In this article, we’ll compare Vendr vs Tropic so you can efficiently determine if either offering is a fit. One thing is sure, if you don’t have a substantial minimum spend on SaaS – neither will be a fit. You’ll want to consider other options.
B2B companies deal with extensive amounts of costly software, so procurement platforms—such as G2 Track, Torii, Spendflo, Zylo, Vendr, and Tropic—have emerged as the solution to manage all of these programs in one place.
If you need a comprehensive program to track and manage the programs your B2B uses on a day-to-day basis but aren’t sold on internal SaaS renewals, SaaS procurement negotiations and purchasing, Vendr and Tropic are two of the platforms to consider.
Here is everything you need to know about these two programs, helping you decide between Vendr vs Tropic:
What is Vendr?
Though a new company founded in just 2018, Vendr has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the SaaS software management field. Angled as a buying platform, Vendr uses research data to give its customers buying insights to assist during the software procurement process.
Vendr has become popular due to its saving capabilities, which can: identify and search large software libraries, both already procured or programs that would be a good fit for the customer; display knowledge on each SaaS product; and negotiate renewals and purchase SaaS on the customer’s behalf.
Vendr does more than just automate the procurement activities, as the platform attempts to serve its customers from the beginning of each process until the end across multiple departments. With solutions for procurement, information technology, accounting, and security teams, Vendr is a comprehensive platform that aims to help enterprise companies and those with $400K+ in annual SaaS spend.
Vendr Overview
What is Tropic?
Tropic is a procurement platform that aims to reduce its customer spending on SaaS programs of all types, focusing its efforts on both later-stage tech startups and larger companies. Like Vendr, Tropic handles SaaS procurement and management for its customers, helping tech and B2B companies minimize spend and time-consuming team processes.
Comparing Vendr vs Tropic, Tropic is aimed more at finance, business/procurement, and tech departments rather than reaching every end of a company. The platform appears to have chosen its niche well, as Tropic touts its customers have saved both time and money—an average of 23% on SaaS products and saved an average of over 380 work hours per year. Tropic also claims that its customers see an average of 3x to 4x ROI for each investment placed through or with the program.
Tropic Overview
The biggest difference between Vendr vs Tropic is that Tropic expands its spend analysis beyond SaaS, allowing its customers to save in other areas of their businesses—though Tropic is still a strong choice for SaaS management.
Vendr vs Tropic – Product & Use Cases
Deciding between Tropic vs Vendr can be overwhelming, as these two competitors are sometimes seen as interchangeable. Though Vendr and Tropic are like products that cater to a similar customer, these platforms serve different types of customer needs and function in distinct manners. Here’s how Vendr vs Tropic contrasts:
Vendr Product & Use Cases
As a procurement and management platform, Vendr is a versatile program that makes SaaS procurement an understandable and manageable process. Vendr is used for companies with substantial SaaS spend.
Vendr aims to be accessible for every department member across a business, offering customizable and catered solutions to procurement, finance, IT, security, as well as department heads.
This is optimal for larger B2B companies that regularly use specific SaaS for each department, as it allows the relevant team members to handle or automate their own day-to-day tasks without outsourcing it to a procurement or finance team that may not know what’s best for another department.
Since Vendr offers solutions for different types of teams, it has a wide range of use cases, such as:
- Procurement teams can use Vendr to streamline the procurement process
- Accounting teams can identify and eliminate excess SaaS spend
- Managers use Vendr to automate SaaS stack management, freeing up time for themselves and their subordinates
- Vendr can be used by security and IT teams to analyze the effectiveness of their cybersecurity SaaS programs
Tropic Product & Use Cases
Like Vendr, Tropic assists its users with SaaS procurement and management but focuses its solutions on savings for large companies with substantial SaaS spend management, a minimum of $250K of annual SaaS spend.
With both short data captures on the dashboard and in-depth information further within each SaaS program’s page, Tropic allows users to capture all relevant data in lists of their choice or automated groups.
Comparing Tropic vs Vendr, the latter offers more versatility for different departments, but Tropic has cornered the SaaS savings and spend market, even with fewer solution types. Both companies have a focus on savings.
Use cases for Tropic fall into the finance, procurement, and IT/security categories, with use cases for each including:
- Tropic negates the need for a true procurement team, as the program can purchase, renew, and cancel (with user approval) various types of software
- For large companies with a sizable program library, Tropic helps finance teams fit their budgets by eliminating irrelevant or cost-inefficient software
- IT and security teams use Tropic to ensure that their procurement process meets company and legal procurement requirements, avoiding expensive mistakes
Tropic vs Vendr – Key Features
To choose the right fit between Vendr vs Tropic, you need to know if the platform can do the things you and your teammates need it to do. While both programs are SaaS procurement and management platforms, their key features are an important factor to consider.
Vendr Key Features
Vendr’s multi-department solutions results in a solid list of key features to streamline your SaaS stack, including:
- Real-time data about software updates, renewing subscriptions, and duplicate costs
- Price benchmarking that includes quotes from suppliers and actual negotiated prices from previous deals
- Clear captures of SaaS spending across departments or entire organizations, both recent and historical
- Usage and buying reports help users identify what software is the most valuable to the team
- Automated security monitoring for both breaches and legal compliance, creating an audit log of licenses and provisions
Tropic Key Features
With spend at the forefront of Tropic’s concerns, this platform offers its users features to bolster their savings and receive greater returns on their investments, such as:
- Automated software purchases, renewals, replacements, and updates.
- Contract tracking, extracting, and importing so users can keep the essential data close at hand.
- Tropic can coordinate meetings and updates to team members, vendors, and stakeholders for its users.
- Customizable workflow templates allow users to design their own company-wide procurement process.
- Security questionnaires and legal documentation is automatically collected, while licenses are examined for renewal based on usage.
Vendr vs Tropic – Pricing
If your company is spending enough on SaaS to warrant a procurement and management platform, be prepared to pay a sizable amount for one. Cost is an important factor in the Tropic vs Vendor debate, but neither platform is a frugal choice for businesses on a budget. Both Vendr and Tropic require a minimum spend for new users, but appear to offer all features along with the cost.
Vendr Pricing
Vendr offers a flat, annual rate depending on yearly SaaS spend, but has a high entry price as the minimum spend for the starter package is $400,000. The platform does redeem itself by “guaranteeing” users that it will save them more than the yearly fees cost, even offering to write potential users a check. Here’s a breakdown of Vendr’s pricing:
| Package | Minimum Spend | Annual Cost |
| Starter | $400,000–$1 million | $36,000 |
| Growth | $1 million–$5 million | $78,000 |
| Enterprise | $5 million+ | $120,000 |
Tropic Pricing
Tropic has a lower minimum spend than Vendr at $250,000 and also bills its users annually. While Tropic is initially cheaper than Vendr, the platform is slightly more expensive in the long run. Here is what Tropic costs:
| Minimum Spend | Annual Cost |
| $250,000–$1 million | $45,000 |
| $1 million–$2.5 million | $60,000 |
| $2.5 million–$5 million | $93,000 |
| $5 million+ | $141,000 |
Vendr vs Tropic – Reviews – What Real Customers Think
Though platform websites can boast about savings and efficiency, the truth is always revealed through customer reviews. To help you contrast Tropic vs Vendr, this is what prior and current customers are saying about their experiences with these procurement platforms.
Vendr Reviews
For the most part, users seem to enjoy their experiences with Vendr and believe that the platform has saved their organization money on SaaS spend, but there are a number of concerning reports.
1. Vendr User Review Pros:
- Lower procurement costs and increased savings.
- Vendr’s team has strong relationships with suppliers that leads to better negotiations.
- Comprehensive records and contacts for almost every SaaS company.
2. Vendr User Review Cons:
- SaaS stack cannot be imported to other recording tools, like Excel.
- Vendr complicates contract processes, drawing them out so long that users miss deadlines and it damages customer relationships.
- Frequent bugs and glitches that disturb workflow with no clear way to report them.
- Vendr’s communication options between users and their clients is limited, making it difficult for them to correspond effectively.
- Despite appearing simple, learning to use Vendr for specialized purposes can be too difficult for non-tech team members.
Tropic Reviews
As a newer company, Tropic has not received many reviews compared to Vendr, but the few that are online are mostly positive with a small number of pain points.
1. Tropic User Review Pros:
- Gives users a deep understanding of SaaS models and contacts with comprehensive reports.
- Dashboard is easy to use across multiple devices.
- Tropic’s claims of saving money on SaaS and seeing a solid ROI increase are true.
2. Tropic User Review Cons:
- Some users think the interface is simple, while others think it needs serious improvement.
- Frequent confusing changes to the interface and processes.
- Tropic is far too expensive for their target demographic of startups and small businesses, requiring a minimum spend of $250,000.
- Customer coordination capabilities lack the personal touch needed to secure a contract.
- Solutions are limited to being spend-related and some users wish there were more options for correspondence with contacts.
Vendr vs Tropic: Which Platform Is Best for You?
For organizations with a large SaaS spend, a procurement and management platform is a must have, but the ability to choose between Tropic vs Vendr depends on one thing: SaaS spend.
Both Vendr and Tropic immediately price out small businesses, many mid-size companies and startups—with spend minimums at $400,000 and $250,000, respectively—making both platforms useless to companies that don’t have a high budget.
If your organization does reach the minimum spend threshold, the decision between Vendr vs Tropic becomes clearer.
Though Tropic is an optimistic new platform that promises exponential SaaS savings and ROIs, Vendr may be the better choice for most companies because it does everything Tropic claims to do (and more) with a lower price tag. If neither platform is appealing, check out our article on Vendr competitors and alternatives or Tropic competitors and alternatives.
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