OpsLevel vs Backstage: What's the Best Internal Developer Portal?

Selecting the right internal developer portal (IDP) is a crucial decision for engineering leaders. OpsLevel and Backstage by Spotify stand out as two strong options, each catering to different organizational needs and priorities. OpsLevel is a managed SaaS platform built for speed, simplicity, and scalability, while Backstage offers an open-source framework designed for customization and flexibility.‍

Let’s break down the key factors to consider when comparing these platforms and highlight why OpsLevel might be the best choice for most organizations.

Speed to Rollout

One of the most significant differences between OpsLevel and Backstage is how quickly your team can get up and running. OpsLevel is purpose-built to minimize setup time, often delivering a fully functional service catalog in days. With pre-built integrations and automated service discovery, OpsLevel eliminates the need for extensive configuration, allowing your engineering teams to focus on innovation instead of infrastructure.

Backstage, on the other hand, requires a more substantial upfront investment of time and resources. As an open-source framework, Backstage provides the foundation for an IDP, but it’s up to your team to build out key features, plugins, and integrations. This level of customization can take months to implement, especially for teams without dedicated platform engineering resources.

Features and Functionality

OpsLevel delivers robust out-of-the-box features that are ready to use from day one, including service maturity dashboards, automated standards enforcement, and developer self-service tools. These features empower engineering teams to improve visibility, enforce production readiness, and enable autonomy without requiring extensive customization.

Backstage offers a flexible framework for building custom workflows and features, but its base installation is relatively barebones. While this flexibility is appealing for organizations with niche requirements, it places the burden on your team to develop, test, and maintain the functionality you need.

Maintenance and Ownership

Another critical distinction between OpsLevel and Backstage is the ongoing effort required to maintain each platform. OpsLevel, as a SaaS solution, handles maintenance, upgrades, and scalability on your behalf. This eliminates technical overhead and ensures your IDP remains reliable and secure without taxing your engineering team.

With Backstage, your team is responsible for every aspect of maintenance, from applying updates and security patches to scaling the platform as your organization grows. While this ownership gives you complete control, it can also lead to technical debt and resource constraints, particularly as the platform becomes more complex.

User Experience and Adoption

OpsLevel prioritizes ease of use, making it accessible to engineering teams of all sizes. Its intuitive interface and automated service discovery reduce the learning curve and accelerate adoption across your organization. Pre-populating your catalog with existing services streamlines setup and ensures immediate value.

Backstage, in contrast, can present challenges in terms of user experience. As an open-source tool, the quality of its documentation and workflows can vary, which may hinder adoption. Teams often need to design custom user workflows and invest time in refining the platform for usability.

Scalability and Future-Proofing

OpsLevel’s SaaS model ensures that the platform evolves with your organization. Regular feature updates, enhanced integrations, and performance improvements are delivered automatically, giving you a future-proof solution that scales effortlessly as your needs grow.

Backstage requires ongoing development to adapt to changing requirements. While its open-source nature provides flexibility, scaling the platform often involves reworking custom plugins and integrations, which can slow down progress and increase costs.

Cost Considerations

At first glance, Backstage appears cost-effective because it is free to use. However, the total cost of ownership can be significant when you factor in the engineering hours required for setup, customization, and ongoing maintenance.

OpsLevel’s pricing is transparent and predictable, with a clear SaaS subscription model. By reducing the need for dedicated engineering resources, OpsLevel often proves to be the more economical choice over time, especially for organizations without a robust platform engineering function.

Which Platform is Best for Your Organization?

The decision between OpsLevel and Backstage depends on your team’s specific needs and capabilities:

• OpsLevel is ideal for organizations that value speed, simplicity, and long-term maintainability. Its robust OoTB functionality, minimal maintenance requirements, and intuitive design make it a strong choice for engineering leaders who want to focus on delivering value rather than building internal tooling.
• Backstage is better suited for teams with extensive platform engineering resources that prioritize deep customization and are willing to invest the time and effort required to build and maintain a bespoke solution.

Why OpsLevel is The Best Developer Portal

Both OpsLevel and Backstage are powerful platforms for enabling engineering teams, but they serve different purposes. For most organizations, OpsLevel strikes the right balance of functionality, flexibility, and ease of use. Its fast rollout, comprehensive features, and SaaS reliability make it the best internal developer portal for teams looking to scale efficiently and sustainably.

Book a call to learn more about OpsLevel today.