SaaS sprawl
Updated August 22, 2026
The accumulation of software subscriptions past the point where anybody can list them from memory. The count grows because adding a tool is easy and removing one is nobody's job.
Why is SaaS sprawl expensive?
Not because any single subscription is large. Because the total is unexamined. Sprawl is the condition that lets zombie subscriptions, duplicate tooling, and price creep persist: each is individually small, and there is no list to check them against.
Where is the real list of what a company pays for?
The general ledger. Not the SSO directory, which holds the tools that federate. Not the card statement, which holds the tools on the card. Not the app catalog, which holds the tools somebody remembered to add. Everything the company pays for has to be recorded somewhere in the books, because that is what bookkeeping is for.
Every term in this glossary is defined from the general ledger, because that is the one place a company's whole software estate is already written down. See how a software spend audit reads a ledger for what that involves.