When Spotify first introduced Backstage to the world and later donated it to the CNCF, it wasn’t immediately obvious that we were looking at the kernel of what would become the de facto standard for internal developer portals (IDPs). Fast forward to mid-2025, and the story is clear: Backstage isn’t just a trendy developer tool, it’s the gravitational center of the IDP conversation.
But as with any strong gravitational force, the ecosystem around Backstage has grown more complex — and more competitive. Enterprises are no longer asking, “Do we need an IDP?” They’re asking, “Do we build it on Backstage, buy it from someone who manages Backstage for us, or skip it and go with a competitor altogether?”
This mid-year snapshot aims to provide a clear picture of where Backstage stands, what its commercial ecosystem looks like, and how it compares to its competitors.
The State of Backstage
Backstage remains first and foremost an open-source framework. Maintained under the CNCF, the project just hit version 1.42.5, a testament to its active development. Adoption is widespread — over 270 organizations now run Backstage in production, from Fortune 500 companies to nimble startups.
At its core, Backstage provides:
- Software Catalog: A single source of truth for services, APIs, libraries, ML models and their owners.
- Scaffolder Templates: Golden paths for spinning up projects aligned with organizational standards.
- TechDocs: Documentation as code — integrated, searchable and easy to maintain.
- Plugin Marketplace: Hundreds of integrations ranging from CI/CD and monitoring to incident management and cost controls.
Those features, however, only tell part of the story. What sets Backstage apart is its flexibility. It can be molded into whatever portal a team envisions — but that flexibility comes at a cost.
The Build-Versus-Buy Dilemma
Building your own Backstage instance isn’t trivial. Gartner estimates that two to five full-time engineers are required for years. Some industry reports suggest up to 20 experts over a multi-year horizon. Plugins often need to be built or maintained in-house, and there’s always the challenge of governance and security review for community extensions.
That’s why many companies have looked to the commercialized versions of Backstage that aim to remove the heavy lifting while still letting you leverage the open-source ecosystem.
Commercial Backstage Offerings
Spotify Backstage Enterprise
Spotify itself now offers Backstage Enterprise, a hosted version of the platform. Think of it as Backstage with batteries included: enterprise SSO, compliance tooling, advanced RBAC, observability dashboards, and full commercial support. For orgs that like the open-source DNA but don’t want to own the care and feeding, Spotify’s version is compelling.
Roadie Backstage
Roadie delivers Backstage as a SaaS product. They focus on fast time-to-value with curated plugins, security patching, and features like service maturity scorecards. Roadie’s pitch is simple: “Let us host and manage your Backstage so you can focus on building software, not maintaining a portal.”
OpsLevel and Others
OpsLevel offers production readiness scoring, golden path guidance, and operational maturity dashboards—either standalone or integrated with Backstage. Meanwhile, a growing ecosystem of consultancies (ThoughtWorks, VMware Tanzu Labs, others) provide packaged Backstage rollouts, managed services, and custom plugin development.
This commercial layer signals that Backstage has moved past its experimental phase. Enterprises are willing to pay for stability and features layered on top of the open source core.
Competitors in the IDP Space
Of course, Backstage isn’t the only game in town. Several competitors offer similar outcomes—streamlined developer experience and faster delivery—without the overhead of building on an open framework.
- Port: A low-code, turnkey SaaS IDP. Focus on cataloging, self-service actions, and custom dashboards.
- Cortex: Heavy emphasis on service quality and operational excellence with smart scorecards.
- Rely.io: Opinionated defaults and workflows for fast adoption, but still flexible for scale.
- Mia-Platform: Goes beyond a portal to full IDP orchestration: APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, RBAC, multi-cloud.
- Calibo: A commercial IDP with built-in orchestration and automation.
- Atlassian Compass: Integrated tightly with Jira and the Atlassian ecosystem, appealing to existing Atlassian shops.
These options aren’t “Backstage killers” — rather, they represent different trade-offs. Do you want maximum flexibility (Backstage), fast time-to-value (Port, Rely, Roadie), or a deeply integrated enterprise suite (Mia-Platform, Compass)?
A Market in Motion
One thing is certain: The IDP market is maturing. Five years ago, we were talking about Backstage as an experiment at Spotify. Today, it’s a critical piece of the developer experience landscape, with competitors innovating quickly and commercial vendors racing to simplify adoption.
If history is any guide, we’ll see further consolidation, acquisitions, and maybe even a few “AI-native” spins on IDPs that auto-generate golden paths and enforce compliance without human intervention.
Shimmy’s Take
Backstage has done what open source does best: Create a standard around which an ecosystem can grow. But let’s be honest — building your own Backstage from scratch is like building your own Linux distribution. You can do it, but most people would rather pay for Ubuntu or Red Hat.
That’s where Spotify Enterprise Backstage, Roadie and OpsLevel step in, and where the SaaS competitors like Port and Cortex shine.
The takeaway? IDPs are no longer optional. The only question is whether you’ll roll your own, buy commercial Backstage, or skip the Backstage route entirely for a turnkey competitor.
My bet is we’ll see a hybrid world: Backstage as the standard, with a healthy mix of commercial vendors making it accessible and competitors ensuring the ecosystem stays innovative.
Either way, the winners are developers — who finally get the self-service, golden-path, paved-road experiences they’ve been promised for over a decade.
Backstage vs Competitors
| Solution | Type | Strengths | Trade-offs | Best Fit |
| Backstage (OSS) | Open Source Framework | Flexibility, CNCF governance, huge plugin ecosystem | High engineering effort, long setup | Large orgs with strong platform teams |
| Spotify Backstage Enterprise | Commercial (Hosted OSS) | Enterprise SSO, RBAC, compliance, support | Cost, vendor lock-in | Enterprises that want “official” Spotify support |
| Roadie Backstage | SaaS (Managed OSS) | Fast setup, plugin curation, managed hosting | Less customization than DIY | Mid-size orgs that want Backstage without ops overhead |
| OpsLevel | SaaS (Add-on / Competitor) | Service maturity, golden path scoring, strong dashboards | Narrower focus than full portal | Teams focused on production readiness |
| Port | SaaS Competitor | Low-code customization, turnkey catalog/actions | Less open-source ecosystem | Teams needing fast time-to-value |
| Cortex | SaaS Competitor | Scorecards, service quality focus | Smaller plugin ecosystem | Org-wide operational excellence |
| Rely.io | SaaS Competitor | Opinionated workflows, flexible customization | Less proven at massive scale | Startups/scaleups needing speed |
| Mia-Platform | Full IDP Suite | Orchestration, APIs, RBAC, hybrid/multi-cloud | Complexity, heavier footprint | Enterprises with microservice/API sprawl |
| Atlassian Compass | Ecosystem Tool | Jira integration, Atlassian-first | Limited outside Atlassian stack | Atlassian-heavy organizations |