Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Cledara vs insightsoftware

Cledara logo

Cledara

Accounting

Software subscription management with a virtual card per application, priced from £100 a month

From
£100/month
Rated
-
insightsoftware logo

insightsoftware

Accounting

A private-equity roll-up of financial reporting and EPM tools for the office of the CFO

From
On request
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Cledara control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.; insightsoftware you are buying one acquired product rather than a platform, and its roadmap depends on portfolio strategy decisions made after your contract is signed.
  • They diverge on capability: Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, insightsoftware covers Excel-native reporting.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cledara and insightsoftware actually diverge.

Attributes where Cledara and insightsoftware differ
AttributeCledarainsightsoftware
Starting price£100/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by number of applicationsquote
PlatformsWebWeb, Windows

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Cledara

  • Virtual card per subscription
  • Cancel by card
  • Application inventory
  • Approval workflow
  • Invoice collection
  • Accounting export
  • Spend optimisation module
  • IT management and compliance modules

Only in insightsoftware

  • Excel-native reporting
  • ERP connectors
  • Financial close and consolidation
  • Budgeting and planning
  • Embedded analytics
  • Lease and equity management

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Cledara

  • A finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cardsnot insightsoftware
  • A company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellationnot insightsoftware
  • A startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the auditnot insightsoftware
  • A finance function that spends days each month chasing SaaS invoices for the accountantnot insightsoftware

insightsoftware

  • A Dynamics or NetSuite finance team that needs live ERP data in Excel without an IT-built data warehousenot Cledara
  • Month-end close reporting where the current process is exporting to Excel and manually rekeying figuresnot Cledara
  • Statutory consolidation and disclosure management across several legal entities and currenciesnot Cledara
  • A software vendor embedding dashboards into its own application using Logi Analyticsnot Cledara

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Cledara

  • Control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.
  • Tier limits are set by number of applications rather than headcount, and twenty applications on the Basic plan is fewer than most companies of fifty actually run, so buyers often land on a higher tier than the entry price suggests.
  • The modules that turn it from a payment layer into a management platform, spend optimisation, IT management and compliance, are each priced at £150 to £200 a month, comparable to the base plan itself.
  • Usage data is inferred from payment and integration signals rather than deep application telemetry, so its judgement of whether a tool is underused is weaker than a discovery product built on single sign-on and API usage.
  • It is a card issuer as well as a software vendor, which adds financial counterparty considerations and means a change in its banking arrangements would affect how the company pays every one of its suppliers.

insightsoftware

  • You are buying one acquired product rather than a platform, and its roadmap depends on portfolio strategy decisions made after your contract is signed.
  • The acquisition pace, roughly twenty-five companies, has produced overlapping products in the same category, and customers of the loser in an internal overlap face a migration they did not plan.
  • Renewal price increases are a recurring complaint across the portfolio, which is a normal consequence of private-equity ownership and should be negotiated into the initial contract rather than discovered later.
  • Support quality varies sharply by product depending on how recently it was acquired and how integrated the support organisation is, so reference checks need to be product-specific rather than vendor-level.
  • Nothing is priced publicly, and because each product is priced separately a finance stack assembled from three insightsoftware products can cost far more than the platform framing implies.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cledara

£100/month
  • Basic$100/month
    • Up to 20 software applications
    • Virtual card per subscription
    • Application inventory and approvals
  • Premium$undefined/month
    • Up to 75 software applications
    • Typically 51 to 150 staff
    • 1% cashback in the first year, capped at the subscription cost
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • For organisations above roughly 150 staff
    • Scoped individually
    • 1% cashback in the first year, capped at plan cost
  • Add-on modules$200/month
    • Spend Optimization £200 a month or £1,500 a year
    • IT Management £150 a month or £1,500 a year
    • Software Compliance £150 a month or £1,500 a year

insightsoftware

On request
  • insightsoftware products$undefined/year
    • Priced per product, not as one platform
    • Annual subscription or perpetual licence depending on the product
    • Named user and server-based metrics vary by product

Which should you pick?

Choose Cledara if

  • You need virtual card per subscription.
  • You also want cancel by card.

Choose insightsoftware if

  • You need excel-native reporting.
  • You work on Web, Windows.
  • You also want erp connectors.

Questions people ask

Is Cledara or insightsoftware better?
Neither clearly leads. Cledara starts at £100/month and insightsoftware at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cledara or insightsoftware?
Cledara starts at £100/month and insightsoftware at On request.
Does Cledara or insightsoftware run on more platforms?
Cledara runs on Web. insightsoftware runs on Web, Windows.
What is Cledara best used for?
Cledara is most often used for a finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cards, a company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellation, a startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the audit, a finance function that spends days each month chasing saas invoices for the accountant. Of those, a finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cards and a company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellation are not what insightsoftware is typically brought in for.
What can Cledara do that insightsoftware cannot?
Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Cancel by card, Application inventory, Approval workflow. insightsoftware covers Excel-native reporting, ERP connectors, Financial close and consolidation, Budgeting and planning.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cledara: What does it cost?

Basic is £100 a month for up to 20 applications, with Premium covering up to 75 and Pro above that. Add-on modules are £150 to £200 a month each, and annual payment saves 16%.

insightsoftware: Is insightsoftware one product?

No. It is a portfolio of roughly twenty-five acquired products including Jet Reports, Spreadsheet Server, Longview, Certent and Logi Analytics.

Cledara: Does it find software we did not tell it about?

Only what passes through its cards or connected integrations. Subscriptions paid by invoice or another card stay hidden, which is the main limitation of the model.

insightsoftware: Who owns it?

TA Associates, with Hg investing around one billion US dollars for joint control at a valuation near four billion.

Cledara: How does cancelling work?

You cancel the virtual card for that subscription, which stops the payment. It does not remove your contractual obligation, so check notice periods.

insightsoftware: Does it publish pricing?

No. Each product is quoted separately.

Cledara: Is the application limit by users or by tools?

By tools. Twenty on Basic, seventy-five on Premium. Count your actual subscriptions before assuming the entry price applies to you.

insightsoftware: What should I check before buying?

Where your specific product sits in the portfolio strategy, and whether it overlaps with another acquired product.

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