporting for better cost accountability across teams.
  • Cloud cost optimization recommendations for better resource utilization.

Best for: DevOps and engineering teams seeking an integrated solution for optimizing AWS cloud costs while maintaining their development velocity and operational efficiency.

Choosing the Right Tool

When it comes to selecting an AWS cost optimization tool, the first basic thing we always recommend is focusing on granular insights and scalability. It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many teams we’ve worked with who end up using tools that only give them a high-level view of their cloud spend. And let's be honest, high-level data is rarely actionable.

The best platforms offer detailed visibility into the cloud infrastructure, enabling teams to pinpoint inefficiencies at the service level. For instance, the ability to break down costs by project, team, or resource type allows for more precise cost allocation and optimization. With this level of visibility, teams can easily identify underutilized resources, inefficient services, and areas where cost overruns are occurring.

Beyond insights, the tool must be scalable. As cloud environments grow, your optimization tool should be able to scale with them. This means it should support multi-cloud environments, allowing you to manage costs across AWS, Azure, and other platforms. We've seen firsthand how siloed tools that focus only on AWS can become a bottleneck as organizations move to multi-cloud strategies.

Visibility and scalability, while essential, address only part of the challenge. The real test is ensuring that cost decisions don’t compromise performance or availability. Teams that achieve sustainable savings are those whose optimization systems can act continuously and intelligently, adjusting resources in real time to align spend with operational needs. This approach reduces waste while keeping workloads reliable, maintaining the balance every engineering leader worries about.

This is where autonomous cloud management tools, like Sedai, make a tangible difference. These tools don’t just help you see the inefficiencies. They automatically correct them in real-time. 

The shift from reactive oversight to continuous, intelligent execution is where meaningful results emerge.

Conclusion

AWS cost optimization is a strategic discipline that combines technical practices, business alignment, and automation. Research shows that 30% of cloud spend may be wasted and that quick wins can save 6–14%, while more targeted efforts can deliver up to 20% in savings. 

Engineering teams need to stay agile and consistently monitor resource usage and spending patterns to ensure that their cloud infrastructure remains efficient. With the right AWS cost optimization tools, teams can reduce waste, optimize usage, and align cloud spend with business goals.. 

Traditional tools surface insights without reducing the operational burden. That’s why engineering leaders are turning to autonomous systems like Sedai, which go beyond reporting by continuously optimizing resources in real time to keep your AWS environment efficient, resilient, and aligned with business goals.

Gain full visibility into your AWS environment and reduce wasted spend immediately.

FAQs

1. Why is AWS cost optimization important for engineering teams? 

AWS cost optimization ensures that engineering teams can maintain performance while minimizing unnecessary cloud expenses. By using the right tools, teams can avoid over-provisioning and underutilization, optimize resources, and scale efficiently.

2. What are the best AWS cost optimization tools?

For basic cost management, AWS native tools like Cost Explorer and Trusted Advisor are effective, but they may fall short in complex, multi-cloud environments. Third-party tools like Sedai go beyond this, offering predictive insights, automated recommendations, and cost anomaly detection to optimize cloud costs continuously. These advanced features are essential for engineering teams managing dynamic infrastructures, ensuring proactive cost management and better alignment with business goals.

3. When should I use AWS native tools vs third-party tools?

AWS native tools are a solid starting point, especially for smaller teams with straightforward AWS environments. However, as your infrastructure grows and becomes more complex (or if you operate in a multi-cloud environment), third-party tools like Sedai offer deeper insights, multi-cloud support, and automation to help optimize costs more effectively.

4. How do I measure the success of AWS cost optimization efforts?

Success in AWS cost optimization can be measured by tracking cost savings over time, the efficiency of resource utilization, and the alignment of cloud spend with business goals. Using tools that provide detailed analytics can help assess the impact and ROI of optimization efforts.

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CONTENTS

Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools in 2025

Published on
Last updated on

September 30, 2025

Max 3 min
Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools in 2025
AWS cost optimization tools are critical for managing rising cloud expenses. These tools help engineering teams monitor usage, identify inefficiencies, and make informed decisions to minimize waste. AWS native tools offer basic cost visibility and recommendations, but they often require manual intervention and lack automation. As cloud environments become more complex, traditional tools no longer suffice. This highlights the growing need for third-party tools that offer automation, real-time optimizations, and deeper insights, allowing teams to manage costs and align cloud spend with business goals proactively.

Engineering leaders know how quickly AWS bills can spiral. The problem isn’t a lack of discipline but the reality of how AWS is structured. AWS, one of Amazon’s strongest revenue drivers, generating $115 billion in 2024, dominates the global cloud infrastructure market with a 30%  share. Yet, despite its growth, 33% of AWS cloud spend is wasted on overprovisioned and idle resources, a gap that costs U.S. enterprises billions each year.

The rise of AI-first infrastructure has only raised the stakes. Workloads are more dynamic, experiments run hotter, and the margin for inefficiency gets thinner by the day. Old cost strategies are buckling under this new demand. It’s no wonder that  63% of organizations have made cloud cost control their top priority for 2025.

That is why AWS cost optimization tools are becoming increasingly important as cloud environments grow. But most tools stop at pointing out inefficiencies and push the hard work back on engineers. The result is a “FinOps tax”: more reports, more manual tuning, and little relief for teams who already spend on constant oversight of their infrastructure..

This is why we’ve created this guide. This blog will cover the top AWS cost optimization tools in 2025, showing where each one fits and why the shift toward autonomous systems is becoming critical for teams that want to balance efficiency with innovation.

Understanding AWS Cost Optimization

Cost optimization is not about cutting resources blindly. It is about aligning spend with business value. In other words, the goal is to deliver the right performance at the lowest possible cost. McKinsey notes that companies combining cloud adoption with business transformation achieve up to 180% return on investment. To reach these outcomes, engineering teams must optimize compute, storage, networking, and licensing. The challenge is continuous because workloads, pricing models, and business requirements evolve.

AWS cost optimization refers to the practice of reducing AWS cloud spending without compromising on performance. It’s about aligning cloud resources with business objectives, ensuring that the resources you are paying for are being fully utilized.

Why AWS Cost Optimization Matters to Engineering Teams?

Every engineering leader has felt the sting of an AWS bill that ballooned faster than anyone predicted. It is rarely the result of a single bad decision. More often, it is the steady drip of small inefficiencies that add up to millions.

A FinOps in Focus 2025 report reveals that most developers lack access to real‑time data on idle resources; they need 31 days on average to identify and eliminate waste. Meanwhile, 71% do not orchestrate Spot instances, 61% do not rightsize, 58% do not use Reserved Instances, and 48% do not shut down idle resources. 

Without automation and shared accountability, even small inefficiencies accumulate. Another study by the FinOps Foundation highlights that workload optimization and waste reduction are the top priorities for practitioners. These findings highlight the need for better tools and processes.

What Are AWS Cost Optimization Tools?

When we look at AWS cloud infrastructure, one of the most valuable assets is data, data on how resources are utilized, when costs spike, and where savings can be made. AWS cost optimization tools are essentially the means to extract and make sense of that data, turning raw information into actionable insights.

These tools range from basic services provided directly by AWS (native tools) to more advanced, feature-rich third-party solutions. They help engineering leaders visualize cloud spend, track resource utilization, and automate the optimization process without sacrificing performance.

Both categories have their place. Visibility tools help teams understand their cost drivers and build accountability across finance and engineering. Action-oriented tools help ensure that optimization actually happens, continuously, not just once a quarter when someone finally has time to review the bill.

In 2025, the market offers a spectrum of options across these two categories. Some are AWS-native, others are third-party platforms with specialized capabilities. The common thread is that the best tools align cloud spend with business value while reducing the operational burden on engineering teams.

AWS Native Cost Optimization Tools

AWS provides several built‑in services that help visualize and control spending. These tools are foundational. They offer data and recommendations, but typically require manual follow‑through. Below is a summary of the main native options.

AWS Cost Optimization Tools — Functionality & Limitations
Tool Functionality Limitations
Cost Explorer Provides cost and usage visualizations, forecasts, and Rightsizing recommendations for EC2 and RDS. Limited historical data (up to 12 months), and primarily focuses on AWS. It lacks deep analytics and custom business metrics.
Budgets Enables users to set cost, usage, or reservation thresholds and receive alerts when they are approached. Alerts alone do not save money — manual actions are required to correct overspending.
Cost and Usage Report (CUR) Delivers detailed line-item data via S3 to enable granular analysis. Requires additional tooling to analyze; large volumes of data can be unwieldy.
Trusted Advisor Offers best-practice checks across cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance; identifies unused or underutilized resources. Recommendations may be generic. No automated remediation.
Cost Anomaly Detection Uses machine learning to spot unusual spending patterns and send alerts. Focuses on anomalies rather than continuous optimization. Configuration can be complex.
Compute Optimizer Analyzes historical utilization to suggest EC2 and RDS instance sizes. Limited to certain resource types; does not manage scaling or scheduling.
Cost Optimization Hub and Billing Console Consolidate recommendations and billing dashboards. Provide visibility but not automated actions.

Comparing Native vs Third-Party Tools

One of the first questions we hear from engineering teams is simple: when do native AWS tools stop being enough?

Native tools are the baseline. They give you visibility into where money is going and surface broad recommendations, but they stop short of taking real action. They also tend to look backward: limited historical data, AWS-only scope, and manual follow-through. For a single account or a relatively static workload, that might be fine. For dynamic, multi-team environments, the cracks show quickly.

This is where third-party platforms step in. They’re built to address the day-to-day realities engineering leaders face: spend spread across dozens of accounts, commitments that are hard to manage, and workloads that shift faster than human operators can adjust. The best of these platforms don’t just highlight waste; they tie into engineering workflows, surface richer analytics, and in some cases, apply automation to continuously rightsize and manage resources.

And that’s the real inflection point. Native tools tell you what happened yesterday, while third-party platforms help you stay ahead of tomorrow. For teams pushing multi-cloud strategies or scaling aggressively on AWS, the difference between the two is not just convenience. It’s the difference between always reacting to bills and actively keeping costs aligned with business goals.

Top 10 AWS Cost Optimization Tools for Engineering Leaders

Choosing the right tool is often the difference between saving a few percentage points off your AWS bill and fundamentally changing how your organization manages cloud spend. 

AWS’s built-in tools can get you part of the way: budgets, dashboards, and usage reports are table stakes now, but most engineering leaders quickly realize that surface-level visibility isn’t enough.

Most vendors will tell you their tool “allocates costs,” “tracks anomalies,” and “optimizes usage.” That’s fine, but dashboards don’t save money. Actions do. That’s why the best AWS cost optimization platforms in 2025 don’t just analyze. They execute. They act safely, autonomously, and in real time.

With that in mind, here are the top 10 AWS cost optimization tools worth your attention this year. Let’s start with the one that actually lives up to that promise.

Sedai is #1. Shocker, right?

Sedai is #1. Shocker, right?

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: we put ourselves at the top of this list. Not because we enjoy self-congratulation, but because engineering leaders keep telling us that what we’re building actually solves the problem they’ve been wrestling with for years.

Engineering teams are caught in a constant struggle to manage cloud costs while maintaining system reliability. Traditional tools lack the context and ability to act on those insights. This leaves engineering teams scrambling to act on those insights manually.

Sedai takes a different path. Instead of waiting for engineers to react, it acts autonomously:

  • Learns how your services and applications behave over time.
  • Understands the ripple effect of changes across distributed systems.
  • Acts proactively to cut costs and resolve issues automatically.

Sedai supports both autonomous scaling and co-pilot-based executions, where users are empowered to make key decisions on which workloads to execute, while the system handles other scaling actions automatically. This real-time intelligence is what sets Sedai apart. 

Key Capabilities and Results

  • Comprehensive Cost Management: Sedai drives 30–50% savings by autonomously rightsizing resources, tuning workloads, and optimizing commitments. For instance, Palo Alto Networks saved US$3.5 million by allowing Sedai to automatically manage thousands of changes.
  • Proactive Uptime Automation: By detecting anomalies early, Sedai reduces failed customer interactions by 50% and improves performance up to 6x. 
  • Autonomous Optimization: Sedai adjusts compute, storage, and network resources in real-time without requiring human input. It supports major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, and more.
  • Release Intelligence: With Sedai, every release automatically adapts to the optimal configuration, providing performance scores and ensuring releases go smoothly.
  • Smart SLOs: Sedai helps define and enforce Service Level Objectives (SLOs), proactively adjusting configurations to ensure services meet these goals.
  • Scalability and Continuous Learning: Sedai executes over 100,000 production changes safely, reducing latency by up to 75%. It learns from past behaviors, adapts to new patterns, and continuously improves its efficiency over time.
  • Security and Compliance: Sedai ensures that optimizations are made with full consideration of security and compliance requirements, safeguarding data integrity and governance.

Best for: Enterprises managing large-scale, multi-cloud environments that need real-time optimization without constant manual adjustments and engineering teams who want to reduce cloud costs without adding more manual tasks to their plate.

2. CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth by VMware is a powerful cloud management platform used by organizations worldwide to optimize their AWS costs. This tool provides detailed insights into cloud usage, allowing businesses to improve their cloud resource management and minimize unnecessary spending. CloudHealth offers cost visibility, governance tools, and optimization features to help engineering leaders maximize their cloud investments and maintain tight control over cloud expenditure.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud cost management and optimization (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Automated budget alerts and cost forecasting tools.
  • Detailed cost reporting and resource allocation insights.
  • Security and compliance monitoring alongside cost management.
  • Customizable governance policies to ensure consistent cloud cost management.

Best for: Enterprises with complex, multi-cloud environments that need centralized cost management, security oversight, and compliance monitoring. Ideal for organizations requiring a comprehensive approach to both cost and governance across different cloud platforms.

3. Spot by NetApp

Spot by NetApp

Spot by NetApp is a cloud cost management solution that focuses on optimizing cloud infrastructure to help organizations reduce their AWS costs. With its powerful data-driven approach, Spot leverages cloud automation to continuously optimize cloud infrastructure for cost savings. It is particularly effective in environments with flexible workloads, providing savings of up to 90% on EC2 costs.

Key Features:

  • Automated Spot Instance management to ensure optimal instance selection.
  • Intelligent scaling of workloads to utilize the most cost-effective resources.
  • Cost forecasting based on historical usage and trends.
  • Automatic rightsizing recommendations for EC2 instances.
  • Seamless integration with AWS Auto Scaling for dynamic workload adjustments.

Best for: Organizations looking to maximize savings on variable, fault-tolerant workloads. It is ideal for businesses that heavily utilize EC2 instances and want to take advantage of Spot Instances to significantly reduce their AWS bills.

4. Densify

 Densify

Densify is a cloud optimization platform that uses machine learning to analyze cloud resource utilization and make recommendations for cost-saving improvements. It focuses on rightsizing both traditional and containerized workloads to help organizations maximize efficiency and minimize cloud waste. Densify is an excellent choice for complex environments with hybrid or multi-cloud infrastructures.

Key Features:

  • Machine learning-powered optimization for cloud resources across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Real-time recommendations for rightsizing cloud instances, storage, and containers.
  • Cost-saving insights on EC2, Kubernetes, and containerized workloads.
  • Support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offering visibility and optimization across all platforms.
  • Automated optimization through continuous monitoring and adjustments based on workload changes.

Best for: Enterprises and organizations with hybrid or multi-cloud environments that need automated, intelligent cost optimization across a variety of platforms. It’s particularly useful for teams working with containers and Kubernetes.

5. CloudCheckr

CloudCheckr

CloudCheckr is a comprehensive cloud management and optimization tool that provides deep insights into cloud usage, costs, and security. It is specifically designed to help organizations manage and optimize their AWS, Azure, and GCP resources. CloudCheckr offers an easy-to-use platform that helps teams gain visibility into their cloud spend while ensuring compliance and security standards are met.

Key Features:

  • Cross-cloud visibility for AWS, Azure, and GCP, providing a unified dashboard for cloud cost management.
  • Cost allocation and reporting to track and manage cloud spending by department, team, or project.
  • Security and compliance monitoring to ensure that cost optimization doesn't compromise data security.
  • Automated cost optimization recommendations, including reserved instance management and rightsizing.
  • Budget tracking and alerting to prevent overspending and ensure financial accountability.

Best for: Organizations that require strong security and compliance capabilities alongside comprehensive cost optimization.

6. ProsperOps

ProsperOps

ProsperOps is an automated FinOps platform that focuses on optimizing Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans for AWS workloads. With ProsperOps, engineering teams can optimize cloud costs without manual intervention, ensuring that companies always leverage the best discount plans based on their cloud usage. The tool uses advanced algorithms to continuously optimize RI portfolios, ensuring maximum savings without compromising performance.

Key Features:

  • Automated Reserved Instance (RI) and Savings Plan optimization.
  • Continuous execution to adjust RI purchases in real-time for maximum cost efficiency.
  • Real-time cost analysis to align spending with current and future cloud usage.
  • AI-driven algorithms for accurate recommendations and portfolio management.
  • Zero-risk pricing model that charges a percentage of savings generated.

Best for: Organizations with complex, fluctuating AWS usage that want a fully automated solution to maximize the value of Reserved Instances and Savings Plans without requiring dedicated FinOps expertise.

7. CloudBolt

CloudBolt

CloudBolt is a multi-cloud cost management platform that provides visibility and control over AWS, Azure, GCP, and other cloud environments. It offers robust governance and optimization capabilities, enabling organizations to identify waste, control costs, and optimize resource usage across all their cloud platforms. CloudBolt allows for seamless cost allocation, budgeting, and governance to ensure that cloud spending stays under control.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud cost visibility for AWS, Azure, GCP, and more.
  • Automated cost optimization recommendations across hybrid cloud environments.
  • Cloud cost forecasting and budgeting tools to plan for future spending.
  • Customizable cost allocation and tagging for better resource tracking.
  • Governance and compliance to enforce cost optimization policies across teams.

Best for: Enterprises managing multi-cloud environments that need centralized governance, cost forecasting, and automated optimization to keep spending in check across multiple cloud providers.

8. Yotascale

Yotascale

Yotascale is an enterprise-grade cloud cost management platform that focuses on delivering deep insights into AWS and multi-cloud infrastructure spending. It helps organizations reduce cloud costs by providing automated cost allocation, forecasting, and optimization for cloud resources. Yotascale integrates seamlessly with engineering teams to provide real-time visibility into cloud usage and cost drivers.

Key Features:

  • Real-time cost anomaly detection and alerting.
  • Automated cost allocation to various teams, projects, or departments.
  • Cloud usage forecasting to predict future cloud costs and trends.
  • Comprehensive cost analysis across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
  • Workload optimization recommendations for cloud cost reduction.

Best for: Large organizations with complex multi-cloud environments looking for an enterprise-grade solution to automate cost allocation, track cloud usage, and optimize spending across different cloud platforms.

9. Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability is a cloud financial management platform that allows organizations to optimize and manage their AWS and multi-cloud spend. Cloudability helps teams understand where their money is going, track cost trends, and implement savings initiatives that align with their business goals. The platform integrates with financial operations (FinOps) practices, making it easier to enforce budget adherence and financial accountability across teams.

Key Features:

  • Multi-cloud financial management for AWS, Azure, GCP, and more.
  • Cost forecasting and budgeting tools to track and manage cloud expenses.
  • Cloud financial governance to enforce budget and cost policies.
  • Detailed reporting and visibility into cloud resource utilization and spending.
  • Integration with FinOps to align engineering and finance teams on cost management.

Best for: Organizations with a centralized FinOps team or those looking to integrate cloud financial management into their overall financial operations for better visibility, budgeting, and governance.

10. Harness

Harness

Harness is a cloud management platform that combines cost optimization with DevOps automation. It provides engineering teams with the tools they need to track, optimize, and manage AWS costs in a fully automated way. Harness’s unique focus on integration with DevOps workflows makes it especially useful for teams looking to optimize costs without disrupting development cycles.

Key Features:

  • Automated cloud cost management integrated into DevOps workflows.
  • Cost visibility and analytics to track spending trends across AWS services.
  • Cost anomaly detection with real-time alerts for unexpected spending spikes.
  • Cost allocation and reporting for better cost accountability across teams.
  • Cloud cost optimization recommendations for better resource utilization.

Best for: DevOps and engineering teams seeking an integrated solution for optimizing AWS cloud costs while maintaining their development velocity and operational efficiency.

Choosing the Right Tool

When it comes to selecting an AWS cost optimization tool, the first basic thing we always recommend is focusing on granular insights and scalability. It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many teams we’ve worked with who end up using tools that only give them a high-level view of their cloud spend. And let's be honest, high-level data is rarely actionable.

The best platforms offer detailed visibility into the cloud infrastructure, enabling teams to pinpoint inefficiencies at the service level. For instance, the ability to break down costs by project, team, or resource type allows for more precise cost allocation and optimization. With this level of visibility, teams can easily identify underutilized resources, inefficient services, and areas where cost overruns are occurring.

Beyond insights, the tool must be scalable. As cloud environments grow, your optimization tool should be able to scale with them. This means it should support multi-cloud environments, allowing you to manage costs across AWS, Azure, and other platforms. We've seen firsthand how siloed tools that focus only on AWS can become a bottleneck as organizations move to multi-cloud strategies.

Visibility and scalability, while essential, address only part of the challenge. The real test is ensuring that cost decisions don’t compromise performance or availability. Teams that achieve sustainable savings are those whose optimization systems can act continuously and intelligently, adjusting resources in real time to align spend with operational needs. This approach reduces waste while keeping workloads reliable, maintaining the balance every engineering leader worries about.

This is where autonomous cloud management tools, like Sedai, make a tangible difference. These tools don’t just help you see the inefficiencies. They automatically correct them in real-time. 

The shift from reactive oversight to continuous, intelligent execution is where meaningful results emerge.

Conclusion

AWS cost optimization is a strategic discipline that combines technical practices, business alignment, and automation. Research shows that 30% of cloud spend may be wasted and that quick wins can save 6–14%, while more targeted efforts can deliver up to 20% in savings. 

Engineering teams need to stay agile and consistently monitor resource usage and spending patterns to ensure that their cloud infrastructure remains efficient. With the right AWS cost optimization tools, teams can reduce waste, optimize usage, and align cloud spend with business goals.. 

Traditional tools surface insights without reducing the operational burden. That’s why engineering leaders are turning to autonomous systems like Sedai, which go beyond reporting by continuously optimizing resources in real time to keep your AWS environment efficient, resilient, and aligned with business goals.

Gain full visibility into your AWS environment and reduce wasted spend immediately.

FAQs

1. Why is AWS cost optimization important for engineering teams? 

AWS cost optimization ensures that engineering teams can maintain performance while minimizing unnecessary cloud expenses. By using the right tools, teams can avoid over-provisioning and underutilization, optimize resources, and scale efficiently.

2. What are the best AWS cost optimization tools?

For basic cost management, AWS native tools like Cost Explorer and Trusted Advisor are effective, but they may fall short in complex, multi-cloud environments. Third-party tools like Sedai go beyond this, offering predictive insights, automated recommendations, and cost anomaly detection to optimize cloud costs continuously. These advanced features are essential for engineering teams managing dynamic infrastructures, ensuring proactive cost management and better alignment with business goals.

3. When should I use AWS native tools vs third-party tools?

AWS native tools are a solid starting point, especially for smaller teams with straightforward AWS environments. However, as your infrastructure grows and becomes more complex (or if you operate in a multi-cloud environment), third-party tools like Sedai offer deeper insights, multi-cloud support, and automation to help optimize costs more effectively.

4. How do I measure the success of AWS cost optimization efforts?

Success in AWS cost optimization can be measured by tracking cost savings over time, the efficiency of resource utilization, and the alignment of cloud spend with business goals. Using tools that provide detailed analytics can help assess the impact and ROI of optimization efforts.

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