Cledara is for software.
Spendesk is for expenses.
Cledara is for software.
Spendesk is for expenses.
Managing Software, Cloud, and Advertising, is critical - they power your business and account for 85% of your card spend. Now you can take full control.
Get a complete view of your software stack- Control spend with approval flows and smart cards
- Reduce costs by removing unused and duplicate tools
- Purpose built for tech companies with material SaaS and AI spend
Why Generalist Expense Cards Fail at SaaS Management
Spendesk is built for coffee runs, client dinners, and travel receipts. It treats a £50,000 mission-critical software renewal the same way it treats a £50 Uber ride - as just another transaction.
But in a modern tech company, software isn't just an expense; it's infrastructure. Using a generalist T&E card for SaaS leaves you exposed to:
The "Zombie Spend" Cycle:
Generalist cards are often shared across teams. When an employee leaves, the subscription keeps billing because the card remains active. Cledara issues one virtual card per subscription, giving you a "kill switch" for every vendor.
Missed Renewals:
Spendesk tracks payments, not contracts. Cledara’s specialized renewal radar alerts you 30, 60, or 90 days before a contract auto-renews, giving you leverage to negotiate or cancel.
Shadow IT Blindspots:
Generalist cards hide the context of the purchase. Cledara captures the purpose and owner of every tool before money leaves the building.
Governance for the AI Era: Bridging Finance and IT
In the age of AI, software spend is no longer just a Finance problem—it’s an IT security risk. Generalist platforms like Spendesk create silos where Finance sees the invoice, but IT remains blind to the tool.
Cledara is the only platform designed to unite Finance and IT:
- Consumption Control: AI tools like OpenAI or GitHub Copilot bill on consumption (tokens), not just seats. Cledara allows you to set strict variable budget caps that generalist cards can't handle, preventing "bill shock" from runaway API usage.
- Compliance by Default: While Spendesk focuses on attaching receipts, Cledara focuses on attaching compliance. Ensure every tool has passed security vetting (SOC2, GDPR) before a card is even issued.
“We were using Spendesk but it wasn’t great because we couldn’t see who owned each subscription or who was using it. It could only track
some software spend. Cledara changed how we managed software and made life a lot easier.”
Peter Fallowfield, Solidatus
“I love having the ability to give control to other department leads. It empowers them and takes so much off our plate. I know it’s secure and we can still control the spend.”
Medina Mammadova, Seatfrog
“Cledara immediately surfaced 15% more subscriptions we hadn't heard of and automatically linked them to our account so that I could look for the owner, understand the costs, and reach out to the provider to renegotiate.”
Nathan Humphreys, Jiminny
How Cledara helps
Now you can have full control over your biggest expenses
Spend management tools like Spendesk are great for daily expenses, but they only manage a small percent of your spending and don't have the tools you need to control spend across Software, Cloud and Advertising.
See where you’re overspending and painlessly reduce spend
Cledara highlights opportunities to reduce spend on tools with low usage, and overlapping features.
How Cledara compliments Spendesk
2% in the US (uncapped)
Join these companies using Cledara to manage their software subscriptions
+1000 customers in 29 countries
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Join 1,000+ customers and 5,600+ software vendors to take control of your software today
FAQ
Yes. Cledara is a complete spend management platform. Cledara Core handles your software and subscription lifecycle, while Cledara Spend handles employee travel, entertainment, and ad-hoc expenses. You get the specialization of a SaaS tool with the breadth of a corporate card solution.
Software companies have unique spending patterns—up to 85% of their non-payroll spend is on SaaS. Spendesk is built for travel and receipts (T&E), which is a shrinking pie. Cledara is built for the 85% of your budget that drives your business, offering specific features for renewals, consumption-based AI pricing, and IT security.
Spendesk offers a NetSuite integration, but user reviews frequently cite issues with data sync stability and configuration. Cledara offers a deep, pre-validated NetSuite integration that respects your custom segments, subsidiaries, and amortization schedules, designed specifically to handle complex subscription accounting.