Our team needed a developer portal — a single place to track services, APIs, teams, and ownership. Backstage was the obvious choice, but the reality was painful: Node.js + React + TypeScript plugins, complex deploy, and 16GB RAM just to run it.
So I built FrontStage — an open-source alternative that does the same job without the complexity.
Stack: Python/FastAPI, Alpine.js, Tailwind, Redis, YAML configs, Docker Compose
Key differences vs Backstage:
- 1GB RAM vs 16GB
- 0.8 CPU vs 4 CPU
- No React, no TypeScript plugins — just Python and simple templates
- Your DevOps team already knows the stack
- One repo, readable code — easy to customize yourself or with AI assistants
What it does today:
- Software Catalog: services, APIs, databases, libraries, teams
- Ownership tracking ("who owns this microservice?")
- Swagger docs out of the box
- Works great as a RAG data source (structured YAML = easy to index)
Quick start is just docker compose up. YAML configs, no database migrations.
MIT license. Would love feedback from anyone who's dealt with Backstage pain.
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