Roadie vs. Cortex
Last updated on January 22nd, 2026The Power of Open Source vs. The Constraints of a Walled Garden
Organizations are choosing Roadie over Cortex because they need a developer portal that works with their engineering team, not one that forces them into a rigid, proprietary box.
Roadie gives you the flexibility of Spotify's Backstage without the hassle of having to run it yourself. While Cortex looks polished, its opinionated system of records locks you into a closed ecosystem. With Roadie, you get the freedom of open source, a massive plugin ecosystem, and an exit strategy you control, without the operational headache of self-hosting.
Key Differences
Following are the main differences between Roadie and Cortex:
1. Open Source vs. Proprietary
The most significant difference is ownership. Cortex is a closed-source, proprietary platform available as both SaaS and self-hosted deployment via Helm chart. When you build on Cortex, you're building your engineering processes on top of a black box. If their pricing model changes (e.g., steep per-user fees) or their roadmap diverges from your needs, you have no recourse and no easy way to migrate your data and logic elsewhere.
Roadie is built on Backstage, which means there's no vendor lock-in; you own your data and your portal's logic. If you ever decide to leave Roadie, you can export your configuration to a self-hosted Backstage instance.
2. Plugin Ecosystem
Cortex boasts integration with major tools (AWS, GitHub, Datadog), but platform engineering often relies on unique internal requirements: the niche internal tools, legacy systems, and custom scripts that make your company unique. Cortex offers its own proprietary plugin framework (Axon Framework) and Plugin Marketplace, allowing for custom development. However, this ecosystem is vendor-specific and significantly smaller than Backstage's community-driven marketplace.
Because Roadie is built on Backstage, you have access to over 200 open-source plugins.
More importantly, you can write your own custom plugins using the same standards as thousands of other developers. If you need a specialized UI to restart a legacy server or visualize internal API data, you can build it using open-source patterns and share it with the community, or keep it private. In Cortex, you're building within a proprietary framework that limits portability and community collaboration.
3. Flexible Tech Insights vs. Rigid Scorecards
Cortex is famous for its "Scorecards," but they come with a philosophy that assumes every organization works the same way. Their data model is opinionated, requiring you to map your architecture to their specific concepts rather than defining your own.
Roadie uses Tech Insights, a highly flexible scorecarding engine based on Backstage. We let you define checks using virtually any data source (e.g., standard plugins, custom API calls, or repository file scans). You define the rules, the weightings, and the display logic.
4. Customization: Code vs. Configuration
Cortex relies heavily on YAML configuration and UI wizards. While this allows for quick setup, it hits a "glass ceiling" when you need to create unique developer experiences.
Roadie treats the portal as a programmable surface. Because it supports custom React frontend code, you can create "pixel-perfect" experiences. You can design custom homepages, unique data visualizations, and interactive workflows that go far beyond what a proprietary "widget builder" can offer.
5. Documentation Approach
Documentation is the backbone of developer self-service. Cortex offers documentation features, but they're often secondary to their scorecarding engine.
Roadie puts documentation front and center with TechDocs. This engine treats documentation like code: built from Markdown files in your repositories, validated in CI/CD, and rendered into a searchable, standardized site. It's the workflow developers already love, integrated natively into the platform.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Roadie (Backstage) | Cortex |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | ||
| Core Architecture | Open Source (Backstage) | Proprietary / Closed |
| Vendor Lock-in | Low (Migrate to self-hosted) | High (Proprietary data model) |
| Community Ecosystem | 1,000+ contributors | Vendor only |
| Extensibility | ||
| Custom UI Plugins | Full React/TypeScript Support | Limited / Config only |
| Marketplace Size | Massive (Open Source Community) | Vendor Integrations List |
| Legacy Tool Support | High (Build anything) | Low (Webhooks only) |
| Functionality | ||
| Scorecards | Tech Insights (Highly Flexible) | Cortex Scorecards (Opinionated) |
| Documentation | TechDocs (Docs-as-Code Standard) | Proprietary Docs Module |
| Scaffolder | Native Backstage Scaffolder | Proprietary Scaffolder |
| Management | ||
| Hosted / SaaS | Included in Roadie | Included in Cortex |
| Full Enterprise Deployment | Hours to Days | Days to Weeks* |
Note: Both platforms offer rapid initial setup (minutes to hours). The deployment timeline shown reflects full enterprise rollout including catalog population, custom integrations, and organizational adoption, which varies by company size and complexity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cortex better for Scorecards?
Cortex focuses heavily on scorecards as their primary feature, but this comes at the cost of flexibility. Roadie's Tech Insights lets you build equally powerful scorecards but gives you granular control over the data sources, display logic, and "gamification" aspects, without forcing you into a rigid maturity model.
Why does Open Source matter if I want a SaaS?
Even if you want a managed service (SaaS), the underlying technology matters. With a proprietary tool like Cortex, you are renting a "black box." If the vendor doubles their price or removes a feature, you're stuck. With Roadie, you are renting a managed version of an open standard. The open-source foundation guarantees your data portability and ensures the platform's longevity beyond the lifespan of any single vendor.
Can I migrate from Cortex to Roadie?
Yes. Because Roadie is built on the flexible Backstage data model, we can ingest data from almost any source. Many customers switch to Roadie because they hit the "customization ceiling" in Cortex, usually when they need to integrate internal legacy tools or create custom UI workflows that Cortex simply cannot support.
Does Roadie support "Gold Standards" like Cortex?
Yes. Roadie combines the Backstage Scaffolder (to create compliant services from day one) with Tech Insights (to monitor compliance over time). You can define "Golden Paths" that ensure every new service is set up with the correct monitoring, security scanning, and documentation automatically.
