How to Use SaaS Price Benchmarking & Usage Insights to Cut Costs

Have you ever wondered if you're paying the right price for your SaaS subscriptions? Are you using all the features you're paying for, or are there unused licenses draining your budget?

Without reliable SaaS usage data and proper price benchmarking, you may face difficulties in contract negotiations, potentially overspending or negotiating blindly. You need access to both market pricing insights and detailed usage information to understand optimization opportunities and use them as negotiation levers.

Access to industry-standard price benchmarking data allows you to get the best SaaS deals at competitive rates. When combined with granular usage insights, you can identify exactly where you're wasting money and take action to optimize your spending.

Let's learn how CloudEagle.ai's benchmarking and usage insights can help optimize your SaaS contracts and save costs.

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What are benchmarking and usage insights?

Price benchmarking is the process of comparing the price of a product or service to its market value. It represents the ideal price at which the product or service should be purchased based on the prices other companies pay for the same product or service.

For SaaS, this involves comparing your current software costs to industry averages or the pricing of other vendors. With reliable data, you can determine if you're paying too much or getting the right SaaS deal.

Usage insights go beyond simple login tracking to show you feature-level usage data. This means you can see not just who logged into an application, but which specific features they used, how often, and whether they're getting value from the licenses you're paying for.

This is where CloudEagle.ai comes in.

The platform combines AI-powered price benchmarking with deep usage insights to help you secure fair, competitive prices for SaaS subscriptions while eliminating waste from unused licenses and features.

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Benefits of using CloudEagle's benchmarking and usage insights

CloudEagle.ai doesn't just provide data. It delivers actionable optimization insights to help you make smarter decisions, save money, and simplify SaaS procurement.

Here's how:

1. Reliable pricing insights for informed decisions

CloudEagle.ai provides precise, real-time SaaS pricing insights by analyzing over $15 billion in transactions and 150,000+ vendors. This ensures you have reliable and up-to-date pricing data at your fingertips. With this data, you can negotiate contracts confidently and optimize your SaaS spending.

2. Feature-level usage tracking

With 500+ direct integrations connecting to SSO and finance systems, CloudEagle.ai goes far beyond simple login tracking. The platform shows you feature-level usage, like how many Zoom meetings were actually scheduled, not just how many accounts exist.

This granular data helps you identify unused licenses and optimize your SaaS stack based on actual usage patterns, not assumptions.

3. Real-time price tracking

CloudEagle.ai helps you optimize your software spending by spotting pricing discrepancies and reducing unnecessary costs. The platform has a database of 150,000+ vendors, powered by AI, that gives you real-time pricing trends and weekly updates.

For example, if your competitors are paying less for similar software, CloudEagle will spot this pricing gap, allowing you to approach your vendor and renegotiate your rates confidently.

The tool continuously updates SaaS pricing data, so you can track price changes in real-time and adjust your procurement strategy accordingly. If there's a sudden drop in price for a product you've been eyeing, the platform will alert you right away, so you can lock in the lower rate and never miss out on savings.

4. Stay updated with AI-driven benchmarking trends

With CloudEagle.ai's AI-driven benchmarking, you can stay on top of the latest pricing trends, not just for new purchases, but also for the tools you're already using. The platform analyzes your current spend and compares it to market benchmarks, so you can easily see if you're overpaying for any of your existing tools.

Whether you're looking at renewals or ongoing contracts, it helps you spot pricing gaps and make sure your subscriptions are in line with current market rates. This way, you can adjust your budget and make sure you're always paying a fair price, not just when buying new software but throughout the life of your contracts.

5. Cost optimization for maximum value

CloudEagle.ai identifies potential savings by combining pricing benchmarks with usage data. This feature highlights areas where you might be overpaying or wasting money on unused licenses, enabling smarter decisions about renegotiating contracts, consolidating subscriptions, or switching vendors.

For example, if you use multiple marketing tools, the platform might reveal that one is priced much higher than the industry average while also showing that 30% of the licenses are unused. With these insights, you can renegotiate for better terms or find more cost-effective alternatives, ultimately reducing SaaS costs while maximizing value.

6. Negotiate better with comprehensive insights

CloudEagle.ai provides the insights and data you need to make the most of your negotiations with vendors. You get access to proven negotiation levers with success ratings, so you know exactly which tactics work best for each vendor.

The platform also shows you billing information, plan details, pricing structures, and license reduction options. All these insights are compiled into a comprehensive SaaS buying guide that you can download and share with your stakeholders to keep everyone aligned.

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How CloudEagle.ai's benchmarking and usage insights actually work

With CloudEagle.ai's benchmarking and usage insights, you can compare SaaS costs to market trends while identifying waste from unused licenses, ensuring you secure the best deals and eliminate unnecessary spending.

Let's take a look at how CloudEagle.ai helps you optimize your SaaS spending with a Salesforce example.

Imagine you're managing Salesforce for your organization. You want to know if you're paying the right price and whether all your licenses are being used effectively.

Here's how CloudEagle simplifies the process:

First, log in to the CloudEagle.ai platform and navigate to the "Applications" module. Select the application (e.g., Salesforce) you want insights for, then click on the tabs to view detailed usage data and pricing benchmarks.

Usage insights

In the usage section, you can view all provisioned users and their actual activity levels. CloudEagle.ai shows you:

All provisioned users and their activity patterns. In one real example, a company discovered they had 301 completely unused licenses.

Feature-specific usage like "view and modify opportunities" to see who's actually using core functionality versus who just has access.

Time-based analysis from 15 days to one year, giving you flexibility to spot seasonal patterns or recent changes in usage.

User-level details including names, emails, job titles, and last activity dates. You can even check if users are active on Okta or G Suite to confirm they're still with your organization.

This transforms vague data into immediate cost-saving actions. You're not guessing about who needs a license. You know exactly who's using what and can take action accordingly.

Benchmarking insights

To know the price benchmarking details, check the following sections:

Overview

In this overview section, you'll find essential details about the tool, including:

• Frequency of competition in this space
• Chances of negotiation with vendors
• Availability of any resellers

The best part is that the information you get here is regularly updated to ensure accuracy and relevance, so you can always access the most current data.

Pricing

You can check pricing and plans directly from one dashboard, so there's no need to visit each app's website. It also shows estimated costs for different license ranges.

For example, a software tool's standard plan might cost around $210 to $246 per user per year for 100 to 500 licenses, but for 1000+ licenses, it drops to $162 to $180 per user per year. This helps you understand how bulk purchasing can reduce your per-user costs.

You can easily fact check whether your pricing is above or below benchmarks for your company size, license count, contract term, and the average cost per license. Use this data to negotiate with vendors and avoid overpaying.

Negotiation insights

Negotiation is the most crucial part of any SaaS deal. With current pricing benchmarks and usage data, you can secure the best deals at the right prices.

Data like discount levels across departments, success ratings for different negotiation tactics, and insights into renewal or new purchase potential will help you plan effectively and stay ahead at the negotiation table.

Premium negotiation insights

CloudEagle.ai goes beyond basic insights by providing premium negotiation insights. These include details from the latest community trends and observations, such as:

• Billing information and availability of free credits or extended free trials
• Specific plan details, like whether certain features are available in different tiers
• Pricing details, usage and overages, product information, and license reduction options

You can connect with an expert if you need assistance understanding these insights to plan a strategy. These SaaS buying professionals use their negotiation expertise to secure the best deals for your organization, saving you time and effort.

All these insights are compiled into a comprehensive SaaS buying guide. For convenience, you can download the guide and share it with your stakeholders to keep everyone aligned.

The complete picture

When you combine usage insights with benchmarking data, you get a complete view of your SaaS optimization opportunities. You can:

• Immediately reclaim unused licenses (like those 301 unused Salesforce licenses)
• Negotiate better rates based on market data
• Right-size your contract based on actual feature usage
• Set up automated workflows to prevent license waste going forward
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Why this approach delivers real results

The combination of benchmarking and usage insights creates value in several ways:

Immediate savings opportunities

When you can identify unused licenses with confidence and back up your position with market data, you have a strong negotiation position. You're not asking for discounts based on a hunch. You're presenting facts about what you're actually using and what the market rate should be.

Strategic optimization

Beyond just cutting licenses, you can optimize your entire SaaS portfolio. The platform helps you understand if you're on the wrong plan tier, whether you could save money by consolidating tools, or if there are better alternatives available. Usage data combined with pricing intelligence shows you exactly where the opportunities are.

Vendor-proof negotiations

With access to $15 billion in transaction data, vendors can't play games with pricing. You know what other companies paid for similar configurations, and you can negotiate from a position of strength.

Automated governance

CloudEagle.ai doesn't just help you optimize once. The platform integrates with ServiceNow or Jira to automate license harvesting and approval workflows, ensuring waste doesn't creep back in over time. This means your savings compound over the long term.

Immediate value

CloudEagle.ai delivers results quickly:

• Benchmark against $15 billion in real transactions
• Spot waste and reclaim licenses with feature-level visibility
• Automate license harvesting and approvals through existing workflows
• Start seeing insights on day one with 500+ integrations and 30-minute onboarding

Real results: Customers using CloudEagle.ai typically save 10 to 30% of their SaaS costs in the first year.

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Conclusion: Why choose CloudEagle.ai?

CloudEagle.ai makes managing your SaaS buying and optimization easy. It gives you real-time pricing information combined with detailed usage insights, so you can get the best deals and eliminate waste. Whether you're handling renewals, comparing similar vendors, or planning your SaaS budget, the platform has you covered with reliable data.

If you don't have the bandwidth to negotiate or analyze usage data yourself, CloudEagle.ai's assisted buying service can handle it all for you. Experienced negotiators take care of everything from gathering pricing data to identifying unused licenses and talking directly with vendors.

Don't let pricing uncertainties or hidden waste hold you back. Optimize your software spend and start negotiating with confidence today.

Book a demo with CloudEagle.ai to see how our benchmarking and usage insights can transform your SaaS procurement strategy.

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