Name: Wozz
Rating: 4.9 (127 reviews)
Author: Wozz

TL;DR

Price: Wozz is 80% cheaper ($99/mo vs $500/mo per cluster)
Privacy: Wozz requires zero cluster access; Kubecost needs full access
Setup: Wozz takes 2 minutes; Kubecost requires agent deployment
Best for: Wozz for privacy-conscious teams; Kubecost for deep integrations

The Pricing Problem with Kubecost

Kubecost's pricing starts at around $500 per month per cluster for their Enterprise tier, which includes the features most teams actually need (multi-cluster, SAML SSO, advanced reporting). Their "free" tier is extremely limited and missing critical functionality.

For a typical company with 3 clusters (production, staging, dev), that's $18,000 per year just for cost visibility. That's before you've saved a single dollar.

Wozz costs $99/month per cluster — that's the same 3 clusters for $3,564/year. You save $14,436 on the tool itself, plus the cloud waste you eliminate.

Privacy: The Game Changer

This is where the two tools fundamentally differ:

Kubecost's Approach

✗ Requires installing agents in your cluster
✗ Agents run with cluster-admin permissions
✗ Continuously scrapes Prometheus metrics
✗ Stores data in their managed service (Enterprise)
✗ Full visibility into your workloads, namespaces, and resource usage

Wozz's Approach

✓ Zero cluster access required
✓ Runs locally with kubectl (read-only)
✓ You choose what data to upload (opt-in)
✓ No agents, no persistent connections
✓ Perfect for regulated industries (healthcare, finance)

For many enterprises, especially in healthcare, finance, or government, giving a third party full cluster access is a non-starter. Wozz solves this by never requiring access.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Kubecost	Wozz
Price per cluster	$500/mo	$99/mo
Setup time	2-4 hours	2 minutes
Cluster access required	Full (agents)	None
Privacy	Medium	High
Over-provisioning detection	✓	✓
Orphaned resources	✓	✓
Waste trending	✓	✓
Real-time metrics	✓	–
Cost allocation by team	✓	Coming soon

When to Choose Kubecost

Kubecost excels when you need:

Real-time monitoring: Live metrics updated every minute
Deep integrations: Grafana, Datadog, PagerDuty, etc.
Showback/chargeback: Allocate costs by team, namespace, label
Automated optimization: Right-sizing recommendations with one-click apply

If you're a large enterprise with budget for $18K/year in tooling and need granular cost allocation across 50+ teams, Kubecost's depth is worth it.

When to Choose Wozz

Wozz is perfect when you need:

Maximum privacy: Can't give third parties cluster access
Fast setup: Need insights in minutes, not hours
Cost efficiency: Want to save on tools AND cloud waste
Simplicity: Don't need real-time monitoring or complex integrations

If you're a startup, mid-market company, or privacy-conscious enterprise, Wozz delivers 80% of the value at 20% of the cost.

Real ROI Analysis

Let's say your cluster is wasting $50,000/year (typical for a 50-pod production cluster):

With Kubecost

Annual waste found: $50,000

Tool cost (3 clusters): -$18,000

You reduce waste by 40%: +$20,000

Net savings: $2,000/year

With Wozz

Annual waste found: $50,000

Tool cost (3 clusters): -$3,564

You reduce waste by 40%: +$20,000

Net savings: $16,436/year

Wozz saves you $14,436 more per year for the same waste reduction.

The Verdict

Both tools are excellent. Your choice depends on your priorities:

Choose Kubecost if:

• You need real-time cost allocation across 50+ teams
• Budget isn't a primary concern
• You want automated optimization with one-click fixes

Choose Wozz if:

• Privacy and security are non-negotiable
• You want to save money on tools AND cloud waste
• You need fast setup without agent deployment
• You're in healthcare, finance, or regulated industries

Try Both (For Free)

The best way to decide is to try both:

Kubecost: Offers a free tier (limited) and 30-day enterprise trial
Wozz: CLI is 100% free forever. Dashboard has a 14-day trial.

Ready to try Wozz?

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