Spotify's Backstage created the Internal Developer Portal category. It showed that a central hub for services, documentation, and tooling could actually improve how developers work. But here's what a lot of engineering leaders figure out the hard way: Backstage isn't right for every team.
If you're reading this, you've probably realized that adopting Backstage means committing serious engineering resources. You need a dedicated team, TypeScript expertise, and months of setup time. For a lot of teams, the operational overhead just isn't worth it.
But the problem Backstage solves doesn't go away. As your organization grows past about 150 people, you hit what's called the Dunbar Number Effect. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that humans can only maintain stable social networks of around 150 people. Go beyond that, and tribal knowledge disappears. Nobody knows who owns what. The informal Slack channels that worked when you were 30 people turn into complete chaos.
You need a system to fix this chaos, a "system of record" for your engineering organization. But you don't need the complexity of self-hosted Backstage to get there.
This guide covers the best Backstage alternatives in 2026. I'll break down three paths you can take, Build, Buy, or Hybrid, and help you figure out which one makes sense without drowning your platform team in maintenance work.
The Three Paths to an IDP: Build, Buy, or Hybrid
Before we look at specific tools, you need to understand the three approaches you can take:
Build (Self-Hosted Backstage): You take the open-source Backstage project and dedicate engineers to build, customize, and maintain your own portal. Ultimate flexibility, but significant headcount and operational costs.
Buy (Proprietary IDPs): You purchase a SaaS solution from a vendor like Cortex or Port. Quick to set up and feature-rich, but you're locked into their proprietary data model.
Hybrid (Managed Backstage): You use a service like Roadie that handles the hosting and maintenance of Backstage for you. You get the open-source ecosystem without the operational burden.
Backstage Alternatives: At a Glance
Here's a quick comparison of your options:
| Tool | Core Technology | Hosting Model | Key Strength | Ideal For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roadie | Backstage | SaaS (Managed) | Backstage ecosystem without the overhead | Teams who want Backstage's power but need a managed solution |
| Cortex | Proprietary | SaaS | Engineering metrics and scorecards | Organizations focused on measuring service quality |
| Port | Proprietary | SaaS | Developer-friendly API and flexibility | Teams building custom workflows |
| Atlassian Compass | Proprietary | SaaS | Deep Atlassian integration | Companies invested in the Atlassian stack |
| OpsLevel | Proprietary | SaaS | Service maturity and reliability checks | SRE teams enforcing production standards |
| Self-Hosted Backstage | Backstage (OSS) | Self-Hosted | Ultimate customization | Large orgs with dedicated platform teams (5+ engineers) |
The Hybrid Approach: Managed Backstage
Roadie
Roadie isn't an alternative to Backstage, it's a different way to adopt it. The core idea is that you shouldn't have to choose between the power of an open-source community and the convenience of a SaaS product.
I've talked to a lot of teams who committed to self-hosting Backstage, only to realize it requires 3-12 engineers and 6-12 months to get production-ready. That's a significant investment. Roadie solves this by providing a secure, scalable, and fully managed Backstage experience out of the box.
Best for: Teams who've decided on Backstage but want to accelerate their timeline and reduce operational burden.
Key Features:
- Get a production-ready Backstage instance running in minutes. Roadie handles upgrades, security, and maintenance.
- Enterprise features like Role-Based Access Control, enterprise-grade search, and scorecards come built-in.
- Install any open-source Backstage plugin without rebuilding your instance.
Considerations: Roadie uses Backstage as its foundation, so you get the same data model and core experience. If you want a completely different, highly opinionated UI, a proprietary vendor might fit better.
The "Buy" Approach: Proprietary IDPs
Cortex
Cortex has established itself as a leader in the IDP space. They focus heavily on service quality, reliability, and engineering metrics. Their Scorecards feature is particularly strong for defining standards and tracking adoption.
Best for: Organizations focused on establishing and measuring engineering standards.
Key Features: A central inventory for microservices and APIs, scorecards to track service health, and a scaffolder for creating new services from templates.
Considerations: Cortex is proprietary. You're locked into their data model, and migrating away later could be painful.
Port
Port is built around flexibility. Their developer-friendly API lets you ingest any data and build custom workflows. They position themselves as a platform for building a developer portal, not a rigid out-of-the-box solution.
Best for: Platform teams with strong dev skills who want to build highly custom experiences.
Key Features: A flexible "blueprint" model to define any asset, a self-service hub for custom actions, and scorecards for tracking quality.
Considerations: Port's flexibility is powerful but comes with a steeper learning curve. Expect more initial setup compared to more opinionated platforms.
Atlassian Compass
Atlassian Compass is Atlassian's entry into developer experience. Its main advantage is seamless integration with Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket.
Best for: Companies already standardized on Atlassian tools.
Key Features: A component catalog for tracking ownership, health scorecards, and deep native integration with other Atlassian products.
Considerations: If you're not an Atlassian-centric organization, Compass may feel less compelling compared to other options.
OpsLevel
OpsLevel is a mature player focused on service ownership and reliability. SRE and platform teams like them because they help answer, "Is our software ready for production?"
Best for: SRE-driven organizations enforcing service maturity standards.
Key Features: A complete service catalog, an extensive library of automated maturity checks, and integrations with on-call tools like PagerDuty.
Considerations: OpsLevel's focus is more on reliability and standards than on developer self-service, which is stronger in other platforms.
The "Build" Approach: Self-Hosted Backstage
Choosing to self-host Backstage is a significant commitment. You should treat it like building an internal product, not just deploying a tool.
Best for: Large organizations with a well-funded platform team (5+ engineers) that has a clear mandate to build and maintain a customized developer portal.
Key Features: Complete control over the code and data model. You can customize it to your exact specifications.
Considerations: This path has a high cost of ownership. You need to account for the fully-loaded salaries of a dedicated engineering team, 6-12 months of initial build time, and ongoing operational burden for maintenance and upgrades.
How to Choose the Right Path
Your choice depends on your organization's priorities, resources, and philosophy. Here are the questions you should ask:
How important is the open-source ecosystem to us?
If you want to avoid vendor lock-in and tap into community innovation, choose between self-hosting Backstage or using a managed service like Roadie. If you prefer an all-in-one vendor experience, a proprietary option like Cortex or Port makes more sense.
What's the size and skill set of our platform team?
If you have 5-10 engineers with TypeScript experience and a mandate to build a custom portal, self-hosted Backstage is viable. If your platform team is smaller or focused on other priorities, Roadie or a proprietary vendor is more efficient.
What's our most critical problem right now?
If you need scorecards and don't mind vendor lock-in, tools like Cortex or OpsLevel offer polished solutions.
If you want to build custom workflows from scratch and are comfortable in a closed-source ecosystem, Port gives you a flexible API.
If your organization lives entirely in the Atlassian suite, Compass is a natural extension.
If you want enterprise features combined with the freedom of the open-source ecosystem, Roadie gives you both.
Final Thoughts
An Internal Developer Portal is a long-term investment in your developer experience. The choice between Build, Buy, and Hybrid depends entirely on your team's size, skills, and priorities.
I've seen teams succeed with all three approaches. The key is being honest about what you can realistically maintain and what problems you're actually trying to solve.
I'm curious what path you're evaluating. Are you leaning toward self-hosting Backstage? Considering a proprietary vendor? Looking at the hybrid approach with something like Roadie? What's the biggest factor driving your decision, team size, budget, or something else? Drop a comment and share what's working (or not working) in your evaluation process.
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