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Idea Feedback: Centralized directory of software vendors’ license costs

I’m working on an idea for a centralized directory of software vendors’ license costs and updates across the entire tech stack—think AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, niche SaaS, and beyond. The goal is to give businesses (from startups to large enterprises) one place to quickly compare prices licenses, usage limits, and hidden fees.

I know there are existing solutions but often the experience is poor and cost of access for this info is usually high,

  • G2 or Capterra focus more on reviews rather than detailed licensing cost breakdowns.
  • Tools like Flexera, Snow, or ServiceNow can track an enterprise’s installed software and usage. They’re sophisticated but often too large-scale or expensive for SMBs.
  • Analyst firms (Gartner, Forrester) publish licensing updates but often behind paywalls or high-level summaries.

If you’re involved in IT, procurement, or just fed up with rummaging through vendor pages for the latest licensing info, I’d love your thoughts! Is this something you’d find valuable? What features or data would be most essential for you? Any feedback or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

on January 5, 2025
  1. 1

    Thank you for the feedback ! Good point starting with a nice area !

    I was also thinking to incorporate a user friendly - build your stack tool and provide a more accurate pricing view based on the application stack you want to build / migrate

  2. 1

    It's a good idea, but these companies often make it kinda hard to compare by using very different pricing schemes and that becomes very niched down specific pricing compare calculator

    I often look for these comparisons, it's exhausting once you try to do a real price compare for something more than a basic POV/onboarding/test, and at the end of the day usually underappreciated and the decision (in bigger companies) might be due to one factor that isn't pricing, that is a totally social decision point

    It's a challenge to both simplify this for the user and keep the complexity, extra details in there. There are tons of gatcha's for both small scale (minimum charge of a sub-service) and larger (discounts, multi ways to do the same things..)

    You should probably focus on very specific niches like one at a time

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