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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are Frequently Asked questions about CloudForecast features, billing practices and company. If you have any follow up questions or if there is a question that is not covered, feel free to reach out to [email protected]

How is this different from AWS Cost Explorer?

CloudForecast is not meant to be a replacement to Cost Explorer. However, our customers find Cost Explorer lacking in features and reporting that their whole organization needs. It is difficult to rely on multiple stakeholders to log-in cost explorer, find the right views, enter in the filters, pull the right reports, figure out where anomalies are and be proactive about monitoring cost. It’s a mind numbing process to do this everyday, which distracts teams from actual technical challenges. Our proactive reporting is well-designed and thoughtful, so that it takes less than 2 minutes to understand your cost and possible anomalies. We only surface the important information that a team needs with our reports.

Can’t I just build this myself?

You can try if you have the time and engineering resources to build and maintain it! Companies that use CloudForecast do not have the that luxury or time to have their engineering resources tied up to building internal tooling. The opportunity cost is high, which can take away precious engineering time and resources from building features that drive their organization forward. We make it easy for with an out-of-the-box solution that requires little engineering resources to get started.

Is my data safe with the permissions I am providing?

We only need read-only access to your S3 billing bucket. Our app does not have the ability to make changes to your AWS account. All of our data and credentials are encrypted using the AES encryption algorithm with a 256-bit key. Our AWS data centers have achieved ISO 27001 certification, PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, and SAS70 Type II.

How does the free trial work?

We provide a 7 day free trial with no Credit Card required or an extended 30 day free trial with a Credit Card.

How much effort is required to get set up?

Initial configuration should take less than 7 minutes. We also provide free personal assistance via screen share for all new sign-ups. You should receive your first AWS cost report within 24 hours. If you have any issues, you can always email us at [email protected]. We’re here to help!

How does the billing work?

We charge on a recurring monthly basis. Our Hacker Plan is $99/month and our Growth Plan is $199/month.

There are features that we need that you are missing. Is this something you can help with?

Yes! This is something we can accommodate and help with our Enterprise Plan. We would love to hear your requirements and what you are looking for. Please reach out via [email protected] to setup a call with us.

Why is my report delayed every first of the month?

We process all your billing files as soon as the billing file is available in S3. We send the reports based on AWS making the cost file available to us. We find that for all our cost files on 1st of the month from AWS are always delayed and made available a few days later.

I just setup my account! When can I expect the first report?

You should receive a report in about 24 hours! Reach out to us if you do not receive your first email report within that time frame.

Can you backfill historical data from my Amazon Web Services?

It depends! If you have an existing S3 bucket with historical CUR files, we should be able to backfill the data for you with those files. However, if you have never enabled CUR within AWS Cost Explorer, the most data we can grab is starting from that month. This is a limitation on AWS side.

How do you ensure your app is up and we’re receiving cost reports?

That’s a great question! We try our best to ensure our app is up by using tools like Cronitor to help us with continuous cron monitoring and uptime monitoring. For cost reports, we’re heavily reliant on AWS providing CUR files in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, they can be inconsistent near the end of the month which may cause delay in delivery of our cost reports or incomplete data.