You already have AWS Cost Explorer. You already have Azure Cost Management. So why would you use Kirasame?
Good question. They serve different purposes.
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What Native Cloud Tools Do
AWS Cost Explorer
Shows you:
- How much you spent on each service this month
- Cost trends over time (past 3 months)
- Breakdown by region, tag, linked account, purchase type
- Reserved instance utilization
Example output:
- EC2: $30,000
- RDS: $12,000
- S3: $8,000
- Data Transfer: $5,000
What you do with this: "Okay, EC2 is 45% of our bill. That's a lot."
Azure Cost Management
Shows you:
- Cost by service, resource group, resource, department
- Historical trends
- Budget alerts
- Reservation recommendations
Example output:
- Virtual Machines: $20,000
- SQL Database: $8,000
- App Service: $5,000
- Storage: $3,000
What you do with this: "Okay, VMs are 50% of our bill."
GCP Billing
Shows you:
- Cost by service, project, SKU
- Trend reports
- Cost anomaly detection
Similar to AWS/Azure: "Okay, Compute is 40% of our bill."
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What Kirasame Does
Shows you:
- What's actually *wrong* with your cloud spend
- Specific resources that are waste (idle RDS, unattached volumes, etc.)
- Specific resources that are suboptimal (wrong instance type, no reserved instances, etc.)
- How to fix each issue (and how much effort it takes)
- How much you'll save per fix
Example output:
- Idle RDS Instance (us-east-1): Running for 3 months with zero connections. Save $80/month by deleting.
- Unattached EBS Volumes: 42 volumes totaling 500GB. Save $60/month by deleting.
- No Reserved Instances: 10 m5.xlarge running 24/7 without RI discount. Save $500/month by purchasing RI.
- Wrong Instance Type: 5 instances oversized for their workload. Rightsize to save $200/month.
What you do with this: "Okay, here are 12 specific things to fix. Let's do the quick wins this week."
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Full Comparison
| Category | Native Cloud Tools | Kirasame Sora | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Costs broken down by service, region, account, tag, or project | What is wrong and how to fix it | Kirasame for optimization |
| Example output | You spent $50K on EC2 this month | $8K waste from idle instances, $12K could be saved with RIs, $2K from wrong sizing | Kirasame for actionable findings |
| Primary purpose | Visibility and budgeting | Cost reduction | Different needs |
| Cost | Free inside your cloud account | $8-$20 per audit for full reports | Native tools |
| Frequency | Ongoing and continuous | Monthly or quarterly deep-dive | Both needed |
| Best use | Track spend trends, budgets, and allocation | Find specific waste and prioritized fixes | Use together |
Best practice: use Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, or GCP Billing for ongoing visibility and budget tracking. Use Kirasame monthly to find and fix waste. Together, they give you visibility and optimization.
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See the full detailed comparison
Visit kirasame.com/compare to see all three comparisons with professional tables.
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Real Scenario: AWS Cost Explorer vs. Kirasame
Month 1:
You open AWS Cost Explorer:
- EC2: $45,000 (45% of bill)
- RDS: $18,000 (18% of bill)
- S3: $12,000 (12% of bill)
- Networking: $8,000 (8% of bill)
- Other: $17,000 (17% of bill)
Reaction: "EC2 is huge. We should optimize."
Action: ???
Now you open Kirasame:
- Finding 1: 3 idle RDS instances (us-east-1, eu-west-1, ap-southeast). $450/month waste. Fix effort: 15 min. Delete them.
- Finding 2: 8 EC2 instances without reserved instances. $2,000/month waste. Fix effort: 1 hour. Purchase RIs.
- Finding 3: 42 unattached EBS volumes. $60/month waste. Fix effort: 30 min. Delete them.
- Finding 4: RDS instance oversized for workload (4xlarge, using <20% of CPU). $200/month waste. Fix effort: 2 hours. Resize to 2xlarge.
- Finding 5: Data transfer between regions could be consolidated. $300/month waste. Fix effort: 1 week. Requires architecture change.
Reaction: "Okay, these are the specific things that are wrong."
Action:
- Week 1: Delete idle instances (15 min). Delete volumes (30 min). Purchase RIs (1 hour). Total savings: $2,510/month.
- Week 2: Resize RDS (2 hours). Savings: $200/month.
- Week 3: Evaluate region consolidation (1 week effort, $300/month savings). Maybe not worth it.
Result: $2,710/month savings, 4 hours of work.
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When to Use Each
| Question you are asking | Better tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "We budgeted $100K/month. Are we on track?" | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Native tools are built for spend visibility and budget tracking |
| "Which service costs the most?" | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Native dashboards show service-level cost breakdowns quickly |
| "How has our spend trended over 3 months?" | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Native tools provide ongoing historical trends |
| "Which team spent the most?" | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Tags, accounts, projects, and resource groups are visible there |
| "We're spending $100K/month. How do we get it down to $80K?" | Kirasame | Kirasame focuses on optimization actions |
| "What specific things are wasting money?" | Kirasame | It turns spend data into prioritized findings |
| "What should we fix first, and how much effort is each?" | Kirasame | Findings include effort and impact context |
| "How are we progressing on cost reduction?" | Kirasame | Re-audits and scores make progress easier to track |
| "Are we better or worse than last month?" | Kirasame | Month-to-month audit comparison is the point |
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The Answer: Use Both
| Tool | Role | Cadence | Expected value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, or GCP Billing | Ongoing visibility and budget tracking | Continuous | Know where spend is going |
| Kirasame | Deep-dive optimization | Monthly or quarterly | Find $2K-$10K in savings opportunities |
| Native tools after fixes | Verification | After each optimization cycle | Confirm savings showed up in the bill |
Workflow:
| Step | Native cloud tools | Kirasame | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Track baseline spend | Find optimizations, such as $2,710/month identified | Prioritized action list |
| Month 2 | Verify spend went down | Find new optimizations | Savings validation plus new opportunities |
| Month 3 | Track trends | Create a quarterly improvement summary | Governance-ready progress story |
Cost Comparison
| Option | Cost | Value | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Cost Explorer | Free | Visibility, necessary but not sufficient | Cannot reduce costs without actionable insights |
| Azure Cost Management | Free, with some premium capabilities depending on setup | Similar visibility role as Cost Explorer | Useful for tracking, not a full optimization workflow |
| Kirasame | About $96/year for monthly audits | $2,000-$10,000/month in identified savings | Can pay for itself in hours |
| Native tools + Kirasame | About $96/year beyond native tools | Visibility plus specific optimization actions | Highest ROI |
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Common Misconceptions
"Cost Explorer shows me everything I need"
False. Cost Explorer shows you what you spent. It doesn't tell you:
- Which resources are idle
- Which instances are wrong-sized
- Which reservations you should buy
- What effort each optimization requires
Example: Cost Explorer shows you spent $18,000 on RDS. Kirasame tells you $4,500 of that is on 3 idle instances you should delete.
"Cost anomaly detection catches waste"
Partially. Anomaly detection alerts when spending suddenly spikes. But it doesn't find:
- Chronic waste (small wasteful resources that always exist)
- Suboptimal configurations (not "broken," just expensive)
- Missed opportunities (reserved instances you should buy)
"I can find these issues myself"
Technically true. But:
- Finding them takes 4+ hours manually
- Kirasame finds more in 5 minutes
- You'll miss 60% of the subtler waste
Your time > $8/month.
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The Ideal Workflow
| Step | Tool | What to do | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Check month-over-month trends and budget status | Know whether spend is on track |
| 2 | Kirasame | Run a deep-dive audit | Identify what can be fixed this month |
| 3 | Your team | Pick 3-5 recommendations and execute them | Turn findings into savings |
| 4 | Cost Explorer or Cost Management | Verify next month's savings | Confirm the fixes affected the bill |
Over a year, the savings can compound:
| Month | New monthly savings | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $2,500/month | First quick wins and obvious waste |
| Month 2 | $1,200/month | New fixes after the first cleanup |
| Month 3 | $800/month | Refinements and remaining opportunities |
| Annualized impact | About $48,000 | Based on compounding monthly savings with $96 spent on audits |
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Bottom Line
| Option | What it does | Value | Cost | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native cloud tools, such as Cost Explorer and Cost Management | Show the landscape: what you spent and where | Necessary for visibility and budget tracking | Free | Ongoing |
| Kirasame | Shows what is wrong and how to fix it | Actionable optimization recommendations | $8-$20 per audit | Monthly or quarterly |
| Best approach | Use native tools for visibility and Kirasame for optimization | Budget tracking plus specific action | Native tools plus audit cost | Continuous tracking with periodic audits |
| If you only have budget for one | Start with Kirasame | A few fixes can pay for a year of audits | Low audit cost | Monthly until savings stabilize |
Start with Kirasame if you need savings now. Add Cost Explorer governance once you need continuous budget tracking.
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Next Steps
Try Kirasame free: Export your CSV from Cost Explorer, upload to Kirasame, see what 10–15 specific findings look like.
Then ask: "If I fix just 3 of these, how much do I save?"
For most teams, the answer pays for the entire year in one month.