Cortex vs Backstage: What's the best internal developer portal?

Is Cortex worth the cost?

Pros of Cortex

Cortex is designed as a robust internal developer portal , but it may not address every team’s specific needs.

However, these capabilities come with some practical limitations that teams should consider.

Cons of Cortex

Limited flexibility

Cortex’s semi-rigid data model means that many entities in your catalog—like services and teams—are bound by predefined structures, which can limit customization for unique use cases.

Beyond this, Cortex also struggles to provide the flexibility needed for self-service actions. There’s limited support for asynchronous actions or ephemeral environments, and manual approvals require custom workflows. Cortex relies on webhooks rather than offering full integration support, which adds more complexity when connecting tools like GitLab or Jenkins .

High manual effort

One major drawback in some IDP platforms is the manual catalog maintenance they demand, which significantly increases operational overhead. By contrast, an automated solution—one that continuously ingests data from repositories and infrastructure—lowers the risk of stale information and helps large teams keep pace with frequent ownership and service changes.

Even routine tasks, such as updating ownership information, must be done manually in Cortex, which introduces the risk of stale data. For large teams with frequent changes in service ownership, this becomes a major bottleneck.

Weak scorecard customization

Another issue with some IDP solutions is limited depth and customization in their scorecards. When the same global standards must be applied universally to every service—regardless of maturity or team needs—the result can be a mismatch between what the platform enforces and what engineering teams actually require.

Slow implementation and high cost

Some internal developer portal solutions have lengthy setup periods, potentially spanning six months or more, and may charge per-user licensing fees that grow quickly with large engineering teams. Combined, these factors can significantly delay time-to-value and strain budgets.

Cortex is priced at $65/user/month, which becomes prohibitive for many companies with large engineering organizations.

According to a third-party TEI study, some platforms assume a conservative estimate of four hours per engineer for onboarding and implementation. For a team of 240 engineers, that overhead can become substantial, making the total cost of adoption much higher than anticipated.

The combination of high manual effort and slow implementation drives up the total cost of ownership (TCO), making it harder for teams to justify the investment.

Backstage is the open-source dream with hidden costs

Pros of Backstage

Backstage, Spotify's open-source framework for building internal developer portals, provides a completely customizable foundation that allows teams to build tailored solutions.

With its plugin-based architecture, Backstage gives teams the power to create a tailored developer experience. You can build out your own integrations, customize workflows, and even create templates for common developer tasks.

Cons of Backstage

Steep learning curve and high resource requirement

However, Backstage's flexibility requires significant upfront investment in development resources that teams should factor into their planning. many engineering teams don’t realize until they’re already deep into the implementation process. Setting up Backstage is not trivial . Unlike OpsLevel, which is ready to use within weeks, Backstage requires significant developer effort, often necessitating the full-time attention of multiple engineers.

To fully customize Backstage, you’ll need developers with specialized knowledge in React, TypeScript, and authentication protocols like SAML and OpenID. Maintaining the system post-deployment is equally taxing, as new plugins and integrations need constant updates. Many mid-sized organizations report that they need 3–15 full-time engineers just to maintain Backstage, making it a costly solution.

Low adoption rates

Another critical issue with Backstage is low developer adoption. While it’s true that Spotify’s internal teams have a high adoption rate for the platform (99%), external organizations report an average adoption rate of just 10% . This is primarily due to the platform’s complexity and the lack of a clear prioritization mechanism for developers. Without proper alerting and task management, developers are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data presented in Backstage, leading to poor adoption and reduced productivity.

Inflexible data models and plugin limitations

Despite its extensive plugin marketplace, Backstage still struggles with the same fixed data model issues as Cortex. Backstage requires manual data ingestion via YAML files, making it difficult to scale for large organizations with complex service architectures. Additionally, plugins don’t solve the fundamental issues with Backstage’s data model and manual maintenance burden.

The lack of out-of-the-box integrations also forces teams to either build custom plugins or rely on third-party agencies for support, further driving up costs and complicating maintenance.

Why OpsLevel stands above the rest

Ease of use and quick implementation

OpsLevel focuses on streamlined implementation with minimal setup overhead. Unlike Cortex and Backstage, which require months (or longer) to fully deploy, OpsLevel can be set up in just 30 to 45 days. The platform’s automated catalog creation eliminates the need for manual service updates, pulling real-time data from your repositories to keep your catalog accurate without the hassle.

For teams that need to move quickly and maintain a dynamic service architecture, OpsLevel's ability to reduce operational overhead provides significant value.

Customizability Without the Hassle

While Cortex and Backstage both offer customization, OpsLevel strikes the perfect balance between flexibility and ease of use. You can easily set organization-wide standards , but also create scoped standards for specific services or teams with Scorecards. Whether you’re tracking service maturity, security compliance, or operational readiness, OpsLevel’s customizable Scorecards allow you to apply different rules based on the context.

This flexibility ensures that engineering teams can enforce the right standards without being locked into rigid or global rules, as is often the case with Cortex.

Comprehensive campaigns and standards tracking

OpsLevel also excels in its approach to tracking standards and managing change. With OpsLevel, you can create non-scorecard campaigns that provide engineers with the context, instructions, and reminders they need to implement changes. Notifications can be delivered through email, Slack, or in-app alerts, helping developers stay on top of what’s important.

OpsLevel’s reporting capabilities extend beyond simple pass/fail checks. You can generate detailed reports on the health and compliance of your services, ensuring you have a complete view of your operational landscape.

Cost-effective and scalable

OpsLevel delivers all these capabilities at a fraction of the cost of Cortex and Backstage. By reducing the manual effort required to maintain your catalog and automating routine checks and updates, OpsLevel significantly lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO). This makes it an ideal choice for organizations that want powerful functionality without the excessive cost and resource burden.

When it comes to choosing the right IDP, the drawbacks of Cortex and Backstage are hard to ignore. Cortex’s rigid data model, high manual effort, and steep costs make it difficult for many teams to justify. Meanwhile, Backstage’s open-source flexibility is overshadowed by its complexity, high resource requirements, and low adoption rates.

OpsLevel offers the best of both worlds: an intuitive, out-of-the-box solution that scales with your team, automates critical tasks, and provides the flexibility to customize your experience—all without the overhead and resource drain of Cortex or Backstage. If you’re ready to experience a better way to manage your developer platform, request a demo today and see what OpsLevel can do for your team.

How does OpsLevel help teams run an IDP quickly?

OpsLevel provides an automated service catalog powered by AI, customizable templates, and built-in best practices, enabling teams to stand up a fully operational developer portal in days, not weeks or months.

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