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Free toolsSaaS tool sprawl statistics you need to know (2026)
The average company now runs hundreds of SaaS apps, pays for licenses that nobody opens, and lets each team buy its own tools - and the 2026 data shows the sprawl is still outpacing every attempt to rein it in. This roundup collects the most current SaaS tool sprawl statistics for anyone trying to understand how many tools a company really needs and what the extra ones cost.
The numbers make the case for consolidation better than any pitch could. For small teams especially, most of that sprawl is coordination overhead - a chat app, a docs app, a tracker, a spreadsheet - when one simple board like Breeze would hold the work and the conversation in the same place. The statistics below show the scale of the problem.
Last updated: July 2026
Key SaaS tool sprawl statistics (2026)
- The average company runs about 275 SaaS applications - from 152 at small companies to 660 at large enterprises.
- 53% of SaaS licenses sit idle, wasting roughly $21 million a year at the average company.
- Average SaaS spend is about $49 million a year, or $4,830 per employee.
- Lines of business own roughly 70% of SaaS spend; IT controls just 26%.
- The app-consolidation rate fell from 14% to 5% year over year.
- AI-native tool spending jumped more than 75% in a single year.
- 32% of tasks in Breeze carry a written comment, so the discussion lives on the task.
How many tools a company runs
How many SaaS apps does the average company use?
The average company runs about 275 SaaS applications, according to Zylo, which bases the figure on more than 40 million licenses. Other trackers put it differently depending on what they count: Productiv reports about 342 apps and BetterCloud around 106.
What this means: the exact count depends on methodology, but every serious estimate lands in the hundreds. Even the most conservative number is far more tools than any one person can hold in their head.
How does app count scale with company size?
Sharply. Small companies average about 152 SaaS apps, while large enterprises of 10,000+ employees run around 660. Okta, counting only single-sign-on apps, sees larger organizations at about 187.
What this means: sprawl grows faster than headcount. A small team can already have well over a hundred tools, which is why "we are too small for this to be a problem" is rarely true.
Is tool sprawl still growing?
For many companies, yes. Okta reports the average organization crossed 101 single-sign-on apps for the first time, after sitting flat around 90 for years. BetterCloud's full-portfolio count dipped slightly to 106 from 112, so the picture is uneven - but the long-run direction is up.
What this means: sprawl is not a one-time event you clean up once. New tools arrive faster than old ones are retired, which is why consolidation has to be an ongoing habit rather than a project.
Source: Okta - Businesses at Work 2025
Idle licenses and shelfware
How many software licenses go unused?
53% of SaaS licenses sit idle, which works out to about $21 million in wasted spend a year at the average company - and that waste grew more than 14% year over year.
What this means: more than half of what companies pay for is never used. Every extra tool is not just another login, it is a recurring bill that quietly renews whether anyone opens it or not.
How much software is pure shelfware?
Separate research finds 15% of applications are entirely unused, and 51% are underutilized - organizations use less than half the licenses they pay for. Waste volume rose about 34% at large enterprises in a year.
What this means: shelfware is not a rounding error, it is a structural cost that compounds. The more tools a company adds without retiring old ones, the bigger the share that quietly goes to waste.
Is SaaS waste getting better or worse?
Worse, by most accounts. 35% of IT professionals say SaaS waste increased over the past year, as new tools and consumption-based pricing outpace efforts to control spend.
What this means: waste is trending up, not down, even as companies say they want to cut costs. Intent to simplify keeps losing to the momentum of new purchases.
What companies spend on SaaS
How much do companies spend on SaaS?
Average annual SaaS spend is about $49 million, or roughly $4,830 per employee - the first increase in three years, up 9.3%. Spending on AI-native tools alone jumped more than 75% year over year.
What this means: software is now one of the largest line items a company carries, and AI tools are adding to it fast. That makes "do we really need another app for this?" one of the highest-leverage questions a small team can ask.
How does SaaS spend scale with size?
Small companies spend about $11.5 million a year on SaaS, while large enterprises spend around $284 million. Zoomed out, worldwide public cloud spending - with SaaS the largest segment - is set to reach $723 billion in 2025.
What this means: at every size, software is a major and growing cost. The question is not whether to spend on tools, but whether the tools you pay for are actually the ones being used.
Sources: Zylo - 2025 SaaS Management Index; Gartner - Public Cloud Forecast 2025
Shadow IT and lost visibility
Who actually controls SaaS spending?
Not IT. Lines of business own roughly 70% of SaaS spend and about half of all apps, while IT controls only around 26% of spend. Most of the sprawl is bought outside any central plan.
What this means: sprawl is not an IT failure, it is a coordination one. When every team picks its own tracker and chat app, work ends up scattered across tools that do not talk to each other, which is the same reason teams end up in the wrong heavyweight tools.
How much visibility do companies have into their own tools?
Less than they used to. Complete visibility across the tech stack fell to 43% from 47% a year earlier, and 66.5% of IT leaders reported unexpected SaaS charges from consumption-based or AI pricing models.
What this means: companies increasingly cannot see what they own or what it will cost. Decentralized buying plus usage-based pricing makes the bill a moving target, and the first casualty is a clear picture of the work itself.
Sources: Flexera - 2025 State of ITAM Report; Zylo - 2025 SaaS Management Index
Consolidation versus new tools
Are companies consolidating or adding more?
Mostly adding. BetterCloud reports the app-consolidation rate fell from 14% to 5% year over year, even as AI-native spending surged. Intent to simplify is losing to the pull of new tools.
What this means: consolidation does not happen by default - the momentum runs the other way. The teams that stay lean are the ones that treat "one place for the work" as a deliberate choice, not a hope.
Do companies that try to consolidate succeed?
When they focus on it, yes. 53% of organizations consolidated redundant SaaS apps in 2024, up from 40% the year before, and 59% of software-asset teams now actively track SaaS usage to find what to cut.
What this means: cutting sprawl works when it is a deliberate habit backed by visibility into what is actually used. The hard part is not knowing which tools to drop, it is looking in the first place.
Sources: Productiv - State of SaaS; Flexera - 2025 State of ITAM Report
Breeze data: about 32% of tasks in Breeze carry at least one written comment, adding up to more than 3.7 million comments in total.
What this means: a large share of the back-and-forth that would otherwise need a separate chat tool lives right on the task instead, where it stays attached to the work. Keeping the conversation and the task tracking in one place is the simplest form of consolidation there is. The same pattern shows up in the team collaboration statistics.
Source: Breeze internal data, roughly 2 million tasks, 2026.
