Making sense of Apples to Oranges comparisons between competing Software as a Service Vendors sends more clients my way than any other factor in the SaaS selection process.
Between varied pricing tiers and differing feature terminology, it can be a chore figuring out what's what between your finalists. Until you conquer that bit of due diligence, though, you can't easily move forward with the VRA process.
As you can see in the chart below, developed for a client seeking new line of business software to run its company, the three finalists used different names for their pricing tiers and a different quantity of tiers (two using 4 tiers; one using 3 tiers).
The common denominator is the Monthly and Annual pricing. In these cases, the annual prices represented a roughly $10 discount per month per user.
This comparison doesn't show the features and services available under each tier, though. We must dig through the websites or product sheets of each finalist to generate meaningful comparisons that will break these Apples and Oranges down to just Apples to Apples (or Oranges to Oranges if you prefer).
Obviously, the software must offer the features you need to achieve your business objectives, but that becomes difficult to determine because of the providers' differing Feature names, which often don't accurately define the features.
Some will have standardized, traditional names well-known in business circles. Others, in attempts to differentiate from the competition, deviate to clever / cute / even trademarked labels that don't clearly describe the feature.
You can start breaking these Apples and Oranges down with the practice areas or verticals the software has created specific versions or modules for, such as this for a legal client:
If you see your practice areas or industries represented, you can compare the features of those versions.
More likely, though, not all of your finalists will have the same practice or industry versions. In those cases you'll need to dive into the specific features offered in each pricing plan and version to get your Apples to Apples comparisons and your best fit.
The samples below offer a glimpse of the variety of feature categories and individual features from one vendor to the next (the orange blocks represent features not included in the tier).
Vendor 1
Vendor 2
Vendor 3
You can download a copy of my e-Book on performing due diligence on SaaS providers or request an online meeting.