Free Shadow IT Discovery Tool: Identify, Monitor, and Remediate Risky SaaS Apps

If you're leading IT at a growing company, chances are you already have a Shadow IT problem—you just might not realize how big it's become.

It’s more than the random marketing app someone expensed last year. It’s the AI plugin with hidden inbox access. The SaaS tool that quietly renews on an old corporate card. The unseen costs, risks, and compliance gaps that expand under the surface. 

When Capterra surveyed 300 IT managers and project managers at SMBs in 2023, 57% of them said they’ve had persistent problems with shadow IT in the past.  

Here's the reality—most organizations today are flying blind when it comes to third‑party apps connected through OAuth (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365). Every time an employee clicks “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Microsoft,” they may be granting a third-party tool broad, persistent access to email, calendars, files, or contacts. 

Without visibility into what’s connected, who approved it, and what data is exposed, IT can’t separate harmless add-ons from high-risk apps—leaving the door open for costly incidents.

Why most shadow IT tools (free or paid) fall short

The "free" or "basic" Shadow IT scanners today barely scratch the surface. They might show you a partial list of apps authorized by employees, but:

• They rarely show you per‑user insights: Without knowing which employee authorized which app, IT can’t remediate when that person leaves—or hold managers accountable for unsanctioned usage.
• They often skip OAuth scope‑level risk patterns across similar apps: One AI writing tool might only ask for basic profile info, while another requests full inbox access. Without comparing scopes, you can’t separate low-risk productivity helpers from apps exposing sensitive data.
• They don't alert you when high‑risk apps gain users or new risky apps appear: By the time IT discovers adoption, dozens of employees may already be using a tool, multiplying the cleanup effort and increasing data exposure.
• Zero insights unique to your org's SaaS data: Generic scanners flag “risky apps” in the abstract, but they don’t connect the dots to your environment—like whether that app has access to sensitive roles, departments, or data stores. That makes it impossible to prioritize what to shut down first.
• Microsoft (Entra) workspace users, in particular, get little to no depth: Most tools are optimized for Google Workspace. Entra customers are left with even less visibility, despite often having larger, more complex environments where unmanaged OAuth can easily slip through the cracks.

On the other end, paid tools often frame Shadow IT as a runaway crisis—then layer on dashboards and alerts that flag every unauthorized $20 tool like it's a critical incident.

In all this, they overlook what actually matters: the context that tells you who granted the access, what level of data the app can reach, and whether the risk is still active.

Without that precision, IT ends up drowning in noise instead of reducing risk. What’s needed is clear visibility into who authorized each app and the scope of access it holds—the kind of depth only a purpose-built Shadow IT discovery tool delivers.

User‑level OAuth scopes matter

Every “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Microsoft” grants app-specific OAuth scopes—the exact permissions an app can exercise. Here's where things get risky:

• Some apps ask for basic access (like reading profile data).
• Some apps silently ask for full read/write access to emails, calendars, drives, or internal directories.

Without scope-level, per-user visibility, IT misses critical risks:

• John in Marketing unknowingly gives an AI tool access to the company's Drive
• A project-management app sits with inbox privileges across dozens of employees
• An old plugin retains admin rights long after it’s been abandoned

The consequence: sensitive data flows into unmanaged apps, orphaned OAuth tokens persist after employees leave, and IT is left without audit-ready proof of who granted what. This is a direct path to data breaches, compliance failures, and costly cleanups.

‼️In 2022, attackers stole OAuth tokens from Heroku and Travis CI and used them to clone private GitHub repositories, including npm. The breach didn’t come from GitHub itself, but from compromised third-party integrations. 

Without visibility into which apps are connected, what scopes they hold, and whether tokens remain active, organizations can’t catch these risks until it’s too late.

Find and track unmanaged apps with the free Stitchflow Shadow IT discovery tool

Recent breaches show a clear pattern: attackers don’t need to break into core systems when they can abuse OAuth tokens and unsanctioned SaaS apps to slip in through the side door—leaving IT teams exposed. 

That’s why we built the free Stitchflow Shadow IT discovery tool. It helps IT teams discover, monitor & remediate risky SaaS apps in seconds.

What you get with the free Stitchflow Shadow IT Discovery tool 

Most “free” shadow SaaS discovery tools stop at Google Workspace. Stitchflow goes further—covering both Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra (Microsoft 365) from day one.

Within seconds, it uncovers every OAuth-connected app employees have authorized, with per-user, per-scope detail so you can see exactly who granted what and how much access each app holds.

Here’s what you can expect from the free Stitchflow Shadow IT Discovery tool:

Spot unauthorized apps instantly

Within seconds of setup, Stitchflow's discovery engine automatically detects every AI and SaaS application your employees have connected to your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 environment.

This goes beyond surface‑level shadow IT discovery: you'll clearly differentiate between apps your IT team officially manages and those quietly introduced by employees (and OAuth) without oversight.

No need to sift through logs or audit trails manually as apps are categorized immediately, and you can easily flag specific ones for further review. Shadow IT that once stayed hidden becomes visible, organized, and ready for action.

Smart risk assessment

Detection alone isn't enough. What matters is understanding how much risk each app introduces. Our discovery tool evaluates OAuth scopes, the exact permissions each app demands from each of your users, and analyzes real user‑activity patterns.

Apps aren't just listed but are ranked based on potential impact to security and compliance. You'll instantly see if an app is harmless or high‑risk, and this lets you triage risks intelligently instead of aimlessly reacting.

🎯Pro tip: Avoid these common pitfalls when reviewing the user access patterns your shadow IT discovery reveals.

Granular insights built for real‑world IT environments (Stitchflow exclusive)

Visibility at the app level is helpful, but visibility at the user level is transformative. Stitchflow's Shadow IT discovery engine offers detailed insights mapping every user's relationship with each app: what permissions they've granted and whether their access patterns create outlier risks.

You can segment and view insights by app category, risk rating, or OAuth scope groups, all centralized in one actionable dashboard. It's built for modern IT teams managing dynamic organizations where exceptions and edge cases are the rule.

Continuous monitoring and real‑time alerts you can trust (Stitchflow exclusive)

Shadow IT isn't static, as your environment changes daily. That's why Stitchflow's Shadow IT Discovery Tool doesn't just perform a one‑time check and walk away.

With continuous background monitoring, you'll get real‑time email alerts the moment a new app is connected by any user or a risky app gains new users. Your control over your SaaS environment becomes proactive, not reactive.

We believe Shadow IT discovery shouldn't cost you

For all the attention Shadow IT gets, it's rarely the root of the chaos. Most employees using unapproved tools aren't trying to bypass security; they're just trying to get their job done. Procurement is slow, approvals take time, and teams find workarounds. IT ends up reacting to a problem it didn't create.

Meanwhile, the real risks—excessive access, unused licenses, unmonitored permissions—sit inside the apps you already manage. And yet, companies still spend thousands on software just to detect $20 shadow AI tools. 

That data already exists in your SSO logs, admin consoles, and expense reports. What's been missing is clarity and a tool that doesn't overcomplicate what should be straightforward.

That's why we built the Stitchflow Shadow IT Discovery Tool as a free solution. Because discovering what's connected to your environment shouldn't be a premium feature; it should be the baseline.

Have feedback or ideas for other free tools that could make IT operations smoother? We'd love to hear from you. Reach out at contact@stitchflow.io—we're always looking for ways to help IT teams work smarter.

Act on your Shadow IT discovery reports with Stitchflow

Discovery is one part of the picture. Knowing which apps are connected is important, but it doesn’t solve the day-to-day challenges IT faces. What also matters is what happens next:

• Full visibility into every app: Stitchflow maps all SaaS and AI tools—OAuth-connected or not—so nothing slips through the cracks. You know exactly which apps are in use, who connected them, and what data they can access.
• Automatic cleanup of risky access: Orphaned accounts, unused licenses, and lingering OAuth tokens don’t pile up. Stitchflow detects them continuously and lets you remediate in bulk or set automated policies so they’re closed out as soon as they appear.
• Prevention through better processes: With Stitchflow feeding finance and IT the same live data, approvals and renewals happen in the open. Employees don’t need to buy tools under the radar because finance takes weeks to approve a software purchase.

With these pieces in place, you discover Shadow SaaS apps—and they get contained, cleaned up, and designed out of your environment.

Book a Stitchflow demo and see how it can help you address shadow IT at your organization.