CostBits vs MeRLIN Spend Analytics
CostBits
costbits.comMeRLIN Spend Analytics
merlinsourcing.comSide by side
| Figure | CostBits | MeRLIN Spend Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €171/mo | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Spend Analysis Software | 8.8 (#1) | 7.9 (#5) |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen, Denmark | Maastricht, Netherlands |
| Hosting | The SaaS agreement says customer data is hosted by CostBits after capture, cleaning, enrichment and stitching. | MeRLIN is a SaaS solution available on Microsoft Azure Cloud. |
| Integrations | Listed ERP integrations include Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Business Central On-Prem, Navision, Axapta, and custom integrations such as SAP, Oracle, Infor M3, and IFS. | MeRLIN supports REST API integrations and lists out-of-the-box integrations with Epicor, SAP R3, SAP S/4HANA, Dun and Bradstreet, CreditReform, and MS Dynamics. |
| Security | The data processing agreement describes risk-based technical and organizational security measures, including possible encryption, confidentiality, resilience, restoration, and regular testing. | MeRLIN’s information security policy says its information security management system will comply with applicable requirements, including ISO 27001. |
Plans
CostBits
- Gold€171 a month
- Silver€239 a month
- Bronze€327 a month
- BusinessPrice not published
- EnterprisePrice not published
- SmallPrice not published
In their own words
CostBits
CostBits provides spend control for procurement and finance teams, bringing transaction, contract, and invoice data into analysis. Its AI checks those records for issues such as duplicate payments, blocked vendors, and invoices dated after a contract expires. It also cleans, normalizes, and categorizes fragmented procurement data from source systems. Contract storage includes smart tagging, expiry alerts, and renewal tracking, with contract data connected to analysis. Spend analytics range from a core dashboard in Small to full analytics in Business and Enterprise. Listed ERP integrations include Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Business Central On-Prem, Navision, and Axapta, plus custom integrations such as SAP, Oracle, Infor M3, and IFS. Small has view-only access and no user exports; Business and Enterprise provide full export and raw data access. Small includes one legal entity, five users, and ten contracts. Business supports up to 20 entities, 50 users, and 200 contracts. Enterprise permits unlimited entities, users, and contracts, with a dedicated data team. CostBits is web-based and offers a 14-day trial, with no free plan.
MeRLIN Spend Analytics
MeRLIN Spend Analytics gives procurement and finance teams a consolidated view of spending across suppliers, categories and regions. It collects, cleanses and enriches procurement data, then uses AI and fuzzy logic to normalize and classify it. Real-time dashboards and standard reports show spend by department, supplier, category and geography, with custom KPI views also available. Teams can compare budget with actual spend across sourcing programs and examine contract terms and early-payment discounts. The analytics highlight potential spend leakage, savings opportunities and negotiation insights. The wider source-to-procure platform includes supplier and category management, sourcing projects, contract lifecycle management, compliance, risk management, e-sourcing, purchasing, invoicing and credit notes. MeRLIN is modular SaaS hosted on Microsoft Azure; customer data-centre deployment is possible in specific situations. It connects to ERP and bespoke systems through standard middleware and can import master data from ERP, PLM or legacy systems. Pricing is on request.