Understanding your cloud costs is key to analyzing your resourcing and forecasting. Here we present two AWS native tools: Cost Explorer and Billing Console. We’ll compare their focus, reporting, benefits, and usability. 

An Overview of AWS Cost Explorer vs. AWS Billing Console

AWS Cost Explorer

AWS Cost Explorer lets you view, understand, and manage your spending. It provides you with tools to create custom reports and analyze your data.

AWS Billing Console

AWS Billing Console is a page to view AWS charges, discounts, credits, refunds, and taxes. From there you can download all invoices and documents. 

AWS Cost Explorer vs. AWS Billing Console: What’s Best for Your Business?

Understanding the Focus and Functionality of Both Tools

AWS Billing is a console that’s included with every AWS account to view your spending.

Cost Explorer is a tool that enables you to filter, analyze, and forecast your costs.

Cost Management and Reporting: What Each Tool Offers

For in-depth reporting, AWS Cost Explorer is the best option. You can use their API to use the data to build applications and drill down into your spending with hourly and resource levels. 

The Billing page allows you to view your expenses so that you can then analyze them, but it doesn’t provide any specific reporting features.

Who Benefits from AWS Cost Explorer vs. AWS Billing Console?

AWS Billing is available for every AWS account so that all users can check and understand their spending.

Cost Explorer is for teams that want to analyze their AWS expenses more deeply. It’s ideal for finance or FinOps teams that want clearer reports and spending dashboards.

How These Tools Drive Cost Efficiency for Businesses

AWS Billing is your first step toward cost optimization. Without understanding your spending, you’re managing your infrastructure blindly. 

Cost Explorer is a great tool to take you to the next level in FinOps maturity as you’ll be able to manage your usage and forecast your spending with accuracy. 

Integration and Usability: How Easy Are They to Implement?

AWS Billing is more intuitive as it is a simple tool, as you just log in and view the information. 

Cost Explorer has more options and you have more to learn to get the most out of the tool. You can use their API to export data, create reports, graphs, and tables.

Wildlife Studios used Cost Explorer to improve agility, optimize costs, reduce EC2 spending, and grow faster.

Pros and Cons of AWS Cost Explorer vs. AWS Billing Console

Introducing Stratusphere™ FinOps as an Alternative

To take your understanding and analysis of your AWS spending one step further, try Stratusphere. We developed this solution based on our knowledge and deep experience of AWS. Using Stratusphere, you can link your AWS accounts and view spending across your entire AWS ecosystem. 

It provides you with comprehensive, easy-to-understand graphs of your spending, forecasts, and shows you steps that you can take to reduce spending. These steps are organized into the actions that will bring you the most benefits, with the least amount of effort.

With Stratusphere you reduce your cloud costs and increase your control of your AWS environments.

When to Consider Stratusphere™ FinOps

• Are you struggling to understand why your AWS bill is so high? 
• Do you lack insights into your spending across all your AWS accounts?
• Do you find it hard to know what will lower your spending?

Start your 14-day Stratusphere free trial, it provides you with the transparency, forecasting, and prioritization that you need to control your AWS costs.