You probably have software overlap right now and don't know it.
It doesn't happen because business owners are careless. It happens because software companies are very good at getting you to sign up, and very bad at making it obvious when you already have something that does the same job.
The result: you pay twice — sometimes three times — for the same function every single month.
What is software overlap?
Accounting software: Running Xero and QuickBooks simultaneously is more common than you'd think. Both do invoicing, bookkeeping, and financial reporting. You need one. The other is pure waste.
Cloud storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive are all cloud storage. Microsoft 365 includes OneDrive. Google Workspace includes Drive. If you're paying for Dropbox on top of either, you're paying for storage three times.
Communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom all overlap for internal communication and video calls. Most small businesses need one video tool and one messaging tool — not three of each.
Project management: Monday.com, Asana, Trello, and Notion all do task and project management. Paying for more than one means your team is splitting their work across platforms.
Why overlap is so expensive
The individual costs look small. £10 here, £28 there. But overlap compounds. A typical small business with software overlap is paying an extra £80-150 per month for tools they already have covered. That is £960-1,800 per year going directly to waste.
How to find overlap in your stack
Go through every tool you pay for and ask: does anything else in my stack do this? Group your tools by function. If any category has more than one tool, you have overlap.
Which tool should you keep?
Which one does your team actually use? The tool that gets opened every day is the one to keep.
Which one integrates better with the rest of your stack? If most of your business runs on Google Workspace, keeping Google Drive and cutting Dropbox makes sense.
Which one is cheaper for what you need? If both tools are genuinely used, check whether the cheaper one covers everything the expensive one does. Often it does.
The savings add up fast
Cancelling QuickBooks when already paying for Xero: saves £30/month. Cancelling Dropbox when already paying for Google Workspace: saves £10/month. Cancelling Microsoft Teams when already using Slack: saves £10/month. Cancelling monday.com when already using Asana: saves £20/month. Total from those four changes alone: £70/month, £840/year.
Find your overlap in 30 seconds
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