AWS Savings Plans vs Zesty comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Zesty are both solutions in the Cloud Cost Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0, while Zesty is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.3% mindshare in CCM, compared to Zesty’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zesty users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

AWS Savings Plans and Zesty are products in the cloud cost management solutions category. AWS Savings Plans are favored for pricing and support, while Zesty's innovative and flexible features appeal to technical buyers.

Features: AWS Savings Plans provide predictability, cost savings, and commit to consistent usage. Zesty offers dynamic, automated optimization of cloud resources and real-time data insights to manage costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS integrates seamlessly within AWS, offering an easy deployment process and strong support structures. Zesty requires more initial setup but provides customized support tailored to diverse cloud environments.

Pricing and ROI: AWS requires upfront commitment with fixed discounts, yielding substantial ROI for consistent usage. Zesty offers flexible pricing without long-term contracts, with ROI linked to cost optimization capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Savings Plans vs. Zesty Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Savings Plans vs. Zesty

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Turbonomic

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Cost Management category, the mindshare of IBM Turbonomic is 13.6%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Savings Plans is 1.3%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zesty is 1.5%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Cost Management

Featured Reviews

Chris Childerhose

Enterprise Architect at ThinkON

Monthly reporting is more detailed now and we can see where improvements can be made within the environment

Turbonomic keeps our cluster balanced and VMs running optimally. It shows us where in our environment that resources can be recovered as well as when extra is needed Monthly reporting is more detailed now and we can see where improvements can be made within the environment. The ability to…

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Raul G. Cortina

IT Manager at CONCRETOS LA SILLA

Flexible and a good solution for user with different environments

The setup was generally easy. The most complex aspect was configuring the VPN. While not overly difficult, it was more challenging compared to setting up other VPNs. However, once we resolved the initial VPN configuration issue, everything has been smooth sailing. It's a matter of familiarity. Initially, the technology is unfamiliar, but with experience, configuration becomes easier. Deployment time: We didn't have any problems. We determined the implementation date, considered the transition for ourselves and our users, and it went smoothly. Maintenance: There isn't much required. If the stability, resolution, and capacity planning are correct for our needs, or if we need to expand storage, then maintenance is mostly handled by our banking team.

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Jeffery Smith

Vice President at Centro, Inc.

Effortless cost management with automated instance adjustment and helpful support

There are different resource types that we would like to leverage and get reserved instances for, such as RDS instances. Currently, no mechanism within Zesty allows this, but this may be due to AWS limitations. Another point is that Zesty needs to react to any changes AWS makes, but they have been proactive in their communication regarding material impacts.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Rightsizing is valuable. Its recommendations are pretty good."

"Before implementing Turbonomic, we had difficulty reaching a consensus about VM placement and sizing. Everybody's opinion was wrong, including mine. The application developers, implementers, and infrastructure team could never decide the appropriate size of a virtual machine. I always made the machines small, and they always made them too big. We were both probably wrong."

"The tool provides the ability to look at the consumption utilization over a period of time and determine if we need to change that resource allocation based on the actual workload consumption, as opposed to how IT has configured it. Therefore, we have come to realize that a lot of our workloads are overprovisioned, and we are spending more money in the public cloud than we need to."

"Turbonomic helps us right-size virtual machines to utilize the available infrastructure components available and suggest where resources should exist. We also use the predictive tool to forecast what will happen when we add additional compute-demanding virtual machines or something to the environment. It shows us how that would impact existing resources. All of that frees up time that would otherwise be spent on manual calculation."

"It also brings up a list of machines and if something is under-provisioned and needs more compute power it will tell you, 'This server needs more compute power, and we suggest you raise it up to this level.' It will even automatically do it for you. In Azure, you don't have to actually go into the cloud provider to resize. You can just say, 'Apply these resizes,' and Turbonomic uses some back-end APIs to make the changes for you."

"I have the ability to automate things similar to the Orchestrator stuff. I do have the ability to have it do some balancing, and if it sees some different performance metrics that I've set not being met, it'll actually move some of my virtual machines from, let's say, one host to another. It is sort of an automation tool that helps me. Basically, I specify the metric, and if I get a certain host or something being over-utilized, it'll automatically move the virtual machines around for me. It basically has to snap into my vCenter and then it can make adjustments and move my virtual machines around. It also has some very nice reporting tools built around virtual machines. It tells you how much storage, memory, or CPU is being used monthly, and then it gives you a very nice way to be able to send out billing structure to your end users who use servers within your environment."

"The most important feature to us is an objective measurement of VM headroom per cluster. In addition, the ability to check for the right-sizing of VMs."

"The ability to monitor and automate both the right-sizing of VMs as well as to automate the vMotion of VMs across ESXi hosts."

More IBM Turbonomic pros

"AWS is consistently innovating and releasing new products and features."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Savings Plans is we can discuss budgets briefly during our confirmation process since we are aware of our usual consumption patterns. Creating budgets in this regard would be beneficial, as it would allow us to consume only what we need, without including reserve instances that do not serve our purpose."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"The turnkey aspect of Zesty is very valuable."

"One of the reasons we decided to onboard Zesty was that it started supporting Windows instances."

Cons

"The old interface was not the clearest UI in some areas, and could be quite intimidating when first using the tool."

"Turbonomic can modernize the look and feel, making it more user-friendly to access and obtain information."

"If they would educate their customers to understand the latest updates, that would help customers... Also, there are a lot of features that are not available in Turbonomic. For example, PaaS component optimization and automation are still in the development phase."

"It can be more agnostic in terms of the solutions that it provides. It can include some other cost-saving methods for the public cloud and SaaS applications as well."

"There is room for improvement [with] upgrades. We have deployed the newer version, version 8 of Turbonomic. The problem is that there is no way to upgrade between major Turbonomic versions. You can upgrade minor versions without a problem, but when you go from version 6 to version 7, or version 7 to version 8, you basically have to deploy it new and let it start gathering data again. That is a problem because all of the data, all of the savings calculations that had been done on the old version, are gone. There's no way to keep track of your lifetime savings across versions."

"The implementation could be enhanced."

"Some features are only available via changes to the deployment YAML, and it would be better to have them in the UI."

"It sometimes does get false positives. Sometimes, it'll move something when it really wasn't a performance metric. I've seen it do that, but it's pretty much an automated tool for performance. We've only got about 500 virtual machines, so lots of times, I'm able to manage it physically, but it's definitely a nice tool for a larger enterprise that might be managing 2,000 or 3,000 virtual machines."

More IBM Turbonomic cons

"The most complex aspect was configuring the VPN."

"The visibility of AWS Savings Plans could improve."

"In the future, it would be interesting if there could be a combination of Savings Plans and some Reserved Servers."

"There are different resource types that we would like to leverage and get reserved instances for, such as RDS instances."

"I would like to get RDS-reserved instances that I could buy and sell, but that's a limitation on AWS."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was an annual buy-in. You basically purchase it based on your host type stuff. The buy-in was about 20K, and the annual maintenance is about $3,000 a year."

"It's worth the time and money investment if you can afford it."

"I know there have been some issues with the billing, when the numbers were first proposed, as to how much we would save. There was a huge miscommunication on our part. Turbonomic was led to believe that we could optimize our AWS footprint, because we didn't know we couldn't. So, we were promised savings of $750,000. Then, when we came to implement Turbonomic, the developers in AWS said, "Absolutely not. You're not putting that in our environment. We can't scale down anything because they coded it." Our AWS environment is a legacy environment. It has all these old applications, where all the developers who have made it are no longer with the company. Those applications generate a ton of money for us. So, if one breaks, we are really in trouble and they didn't want to have to deal with an environment that was changing and couldn't be supported. That number went from $750,000 to about $450,000. However, that wasn't Turbonomic's fault."

"I have not seen Turbonomic's new pricing since IBM purchased it. When we were looking at it in my previous company before IBM's purchase, it was compatible with other tools."

"I don't know the current prices, but I like how the licensing is based on the number of instances instead of sockets, clusters, or cores. We have some VMs that are so heavy I can only fit four on one server. It's not cost-effective if we have to pay more for those. When I move around a VM SQL box with 30 cores and a half-terabyte of RAM, I'm not paying for an entire socket and cores where people assume you have at least 10 or 20 VMs on that socket for that pricing."

"IBM Turbonomic is an investment that we believe will deliver positive returns."

"Everybody tells me the pricing is high. But the ROIs are great."

"What I can advise is to trial the product, taking advantage of the Turbonomic pre-sales implemention support and kickstart training."

More IBM Turbonomic pricing and cost advice

"Compared to Azure or Google, the solution is much cheaper."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Real Estate/Law Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Turbonomic?

It offers different scenarios. It provides more capabilities than many other tools available. Typically, its price is...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Turbonomic?

The implementation could be enhanced.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Turbonomic?

We use IBM Turbonomic to automate our cloud operations, including monitoring, consolidating dashboards, and reporting...

See all answers

What do you like most about AWS Savings Plans?

The most valuable feature of AWS Savings Plans is we can discuss budgets briefly during our confirmation process sinc...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Savings Plans?

We have a fixed cost of five thousand, plus an additional six thousand per month. So, it is about seventy-two thousan...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Savings Plans?

AWS make it easier to configure the VPN,

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zesty?

Their pricing is brilliant. It is a percentage of what they save us by using reserved instances. If they save us $25,...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zesty?

There are different resource types that we would like to leverage and get reserved instances for, such as RDS instanc...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Zesty?

We predominantly use Zesty to manage our spend in AWS, specifically around reserving instances for our compute worklo...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

VMware vSphere vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudability vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Intersight vs IBM Turbonomic

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Turbonomic Competitors

No data available

Spot vs Zesty

Compared 100% of the time

More Zesty Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Turbonomic

May 2025

Download IBM Turbonomic product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Cost Management

April 2025

Download AWS Savings Plans product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Management

May 2025

Download Zesty product report

Also Known As

Turbonomic, VMTurbo Operations Manager

No data available

Interactive Demo

IBM

Demo not available

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Demo not available

Zesty

Overview

IBM Turbonomic offers automation, planning, and right-sizing recommendations to streamline resource management, improve efficiencies, and optimize costs across virtualized environments and cloud platforms.

IBM Turbonomic is valued for its capability to optimize resource allocation and monitor virtual environments efficiently. It facilitates automated decision-making in VM sizing, load balancing, and cost optimization for both on-premises and cloud deployments. Users can leverage insights for workload placement, ensure peak performance assurance, and effectively right-size across VMware and Azure. The ongoing transition to HTML5 aims to improve visual and navigational ease, while expanded reporting features are anticipated. Opportunities for improved training, documentation, and integrations enhance platform usability and functionality.

What Are the Key Features?

Automation: Streamlines resource allocation and VM management.
Planning Tools: Supports capacity management and growth projections.
Right-Sizing: Optimizes VM configurations for efficient resource use.
Customizable Dashboards: Provides quick insights into environment health.
Reporting Capabilities: Offers valuable data for informed decision-making.
Cloud Integration: Ensures cost-effective resource utilization.

What Benefits Should Be Looked For?

Performance Enhancement: Improves application performance efficiency.
Cost Reduction: Minimizes operational expenses through optimizations.
Infrastructure Efficiency: Maximizes use of IT infrastructure resources.

In finance, IBM Turbonomic aids in maintaining platform efficiency during market fluctuations. Healthcare organizations leverage its capability for resource optimization during high-demand periods to enhance patient care support. Retailers use it for planning in peak seasons, ensuring resources align with fluctuating demand to maintain performance continuity.

IBM

Savings Plans is a flexible pricing model that provides savings of up to 72% on your AWS compute usage. This pricing model offers lower prices on Amazon EC2 instances usage, regardless of instance family, size, OS, tenancy or AWS Region, and also applies to AWS Fargate usage.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Zesty is used for optimizing cloud infrastructure costs, automating resource scaling, providing real-time visibility into spending, and managing unused resources efficiently. It helps maintain budget control while scaling operations, making cloud deployment cost-effective.

Zesty offers a comprehensive approach to cloud cost management, focusing on real-time optimization, resource scaling automation, and spending visibility. Designed to reduce wastage and ensure efficient cloud operations, it integrates seamlessly with existing systems, providing detailed analytics and actionable insights. Users find Zesty's intuitive dashboard and effective cost-saving tools instrumental in maintaining budget control. However, improvements are needed in performance speed, functionality, and support responsiveness. Limited customization options and insufficient onboarding resources also present challenges for new users.

What are Zesty's key features?

Real-time optimization: Continuously adjusts resources to minimize costs.
Automated resource management: Scales resources automatically based on demand.
Intuitive dashboard: Offers user-friendly interface for easy monitoring and management.
Detailed analytics: Provides insights into spending and resource usage.
Seamless integration: Fits smoothly with existing systems without disruption.
Scalability: Supports efficient resource allocation as operations expand.
Customer support: Available for assistance, although sometimes noted as unresponsive.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Cost reduction: Significant savings by minimizing unnecessary cloud expenses.
Efficiency: Automation reduces manual intervention and improves resource management.
Budget control: Enhanced visibility into spending helps maintain financial oversight.
Time savings: Streamlined operations free up time for other strategic tasks.
Improved scalability: Supports growth without compromising performance or costs.

Zesty is implemented across industries that demand efficient cloud cost management and resource optimization. For tech companies, it streamlines scalability and supports rapid growth without ballooning costs. Financial services use it for budget control and to maintain operational efficiency. Educational institutions benefit from its ability to manage large-scale deployments economically. Each industry finds Zesty's automation and analytics crucial for staying competitive and maintaining lean operations.

Zesty

Sample Customers

IBM, J.B. Hunt, BBC, The Capita Group, SulAmérica, Rabobank, PROS, ThinkON, O.C. Tanner Co.

bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday

Walkme, Wiz, Gong, Grubhub, Singular

Buyer's Guide

AWS Savings Plans vs. Zesty

April 2025

Free Report: AWS Savings Plans vs. Zesty

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