Here's a question most marketing leaders can't answer without opening four browser tabs: how many SaaS tools is your team actually subscribed to right now?
Not the ones you know about. All of them.
If your experience is anything like most teams I've spoken to, the real number is going to be uncomfortably higher than what you'd guess. And a significant chunk of that spend? It's generating nothing.
The math that nobody runs#
Industry research puts the average annual waste on unused SaaS licenses at $135,000 per company. That's not enterprise — that's the average. Small and mid-sized teams are paying for tools that are barely touched, auto-renewing year after year, while someone on the team swears they “definitely still need it.”
It gets worse. A separate study found that 50% of companies waste at least 10% of their annual software expenditure on underutilised or unmanaged tools. One in two. Not outliers. Not edge cases. Half.
The average SaaS spend is now $8,700 per employee per year — and organisations collectively use only 47% of the licenses they're paying for.
Why this keeps happening#
The pattern is always the same. A tool gets brought in to solve a specific problem. It solves it, partially. Then a new tool comes in to patch the gap the first tool left. Then another one for reporting. Then one for outreach. Then a dedicated analytics layer because none of the others can actually talk to each other.
Nobody planned this stack. It grew organically, and nobody has the full picture — including IT. Research shows that 75% of IT teams lack clear visibility into what SaaS apps are active in their organisation or when subscriptions renew.
That means tools are auto-renewing without anyone evaluating whether they're still needed. Month after month. Year after year.
The consolidation signal is already there#
The market is starting to vote with its behaviour. Studies show 76% of companies say they'll move toward a platform that organises and manages their entire SaaS stack rather than adding yet another point solution.
Buyers are exhausted. They don't want more tools. They want fewer, better-connected ones that actually justify the spend.
The hidden tax is real. It's measurable. And it's sitting right in your renewal queue.
marketOS doesn't add to your stack. It consolidates it. One platform. Every workflow. Measurably higher ROI on every tool you already pay for.