Backstage
Spotifys open-source developer portal platform for building developer portals with a plugin architecture.
Backstage is an open-source Internal Developer Portal platform originally created by Spotify. It provides a centralized developer portal that unifies infrastructure tools, services, and documentation under a single interface. With its plugin architecture, teams can integrate Backstage with any tool in their DevOps ecosystem. It features a software catalog, tech docs, software templates (scaffolder), and Kubernetes plugin, making it the most widely adopted IDP platform.
Features
API Catalog
Documentation and discovery of internal APIs
API entity support, AsyncAPI, GraphQL plugins
Cost Visibility
Track cloud costs per service, team, or environment
Via third-party plugins only
Environment Management
Manage and provision development, staging, and production environments
Limited, requires custom integration
Ownership Tracking
Automated tracking of service ownership and team responsibility
Through catalog entity ownership field
Plugin Architecture
Extensible plugin system for custom integrations
Extensive plugin architecture, 200+ plugins
RBAC
Role-based access control for developers and platform engineers
RBAC plugin (community/enterprise)
Scorecards
Measure and track service maturity and standards compliance
Requires plugins, not built-in
Self-Service Actions
Developer self-service for provisioning resources
Backstage Scaffolder with software templates
Software Catalog
Centralized inventory of all services, resources, and teams
Backstage Software Catalog with entity descriptors
Tech Docs
Documentation management integrated into the developer portal
TechDocs with MkDocs integration