I was tired of Backstage eating 16GB RAM, so I built a lightweight alternative in Python

Павел Веткин — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:01:11 +0000

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.

GitHub: https://github.com/denisxab/frontstage/tree/master

DEV Community: Павел Веткин

I was tired of Backstage eating 16GB RAM, so I built a lightweight alternative in Python