Compare
What you're weighing Reserver against, and where each one breaks.
Four ways teams track AWS Reserved Instances today: doing nothing, a spreadsheet and a calendar reminder, AWS Cost Explorer, and tools that take a cut of what they find. Each one fits some teams and breaks at a certain point. Reserver is priced differently from all of them.
The full matrix
Same capabilities, side by side.
"Doing nothing" has no capabilities or pricing model to compare, so it's covered in the prose below instead of its own column. Everyone else is matched capability by capability.
| Capability | Spreadsheet + calendar | AWS Cost Explorer | %-of-savings tools | Reserver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matches reservations to what's actually running | ✗ | ~ | ~ | ✓ |
| Flags expiries before they lapse | ~ | ~opt-in email alerts, off by default | ~ | ✓expiry radar, in the app |
| Re-buys renewals automaticallybuilding · M5 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ○renewal autopilot |
| Shows the exact purchase math | ✗ | ~ | ~ | ✓term, payment, break-even, $/yr |
| Buys reservations for youbuilding · M4 | ✗ | ✗ | ~ | ○you buy in the AWS console today |
| One coverage view across many accounts | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✓every account you connect |
| Price stays flat as you grow | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓never a cut of your savings |
Spreadsheet + calendar
- ✗Matches reservations to what's actually running
- ~Flags expiries before they lapse
- ✗Re-buys renewals automaticallybuilding · M5
- ✗Shows the exact purchase math
- ✗Buys reservations for youbuilding · M4
- ~One coverage view across many accounts
- ✓Price stays flat as you grow
AWS Cost Explorer
- ~Matches reservations to what's actually running
- ~Flags expiries before they lapseopt-in email alerts, off by default
- ✗Re-buys renewals automaticallybuilding · M5
- ~Shows the exact purchase math
- ✗Buys reservations for youbuilding · M4
- ~One coverage view across many accounts
- ✓Price stays flat as you grow
%-of-savings tools
- ~Matches reservations to what's actually running
- ~Flags expiries before they lapse
- ✗Re-buys renewals automaticallybuilding · M5
- ~Shows the exact purchase math
- ~Buys reservations for youbuilding · M4
- ~One coverage view across many accounts
- ✗Price stays flat as you grow
Reserver
- ✓Matches reservations to what's actually running
- ✓Flags expiries before they lapseexpiry radar, in the app
- ○Re-buys renewals automaticallybuilding · M5renewal autopilot
- ✓Shows the exact purchase mathterm, payment, break-even, $/yr
- ○Buys reservations for youbuilding · M4you buy in the AWS console today
- ✓One coverage view across many accountsevery account you connect
- ✓Price stays flat as you grownever a cut of your savings
Alternative by alternative
Where each one fits, and where it breaks.
None of these are strawmen. Each is a reasonable choice for someone. Each section names who the option suits and where it stops being enough.
Doing nothing (staying on-demand)
Who uses itTeams who haven't gotten to reservations yet, or whose fleet is still too new to commit to a term.
Where it fitsA fleet that's still finding its shape. Sizes and classes change week to week, and nothing has run long enough yet to trust a 1- or 3-year commitment.
Where it breaksThe moment any instance class holds steady for more than a few weeks, on-demand becomes the most expensive way to run it. The reserved rate is up to 72% lower (EC2), and you pay that gap every hour for as long as nobody acts.
Spreadsheet + calendar reminder
Who uses itSmall teams with a handful of reservations and one person who owns tracking them.
Where it fits1–10 reservations, one account, fine as long as that one person stays and keeps on top of it.
Where it breaksIt has no idea what's actually running. A second account, an instance resize, or one person's vacation, and expiries slip silently. The calendar only reminds you of what someone remembered to put on it.
AWS Cost Explorer
Who uses itTeams already deep in the AWS console who want recommendations without adding a vendor.
Where it fitsA rough read on where more reservations would help, reusing data AWS already has, at no extra cost.
Where it breaksIt recommends without matching to what's actually live per account, with no expiry radar, no purchase workflow, and no single view across an AWS Organization. Reconciling its numbers with reality stays your job, every month.
%-of-savings tools
Who uses itLarger fleets that want purchasing run end to end and are comfortable paying for the outcome.
Where it fitsComplex, high-spend estates where dedicated purchasing expertise is worth a real cut of what it finds.
Where it breaksThe bill rises with your savings, forever. A good year for your AWS bill is a better year for theirs. Reserver charges the same flat price whether it finds ten thousand dollars or ten million.
Where you're starting from
Everyone starts on one of the four above. Reserver is where you end up.
Usually starts with a spreadsheet and a calendar reminder.
Once tracking reservations by hand gets error-prone, or a second AWS account shows up, Reserver takes it from here.
GrowthDozens of reservations across a few accounts, Autopilot, one flat price.Usually starts with AWS Cost Explorer plus a monthly manual review.
Once coverage needs checking weekly instead of monthly, or renewals start slipping between reviews, Reserver takes it from here.
EnterpriseHundreds to thousands, many accounts and orgs, Scale, one flat price, unlimited accounts.Usually starts with a mix of Cost Explorer and a %-of-savings tool.
Once the %-of-savings bill starts rising faster than the fleet itself, or procurement wants one flat number instead of a cut, Reserver takes it from here.
What waiting costs
Doing nothing is the most expensive option on this page.
Reserved Instances don't auto-renew. The moment a term ends, the price silently reverts to on-demand and stays there until someone notices. Nothing in the AWS console interrupts you to say so.
Flat price, vs. a cut of what's found.
Illustrative: the Growth preset from the savings calculator; percentage-of-savings pricing varies by vendor. Run it against your own spend →
Named, not just categories
Reserver against the tools people actually search for.
Every alternative above is a category. Here are the named products in each one, grouped by the fleet size each is usually the starting point for. Each page names its own sources, the date they were checked, and a fair reason to pick the other product instead.
Growth
Enterprise
The time it takes
Reserver saves money. It also gives back the hours.
Tracking reservations by hand means a quarterly review, a reconciliation across accounts, and a purchase decision every time one comes up. Somebody spends real hours on all three, hours that never show up in the savings math above.
Assumes 6 minutes per reservation per quarterly review, 20 minutes per account reconciling what's actually running, and 25 minutes per purchase decision, at $95/hour fully loaded. Reserver reclaims most of that time. A human still approves the purchases. Build the case with your own numbers →
Questions
Fair questions, straight answers.
Isn't Cost Explorer enough?
Cost Explorer tells you a number and leaves you to reconcile it across three consoles. Reserver matches every reservation to a running instance, shows its work, and flags the gaps and expiries on one radar. One-click purchasing and scheduled rules are on the roadmap.
Why not just a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet works fine until someone's on leave, an account gets added, or an instance gets resized. Then it has no way to know. Reserver reads what's actually running and what you actually own, continuously, so nothing depends on a row someone forgot to update.
Why flat price instead of a percentage of savings?
Percentage-of-savings pricing means your vendor profits most when your bill was worst. We'd rather just charge for the software, at one flat price that doesn't rise as your savings do.
I only have a handful of reservations, is Reserver worth it?
Yes, because Watch is free for one AWS account and any number of reservations. The median reservation in our AWS price data saves about $1,484 a year. Renew it 14 days late and you lose about $57. That loss is small, but on Watch it costs you nothing to prevent. At this size, most of the money is in instances that nobody reserved. On $3,000 a month of compute, that is about $10,530 a year at our conservative rates. If you add more accounts, Autopilot is a flat $149 a month, or $1,490 a year. The price does not change with the number of reservations.
Stop overpaying for a steady fleet.
Reserver is in early access. Join the list, and we will onboard you when we have capacity. Your first recommendation lands within minutes of connecting.