Proliferation of Tools in Tech Stacks (2023-2025)

Organizations today use an enormous number of software tools, especially in marketing, communications, and content operations. Recent data shows that the average company has on the order of hundreds of different applications in use

  • Overall SaaS apps: In 2023, companies averaged about 269 distinct SaaS applications in their tech stack (down from 291 in 2022). This represents a slight post-pandemic consolidation (“Great Rationalization”) after years of expansion. Even small businesses (≤500 employees) used ~172 apps on average, while large enterprises (~>2,500 employees) had around 664 apps. (By 2024, another study found a somewhat lower average of ~112 apps per company, indicating sample differences but reinforcing that most firms rely on hundreds of tools).

  • MarTech landscape size: The marketing technology ecosystem itself keeps growing. In 2024 the martech landscape included 14,106 distinct products (up 27.8% from ~11,000 in 2023). For comparison, there were only ~150 martech solutions in 2011 – a 9,300%+ increase over 13 years. This explosion in available tools has given marketers and communicators countless options, and many organizations have accumulated dozens (if not hundreds) of these specialized platforms in their marketing/communication stacks.

Underutilization and Wasted Spend

The flip side of large tech stacks is that many tools are underused or “shelfware.” Surveys and research in the last two years reveal alarmingly low utilization rates and significant waste:

  • Only ~50% Utilization: On average, companies utilize just about half of the software licenses they’ve purchased. In marketing departments specifically, only “half of martech tools purchased are used in company operations” (about 51.5% utilization, down from 56% earlier in 2024). Similarly, Gartner’s 2023 report found marketers are actually using only 33% of their martech stack’s capabilities, a decline from 42% the year prior. In other words, two-thirds of the features marketers pay for now go unused.

  • Soaring Investment: Ironically, this utilization drop comes even as investment in these tools grows. Marketing tech spend climbed from $15.3 billion in 2020 to $23.6 billion in 2023 (a 35% increase) and now accounts for about 25% of total marketing budgets. Organizations are pouring money into software, but not reaping full value.

  • Waste in $$: The cost of unused tools is substantial. A 2024 analysis by Zylo found companies wasted an average of $18 million (≈€16–17 million) annually on SaaS licenses that nobody used. This “shelfware” problem was 7% worse than the year before. Large enterprises in the study lost as much as $127 million each, on average, to unused software in 2023, while even small firms (under Zylo’s “small” category) wasted around $2 million on unused licenses. In total, roughly 50% of all licenses were going unused across organizations, representing a huge budgetary waste due to lack of adoption, inadequate training, or buying more seats/features than needed.

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Redundancy, Overlap, and “Tool Sprawl”

Another driver of waste is redundant and overlapping tools. Many companies have multiple applications that perform similar functions (often because different teams or leaders adopted their own favorites). Recent data and expert observations highlight this overlap:

  • Duplicate subscriptions: In 2025, organizations had, on average, 7.6 duplicate subscriptions in their SaaS portfolio, meaning they were paying for the same or very similar software more than once. They also averaged 4.3 “orphaned” apps – tools with no clear owner or purpose – contributing to unnecessary spend and complexity.

  • Stack sprawl causes: Gartner attributes much of this sprawl to poor governance and frequent turnover of decision-makers. When CMOs or department heads change, each tends to bring in new tools without fully retiring old ones. “The complexity and sprawl of the tech stack” often grows as “adding solutions with redundant capabilities” becomes common practice. The result is siloed data and inflated stacks. One marketing ops CEO described many marketing stacks as having multiple overlapping tools – “like… sitting on a couch with three universal remotes”  where each controls only part of the system. In other words, companies might deploy three different platforms all meant to orchestrate customer communications (CRM, marketing automation, email tools, etc.), yet no single one is fully utilized or integrated.

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  • Impact of silos: Such tool sprawl leads to fragmented data and workflow silos. Different teams might use different content repositories, analytics dashboards, or messaging platforms, making it hard to get a unified view or coordinate campaigns. In fact, 69% of organizations say that disconnected, dispersed tools create moderate to significant challenges (e.g. inconsistent data and extra manual work) in their operations. Redundant tools also incur extra costs in licensing, support, and training, while increasing complexity for IT and users. This has sparked calls for “stack rationalization”, auditing and trimming tech stacks to eliminate duplicate or underused products and consolidate onto more interoperable platforms. Analysts note that simply cutting tools isn’t about arbitrarily slimming down, but removing the overlaps and discarding products that no one is using.

Tool Fatigue and Productivity Impact

For employees and end-users, the proliferation of communication and content tools has begun to cause “tool fatigue.” Juggling too many apps and channels can hurt productivity and morale:

  • Context-switching cost: A recent survey of 1,000 U.S. white-collar workers found the average employee loses about 51 minutes per week just from the time spent switching between online tools and platforms. Over a year, that’s roughly 44 hours of work time lost to “tool fatigue” per employee. Notably, 17% of workers reported having to switch between apps 100+ times a day, a mentally exhausting amount of context-switching.

  • Perceived overload: More than half of workers (56%) in that 2025 survey said their workday is negatively impacted by the excessive number of platforms they must use. Many employees use 5–10 different tools daily just to communicate and get their job done. The most time-consuming tools reported were email (47% of respondents’ top culprit), team chat (35%), and video meetings (22%), indicating that even core communication apps contribute heavily to fatigue.

  • “Tech fatigue” trends: Despite these pain points, companies have been slow to address tool overload. 79% of workers say their employer hasn’t taken steps to consolidate or reduce the number of applications in use. This constant bombardment of notifications and the need to monitor multiple channels can erode focus, and even after hours, it extends stress (60% feel pressure to respond to work pings off-hours). Industry observers have dubbed this “digital tool fatigue,” noting it can harm mental health and engagement at work. Indeed, a majority of employees now feel dissatisfied with the plethora of workplace apps and desire a more unified, simpler toolkit.

Conclusion and Outlook

Globally, organizations are recognizing that unchecked tool sprawl, especially across marketing, communications, and content technology, is generating waste and inefficiency. The average company’s tech stack has grown to encompass hundreds of tools, yet only a fraction of those tools’ capabilities are fully utilized. Studies in 2023–2025 consistently show roughly 50% or more of software spend is underused or outright wasted through unused licenses, redundant apps, and siloed platforms. This translates into millions of dollars (or euros) lost per year for larger firms. Meanwhile, employees are feeling the burden of navigating so many disconnected systems, resulting in lost productivity and growing “tool fatigue.”

The current trend, especially in North America and Europe, is a push toward rationalizing and integrating tech stacks. Experts advise companies to audit their marketing and comms tools, eliminate overlapping solutions, and ensure remaining platforms are interoperable and well-adopted. By streamlining the stack and focusing on training and governance, businesses can cut down on license waste and alleviate the inefficiencies of siloed tools. The data from the past two years paints a clear picture: fewer, better-utilized tools could mean significant cost savings and a less fragmented, more effective approach to communication orchestration going forward.

 

 

References:

  1. Alexis, A. (2024, February 27). SaaS license waste tops IT spend challenges. CFO Dive. Retrieved from https://www.cfodive.com/news/saas-license-wastage-ranked-as-top-it-spend-challenge/708580/

  2. von Hoffman, C. (2023, August 28). Marketers are only using one third of their stack’s capability. MarTech (TechTarget). Retrieved from https://martech.org/marketers-are-only-using-one-third-of-their-stacks-capability/

  3. Bregel, S. (2025, October 7). Employees lose nearly an hour a week to online tool fatigue. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/91416707/employees-lose-nearly-an-hour-a-week-to-online-tool-fatigue

  4. Brinker, S. (2023, April 4). How big is your tech stack, really? Here’s the latest data… ChiefMartec (blog). Retrieved from https://chiefmartec.com/2023/04/how-big-is-your-tech-stack-really-heres-the-latest-data/

  5. The CMO Survey. (2024, October). Highlights and Insights – Fall 2024 (Report). Retrieved from https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-Fall_2024.pdf

  6. CloudZero. (2023). 50 Quick SaaS Statistics Every Business Should Know. CloudZero Blog. Retrieved from https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/saas-statistics/