Business Intelligence · head to head
Cabin vs Cortex
Cabin
Business Intelligence
Cookieless web analytics that also reports the carbon footprint of your website
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Cabin is a privacy-first analytics tool.
- Cabin starts at $14/mo; Cortex prices on request.
- Only Cabin lists cookieless tracking; only Cortex lists service catalogue.
- Prices and features on this page were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cabin and Cortex actually diverge.
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cabin
- Cookieless tracking
- Carbon reporting
- 1.2kb script
- Custom events
- Ad-blocker bypass
- MCP access
- Branded dashboards
- EU data storage
Only in Cortex
- Service catalogue
- Scorecards
- Initiatives
- Self-service templates
- Query language
- Eng intelligence
- Integrations layer
- On-call and ownership mapping
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cabin
- Replacing Google Analytics on a site where a cookie consent banner is hurting conversion and you do not need behavioural advertising datanot Cortex
- An organisation with a published sustainability commitment that needs a reportable figure for its website emissionsnot Cortex
- An agency managing many client sites that wants unlimited domains and branded client dashboards for a flat $45 a monthnot Cortex
- A developer who wants to query site analytics conversationally through an MCP-connected assistant rather than reading a dashboardnot Cortex
Cortex
- A platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a Kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of servicesnot Cabin
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Cabin
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Cabin
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Cabin
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cabin
- The analytics are deliberately shallow: no funnels, no cohort retention, no session replay and no user-level journeys, so anything beyond traffic and event counts requires a second tool
- Carbon figures are modelled from bytes transferred using CO2.js assumptions about grid intensity and device energy, not measured, so they are directionally useful and should never be presented as audited emissions data
- Cabin is a product of Normally, a design studio, rather than a company whose sole business is analytics, which puts a reasonable question mark over long-term roadmap investment and support depth
- The 30-day retention on the free tier and 12 months on Plus mean year-on-year comparison needs the $45 Scale plan, which is a large jump for a small site that only wanted longer history
- Because it does not use cookies or cross-site identifiers, returning-visitor and multi-session attribution are approximations, which matters if anyone in the business is trying to reconcile it with an ad platform's numbers
Cortex
- Pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first
- The catalogue is only as accurate as the metadata you supply, so an organisation with inconsistent repository conventions spends its first quarter cleaning data before any scorecard means anything
- Scorecards create political friction: publishing a per-team grade turns an engineering standard into a performance metric, and teams will game the rules rather than fix the underlying issue
- It is closed source and hosted, so organisations with strict data residency or air-gap requirements have limited options compared with running Backstage themselves
- Value scales with organisation size, so a company with fifty engineers and thirty services will find the catalogue tells them nothing they did not already know while still paying an enterprise contract
Pricing, plan by plan
Cabin
Free- FreeFree
- 1 domain
- 10,000 pageviews per month
- 30-day data retention
- Plus$14/mo
- Up to 10 domains
- 100,000 pageviews per month
- 12-month retention
- Scale$45/mo
- Unlimited domains
- 5,000,000 pageviews per month
- Unlimited retention
Cortex
On request- CortexOn request
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Which should you pick?
Choose Cabin if
- You need cookieless tracking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want carbon reporting.
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Questions people ask
- Is Cabin or Cortex better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cabin starts at Free and Cortex at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cabin or Cortex?
- Cabin has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cabin and On request for Cortex.
- Does Cabin or Cortex run on more platforms?
- Cabin runs on Web. Cortex runs on Web, API.
- Can I use Cabin for free?
- Yes. Cabin has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cortex starts at On request.
- What is Cabin best used for?
- Cabin is most often used for replacing google analytics on a site where a cookie consent banner is hurting conversion and you do not need behavioural advertising data, an organisation with a published sustainability commitment that needs a reportable figure for its website emissions, an agency managing many client sites that wants unlimited domains and branded client dashboards for a flat $45 a month, a developer who wants to query site analytics conversationally through an mcp-connected assistant rather than reading a dashboard. Of those, replacing google analytics on a site where a cookie consent banner is hurting conversion and you do not need behavioural advertising data and an organisation with a published sustainability commitment that needs a reportable figure for its website emissions are not what Cortex is typically brought in for.
- What can Cabin do that Cortex cannot?
- Cabin covers Cookieless tracking, Carbon reporting, 1.2kb script, Custom events. Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cabin: Do I need a cookie consent banner with Cabin?
No. It sets no cookies and collects no cross-site identifiers, and data is stored in the EU, which is the specific reason most buyers switch to it.
Cortex: How is Cortex different from Backstage?
Backstage is an open source framework you build and staff. Cortex is a hosted product with scorecards and initiatives out of the box and no platform team required to keep it running.
Cabin: How accurate is the carbon measurement?
It is an estimate derived from data transfer using the CO2.js model. It is reliable for tracking change over time on your own site and unsuitable as an audited emissions figure.
Cortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Cabin: Who makes Cabin?
It was built at Normally, a research and design studio in London, out of work on data, privacy and the carbon footprint of digital products.
Cortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Cabin: Can it replace Google Analytics entirely?
For traffic, referrer and event reporting, yes. For advertising attribution, audience building and funnel analysis, no.
Cortex: What is the main adoption risk?
Bad or missing service metadata. The catalogue and every scorecard on top of it inherit whatever quality your repositories already have.
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- Cortex vs Webpack
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