Roadie vs Backstage
Developer effectiveness for teams of all shapes and sizes.
Overview
Backstage is the best tool on the market for building Internal Developer Portals (IDPs). However, it requires significant investment to take the raw building blocks that Backstage offers and turn them into a true Internal Developer Portal.
With Roadie, we have taken the open-source version of Backstage and used it to build a comprehensive and maintenance-free IDP.
Feature comparison
Roadie
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Bring your own data model | Included in Roadie |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via YAML | Included in Roadie |
| Updating Catalog items in the UI | Included in Roadie |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via API | Included in Roadie |
| Out of the box data ingestion (k8s, GitHub, CI/CD, etc) | Included in Roadie |
| SCM Support | GitHub Cloud, GitHub Enterprise Server, Azure DevOps, GCP, GitLab Cloud, GitLab On-Prem, BitBucket Cloud, BitBucket Server |
| Syncing repositories as items in the Catalog | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| RAG AI | Included in Roadie |
| MCP Servers | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Scorecards | Included in Roadie |
| Checks | Included in Roadie |
| Team-based rollups | Included in Roadie |
| Historical data | Included in Roadie |
| Operational reviews | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Self-serve actions | Included in Roadie |
| Custom self-serve actions | Included in Roadie |
| Custom field extensions | Included in Roadie |
| Fallback and retry | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Docs from Markdown | Included in Roadie |
| Extensibility via plugins | Included in Roadie |
| Mermaid support | Included in Roadie |
| PlantUML support | Included in Roadie |
| Auto rebuild docs in background | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Available Plugins | 75+ |
| Secure access to on-prem infrastructure and resources | Included in Roadie |
| Theme customisation | Included in Roadie |
| Layout customisation | Included in Roadie |
| Catalog UI customisation | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Engine | OpenSearch (Elasticsearch) |
| Additional search collators | Atlassian Confluence |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| SSO | Included in Roadie |
| Entities created in the Catalog for each user and group | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Admin and non-Admin roles | Included in Roadie |
| Role assignment in the UI | Included in Roadie |
| Role assignment by identity provider token | Included in Roadie |
| Custom roles | Included in Roadie |
| Custom permissions policies | Included in Roadie |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Included in Roadie |
| Automatic monthly upgrades | Included in Roadie |
| Usage analytics | Included in Roadie |
| Support | Email, Slack/Teams, and 24/7 On-call |
| Uptime SLA | Included in Roadie |
Backstage
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Bring your own data model | DIY |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via YAML | Included in Backstage |
| Updating Catalog items in the UI | Not included in Backstage |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via API | Not included in Backstage |
| Out of the box data ingestion (k8s, GitHub, CI/CD, etc) | Included in Backstage |
| SCM Support | GitHub Cloud, GitHub Enterprise Server, Azure DevOps, GCP, GitLab Cloud, GitLab On-Prem, BitBucket Cloud, BitBucket Server, Gerrit |
| Syncing repositories as items in the Catalog | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| RAG AI | Not included in Backstage |
| MCP Servers | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Scorecards | Not included in Backstage |
| Checks | Not included in Backstage |
| Team-based rollups | Not included in Backstage |
| Historical data | Not included in Backstage |
| Operational reviews | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Self-serve actions | Included in Backstage |
| Custom self-serve actions | Included in Backstage |
| Custom field extensions | Included in Backstage |
| Fallback and retry | Included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Docs from Markdown | Included in Backstage |
| Extensibility via plugins | Included in Backstage |
| Mermaid support | Included in Backstage |
| PlantUML support | Included in Backstage |
| Auto rebuild docs in background | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Available Plugins | DIY |
| Secure access to on-prem infrastructure and resources | Included in Backstage |
| Theme customisation | DIY |
| Layout customisation | DIY |
| Catalog UI customisation | DIY |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Engine | PostgreSQL |
| Additional search collators | DIY |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| SSO | DIY |
| Entities created in the Catalog for each user and group | DIY |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Admin and non-Admin roles | Included in Backstage |
| Role assignment in the UI | Not included in Backstage |
| Role assignment by identity provider token | Not included in Backstage |
| Custom roles | Not included in Backstage |
| Custom permissions policies | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Not included in Backstage |
| Automatic monthly upgrades | DIY |
| Usage analytics | Not included in Backstage |
| Support | via OSS community |
| Uptime SLA | Not included in Backstage |
| Feature by | Roadie | Backstage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get started | |||
| Software catalog | |||
| Bring your own data model | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via YAML | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Updating Catalog items in the UI | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Adding and updating Catalog items via API | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Out of the box data ingestion (k8s, GitHub, CI/CD, etc) | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| SCM Support | GitHub Cloud, GitHub Enterprise Server, Azure DevOps, GCP, GitLab Cloud, GitLab On-Prem, BitBucket Cloud, BitBucket Server | GitHub Cloud, GitHub Enterprise Server, Azure DevOps, GCP, GitLab Cloud, GitLab On-Prem, BitBucket Cloud, BitBucket Server, Gerrit | |
| Syncing repositories as items in the Catalog | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| AI (beta) | |||
| RAG AI | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| MCP Servers | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Scorecards | |||
| Scorecards | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Checks | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Team-based rollups | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Historical data | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Operational reviews | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Scaffolder | |||
| Self-serve actions | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Custom self-serve actions | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Custom field extensions | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Fallback and retry | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| TechDocs | |||
| Docs from Markdown | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Extensibility via plugins | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Mermaid support | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| PlantUML support | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Auto rebuild docs in background | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Other plugins and extensions | |||
| Available Plugins | 75+ | DIY | |
| Secure access to on-prem infrastructure and resources | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Theme customisation | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Layout customisation | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Catalog UI customisation | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Search | |||
| Engine | OpenSearch (Elasticsearch) | PostgreSQL | |
| Additional search collators | Atlassian Confluence | DIY | |
| Users and Groups | |||
| SSO | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Entities created in the Catalog for each user and group | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Role-based Access Control | |||
| Admin and non-Admin roles | Included in Roadie | Included in Backstage | |
| Role assignment in the UI | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Role assignment by identity provider token | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Custom roles | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Custom permissions policies | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Non-feature extras | |||
| Hosting | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Automatic monthly upgrades | Included in Roadie | DIY | |
| Usage analytics | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
| Support | Email, Slack/Teams, and 24/7 On-call | via OSS community | |
| Uptime SLA | Included in Roadie | Not included in Backstage | |
Frequently asked questions
- Is Roadie SaaS or on-prem?
Roadie has been running a SaaS version of Backstage since 2020 and it is every bit as customizable and secure as self-hosting Backstage.
- Does Roadie support custom plugins?
Yes. Write a native Backstage plugin as normal and use our CLI to publish it to Roadie. It stays private to your company. Read more in our docs.
- Where is Roadie data stored?
- All data is stored within the EU and is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption algorithm. AWS KMS is used to manage and protect the encryption keys. Data is backed up to AWS S3 at least once per day.
- What level of support does Roadie provide?
- Growth plan customers gets a shared Slack or MS Teams channel. We pride ourselves on our responsiveness. We also deeply value customer feedback and prioritize your requests in our roadmap.
- Do you have a status page?
Our status page can be found at https://status.roadie.io/.
- How does Roadie count developers?
- We count "contributing users". These are developers who write the code which is tracked in the software catalog. People who don't write code can log in for free.
- How can Roadie connect back to our infrastructure?
Roadie Backstage plugins can securely connect back to your infrastructure APIs via a variety of mechanisms like OAuth2, token authentication by using a broker service. Learn more about how Roadie connects to your tools .
- What source control tools does Roadie support?
- We support GitHub Cloud and on-prem, GitLab Cloud and on-prem, BitBucket Cloud and Server, and Azure DevOps
- Has Roadie gained a SOC2 compliance?
Yes. Roadie has achieved SOC2 Type 2 compliance. You can read more about this on our blog.
- Is Roadie customizable?
- Roadie is extremely customizable. You can edit layouts, add and remove plugins, change the theme, run arbitrary code with the scaffolder, write your own plugins and more.