| Feature | Spreadsheet | Renewl Free | Renewl Pro ✦ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract limit | Unlimited | 20 contracts | Unlimited |
| Monthly cost | Free | Free | $49/month |
| Setup time | 2–3 hours | 5 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Date extraction | Manual | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic alerts | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notice deadline calc | Manual formula | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stays up to date | Only if maintained | ✓ | ✓ |
| PDF upload | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works for scanned PDFs | N/A | Manual entry | Manual entry |
| CSV export | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Every hour spent building, updating, and cross-checking a contract spreadsheet is an hour not spent on something else. And that's before counting the cost of a missed renewal.
Renewl estimates, based on average ops hourly rates and contract data from small teams. “One missed renewal” range based on median contract values tracked in Renewl ($5,000–$20,000).
Spreadsheets are still the default — BetterCloud's 2025 State of SaaS found 40% of organizations still track renewals this way, relying on calendars and human memory to fill the gaps. The problem isn't carelessness. It's that manual systems have three predictable failure points. (BetterCloud, State of SaaS 2025)
You build it, you use it for a month, life gets busy, it stops getting updated. Three months later the dates are stale and you've missed a notice deadline.
The person who built the spreadsheet leaves. Nobody knows where it is, what the formulas mean, or whether the data is current.
A spreadsheet can show you what's expiring — but only if you remember to open it. The whole point of contract tracking is to be reminded before something expires. Spreadsheets require you to do the reminding.
Use the free spreadsheet template if you have a small team, fewer than 15 contracts, an ops lead who will commit to monthly reviews, and you're not ready to pay $49/month yet. It's a legitimate solution — as long as someone owns it.
Download free template →Use Renewl free if you have up to 20 contracts and want automatic alerts without any manual work. No calendar reminders, no formula maintenance — just upload a PDF and Renewl handles the rest. Good for testing before committing to Pro.
Start free →No credit card. Up to 20 contracts.
Automatic alerts from day one.
Yes — if you have fewer than 15 contracts and someone who commits to reviewing and updating it monthly. Spreadsheets break down when nobody owns the maintenance or when the team grows and contracts multiply. At that point, the risk of missing a notice deadline exceeds the cost of a dedicated tool.
A spreadsheet is free to download but costs roughly $600/year in maintenance time at typical ops hourly rates — before counting the cost of a missed renewal ($5,000–$20,000 on average). Renewl Free is $0. Renewl Pro is $49/month. One avoided renewal typically pays for a full year of Pro.
Not directly — but you can upload the original contract PDFs and Renewl will extract the dates automatically. Most users find this faster than migrating spreadsheet data.
The free plan covers 20 contracts. Pro is $49/month for unlimited contracts — typically justified if you have 15+ contracts given the cost of one missed renewal.
The free plan is the trial. Use it with your first 20 contracts and upgrade when you need more.