Substly Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Lost track of your SaaS subscriptions again?

If you’re dealing with subscription chaos and mounting license costs, finding a reliable SaaS management tool is no simple task. That’s likely why you’ve landed here looking into Substly’s capabilities.

After researching Substly in detail, I found that messy spreadsheets and missed renewals cost you real money and introduce unnecessary risk into everyday operations.

What stood out in my analysis is how Substly gives you a way to actually see every subscription, user, and contract in one place—spotting unused licenses, redundant tools, and risky orphaned accounts before they drain your budget.

So, in this Substly review, you’ll see how you can finally get true control over SaaS costs without enterprise-level complexity or price tags.

I’ll break down their automated discovery features, usage tracking, cost dashboards, onboarding workflows, pricing options, and alternatives to help you make your evaluation.

You’ll leave knowing if Substly has the features you need to manage and cut SaaS waste with confidence.

Let’s dive into the details.

Substly Overview

Substly has been around since 2018, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. What impressed me is their clear mission: helping smaller businesses finally gain control over runaway SaaS spending.

What really stood out during my research is their precise market positioning. They specifically serve companies that have outgrown spreadsheets for SaaS tracking but don’t need the high cost or overwhelming complexity of enterprise-grade tools.

Recent developments I noted in this Substly review center on expanding key integrations with the accounting and identity providers your team probably already uses.

Unlike platforms that can feel overly complex or just manage payments, Substly’s approach focuses on providing a single source of truth. From my evaluation, this makes it an incredibly practical tool for finance and operations teams.

You’ll find them working with SMBs and mid-market organizations where finance or IT leaders need a simple, centralized way to see every tool being used.

From what I’ve seen, their entire business strategy is about empowering your team with truly accessible data. It directly connects spending to actual employee usage, helping you make much smarter renewal decisions.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Substly Features

SaaS sprawl eating into your budget?

Substly features are designed to centralize your software subscription management, bringing clarity to your SaaS spend. Here are the five main Substly features that solve common business software challenges.

1. Automated SaaS Discovery & Inventory

Shadow IT hiding in plain sight?

Paying for software nobody uses is a common headache. This leads to significant wasted budget on forgotten subscriptions.

Substly integrates with your accounting and SSO systems, automatically scanning for recurring payments. This automated discovery builds your central inventory quickly. What I found is this feature instantly brings overlooked spend to light.

You get a complete, real-time view of every tool your company owns. This drastically reduces redundant or unknown subscriptions, saving you time.

2. Spend Management & Cost Optimization

SaaS costs spinning out of control?

Unused licenses and poor negotiation lead to ballooning SaaS expenses. You’re likely missing significant cost-saving opportunities.

The platform centralizes subscription costs, showing total spend. This is where Substly shines, allowing you to quickly identify overlapping or unused software. It makes spotting savings surprisingly simple.

Finance and IT teams immediately cut costs. You can cancel unused tools or consolidate overlapping software for direct savings.

3. Usage Insights

Are employees actually using that software?

Paying for idle software wastes money. Without usage data, you can’t justify license reductions or cancellations.

Substly tracks last-login data via identity providers, presenting it in an active vs. inactive dashboard. This feature provides clear utilization data, simplifying license allocation decisions. Here’s what I found during testing: it’s highly intuitive.

This data justifies de-provisioning licenses from inactive users. You can downgrade plans or reallocate licenses effectively, saving budget.

4. Employee Onboarding & Offboarding Workflows

Manual offboarding a security nightmare?

Manually managing software access for new hires and leavers is time-consuming. This is a major security risk for your data.

Substly offers streamlined workflows and checklists. When an employee leaves, it generates a list of assigned apps. This feature provides a reliable offboarding checklist, ensuring every account is terminated efficiently.

You can drastically simplify offboarding, reducing data breach risks. Plus, you stop paying for licenses immediately for departing staff.

5. Contract & Renewal Management

Missing key software renewal dates?

Missing a contract renewal locks you into another year of unwanted service. You also lose opportunities to negotiate better terms.

You store contracts directly within Substly, linked to subscriptions. The system sends automated alerts well in advance. This feature eliminates surprise renewals, giving you ample time to act proactively and make informed decisions.

This eliminates renewal surprises, giving you time to evaluate value. You can renegotiate pricing or plan a migration efficiently.

What I love about these Substly features is how they work together to create a complete SaaS management overview. This integrated platform helps you maintain control over your software spend effortlessly.

Substly Pricing

Struggling to find clear software costs?

Substly pricing offers a transparent, tier-based model, making it straightforward to understand the investment for managing your software subscriptions. What I found regarding Substly pricing is its focus on subscription volume, not just user count.

Plan	Price & Features
Free Plan	€0 / month • Manage up to 10 subscriptions • 1 user • Manual data entry only
Starter Plan	€99 / month (billed annually at €1,188) • Manage up to 50 subscriptions • 5 users • Automated discovery (accounting/bank integrations) • Renewal reminders • Basic cost overview
Growth Plan	€249 / month (billed annually at €2,988) • Manage up to 250 subscriptions • Unlimited users • Usage insights (Google/Microsoft 365) • Employee offboarding checklists • Spend analytics
Enterprise Plan	Custom pricing – contact sales • Unlimited subscriptions • Single Sign-On (SSO) for Substly • API access for custom integrations • Dedicated customer success manager • Premium support

1. Value Assessment

Smart budget-friendly approach.

From my cost analysis, Substly’s pricing model directly addresses a key pain point for SMBs: gaining control without overspending. What impressed me is how their pricing scales with the number of subscriptions you manage, aligning cost directly with your digital footprint. This approach is more accessible than larger enterprise platforms, making sophisticated SaaS management feasible for your budget.

This means your monthly costs stay predictable, ensuring you only pay for the capacity your business truly needs as it grows.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Simple evaluation available.

Substly offers a Free Plan, which is essentially a robust trial, allowing you to manage up to 10 subscriptions and explore basic features without any financial commitment. What I found valuable is how you can actually use the platform to grasp its interface and manual data entry capabilities before considering paid tiers.

This lets you comfortably evaluate the fundamental benefits and user experience before committing to a full-fledged pricing plan.

3. Plan Comparison

Choosing the best fit.

When selecting a plan, your primary consideration should be the number of subscriptions you need to manage. The Growth plan, in my view, offers the best value for most SMBs and mid-market companies needing essential usage and offboarding features, covering up to 250 subscriptions. This subscription limit is your key decision factor, guiding your choice.

This helps you match Substly pricing to actual usage requirements, ensuring you don’t overpay for unused capacity or advanced features.

My Take: Substly’s pricing strategy is highly transparent and well-suited for SMBs and mid-market companies looking to professionalize SaaS management without the hefty price tags of enterprise solutions.

The overall Substly pricing reflects transparent value for growing businesses.

Substly Reviews

User feedback paints a clear picture.

To give you an honest perspective, I’ve analyzed numerous Substly reviews from platforms like G2 and Capterra, revealing what real customers think about its daily use.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Users are clearly very happy.

From my review analysis, Substly consistently garners high ratings, averaging 4.7/5 stars across review platforms. What I found in user feedback is a strong appreciation for its intuitive design, allowing non-technical users to gain value quickly and effortlessly. This positive sentiment confirms the platform’s core effectiveness.

You can expect a refreshingly intuitive experience, making it easy to adopt and immediately benefit from its core features, as many users often highlight.

2. Common Praise Points

Users love its simplicity and support.

From my analysis of Substly reviews, users consistently praise its intuitive design and the “single pane of glass” view for subscriptions. They frequently highlight its incredible ease of setup and use. Excellent customer support also stands out, with users reporting prompt and personalized assistance.

This means you’ll gain a quick, centralized overview of all SaaS, backed by responsive, human support, streamlining your operations effectively.

3. Frequent Complaints

Some limitations still exist.

Substly reviews often highlight common frustrations. I found users wishing for broader integration libraries, as manual entry is sometimes needed for niche apps. What stands out is limited automation for certain workflows, acting more as a checklist than a truly automated de-provisioning tool.

These issues are generally minor for its target SMB market, not deal-breakers. However, be aware if your needs require extensive integrations or full automation.

Overall, Substly reviews reflect a largely positive experience, focusing on ease of use and cost savings. This consistent feedback provides credible insights into user satisfaction, especially for SMBs seeking SaaS oversight.

Best Substly Alternatives

Considering your SaaS management options?

The best Substly alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations and priorities. Knowing your specific needs will guide your choice.

1. Zluri / Torii

Need enterprise-grade IT lifecycle management?

Zluri and Torii are for large enterprises, providing deep discovery via browser extensions and APIs, plus powerful automation like de-provisioning multiple apps at once. From my competitive analysis, these offer robust automated IT lifecycle management for complex environments, at significantly higher price points than Substly’s simpler approach.

Choose Zluri or Torii if your large company (>1000 employees) needs comprehensive, automated IT and security workflows beyond basic SaaS oversight.

2. Cledara

Prioritizing spend control at purchase?

Cledara integrates SaaS management with virtual debit cards, letting you provision a new card for each subscription, giving you granular control over spending at the point of purchase. What I found comparing options is that Cledara offers payment-centric spend control, a distinct alternative focus from Substly’s broader discovery.

Opt for Cledara if your primary goal is real-time spending control and you prefer managing costs via a payment-centric approach.

3. Spendflo

Want to outsource SaaS procurement?

Spendflo acts as a tech-enabled procurement service, providing a platform but also a team to negotiate your SaaS contracts. Alternative-wise, Spendflo offers outsourced SaaS negotiation and procurement, differing from Substly’s self-service tool that empowers your own team for direct management.

You’ll want to consider Spendflo if your business prefers to completely outsource its SaaS contract negotiation and procurement processes.

The best Substly alternatives depend on your business size, specific financial needs, and desired level of hands-on management. Evaluate what truly matters for your operations.

Setup & Implementation

Is Substly implementation simple or complex?

This Substly review analyzes what it truly takes to get up and running. You’ll want to understand the practicalities of deployment to set realistic expectations for your team.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Getting started is remarkably simple.

Substly’s core strength lies in its rapid deployment. Connecting your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and accounting software allows automated data ingestion within hours. From my implementation analysis, initial setup is genuinely fast, often providing a functional overview within a few hours, though a manual cleanup phase follows.

Prepare to review and manually add any undiscovered subscriptions after the initial automated import for a complete picture.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical hurdles to overcome.

Substly is a cloud-based solution, so you won’t need new hardware or complex infrastructure changes. Your primary technical tasks involve API key generation for discovery sources. What I found about deployment is that it integrates smoothly with major platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, simplifying data collection.

Ensure your admin accounts for key software are ready to connect, as this is the main technical requirement for data onboarding.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is surprisingly easy.

The learning curve for Substly is notably low thanks to its intuitive interface. Most users, especially those familiar with financial or IT oversight, will grasp its functionality quickly. Implementation-wise, formal training is rarely extensive, as the platform guides you through key workflows with built-in tutorials.

Focus on familiarizing your finance or operations team with the dashboard, as little dedicated training time beyond basic navigation is required.

Overall, Substly implementation stands out for its speed and simplicity. You’ll find it surprisingly quick to gain subscription visibility, making it an excellent choice for SMBs prioritizing fast value realization.

Who’s Substly For

Substly: who truly benefits?

This Substly review helps you determine if the software fits your business. I’ll analyze ideal profiles, team sizes, and specific use cases, providing clear guidance on where it truly excels for users.

1. Ideal User Profile

Struggling with unmanaged SaaS spend?

Substly is ideal for IT Managers, Finance Managers, and Operations Leads tasked with controlling growing software costs. From my user analysis, organizations outgrowing manual spreadsheet tracking will find immediate value here. Your situation calls for better visibility and a central hub for financial and operational oversight.

You’ll achieve significant savings and reduce administrative overhead by centralizing your SaaS data, making unmanaged spend a problem of the past.

2. Business Size & Scale

Companies with 50-500 employees, this is for you.

Substly shines for mid-sized companies, typically between 50 and 500 employees. What I found about target users is that this size range benefits most from an affordable tool that bridges the gap between spreadsheets and complex enterprise solutions. Your team is likely overwhelmed by SaaS sprawl.

You’ll find this works if your current methods are chaotic, but you don’t need expensive, complex enterprise IT management tools yet.

3. Use Case Scenarios

Gain control over hidden SaaS spend.

Substly excels at providing a ‘single pane of glass’ view for all subscriptions, identifying redundancies, and preventing auto-renewal surprises. User-wise, you’ll appreciate simplifying chaotic offboarding processes. Your priority is knowing exactly what you spend and managing licenses efficiently across your organization.

If your goal is quick visibility, streamlined financial oversight, and ending unexpected SaaS renewals, Substly aligns perfectly.

4. Who Should Look Elsewhere

Not for everyone: know your limits.

If you’re a very small team managing a handful of subscriptions, spreadsheets might still suffice. Also, enterprises needing deep, automated IT workflows will find Substly’s automation capabilities limited. Your situation might call for more advanced API integrations and virtual card management.

Consider enterprise-grade platforms like Zluri for advanced automation, or Cledara if virtual cards for spend control are your main need.

This Substly review shows who benefits most. It’s ideal if your business needs a practical SaaS oversight hub, not complex enterprise automation. Assess your challenges; this tool could be your perfect match.

Bottom Line

Substly delivers clear value for your business.

This Substly review reveals a highly effective solution for gaining control over SaaS subscription management. My comprehensive analysis synthesizes its strengths and limitations to provide a confident final assessment for your software decision.

1. Overall Strengths

Substly delivers exceptional ease of use.

Substly truly excels in user experience, making SaaS management intuitive for non-technical users. From my comprehensive analysis, their dedicated customer support is a standout strength, consistently providing fast, helpful, and personalized responses that users praise highly.

This strong support and clean interface ensure rapid adoption, centralizing your critical subscription oversight to save time and money.

2. Key Limitations

Some key limitations are apparent.

While Substly’s core integrations are strong, users desire a broader library for niche app discovery. Based on this review, manual entry is still required for many apps, which limits full automation. Workflows function more as checklists than fully automated processes.

These drawbacks aren’t deal-breakers for its target audience but indicate areas for broader automated discovery and more sophisticated workflow evolution.

3. Final Recommendation

A strong recommendation from me.

You should choose Substly if your SMB or mid-market company has outgrown spreadsheets for SaaS tracking. From my analysis, this solution works best for financial oversight, centralizing control to save time and money. It prioritizes ease of use over complex IT features.

Your next step should be to explore a demo or trial. I am confident Substly will effectively streamline your SaaS subscription management needs.

This Substly review confirms its position as a highly valuable tool for its target market. I am confident in this assessment for streamlined SaaS management. Take the next step today: