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CloudAMQP vs Cortex

CloudAMQP logo

CloudAMQP

Technology

Managed RabbitMQ and LavinMQ clusters, hosted and fully managed

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Cortex logo

Cortex

Developer Tools

Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only CloudAMQP has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: CloudAMQP free tier messaging limits are low: 1-2M messages/month; 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.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CloudAMQP and Cortex actually diverge.

Attributes where CloudAMQP and Cortex differ
AttributeCloudAMQPCortex
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 CloudAMQP

Nothing recorded that Cortex does not also cover.

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.

CloudAMQP

  • Message queue servicesnot Cortex
  • Message brokers for distributed systemsnot Cortex
  • RabbitMQ and LavinMQ hostingnot Cortex
  • Asynchronous task processingnot 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 CloudAMQP
  • An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot CloudAMQP
  • Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot CloudAMQP
  • Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot CloudAMQP

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CloudAMQP

  • Free tier messaging limits are low: 1-2M messages/month
  • Free tier connection limits are restrictive: 20-40
  • Multi-tenant plans have queue limits (200-2,000 max)
  • Dedicated plans expensive at scale: up to $14,995-$17,495/month
  • Extra disk space add-on at $0.35/month per GB may add significant cost

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

CloudAMQP

Free
  • LavinMQ - Loyal Lemming (Free)Free
    • 2 million messages per month
    • 40 connection limit
    • 200 queue maximum
  • RabbitMQ - Little Lemur (Free)Free
    • 1 million messages per month
    • 20 connection limit
    • 100 queue maximum
  • LavinMQ - Elegant Ermine$19/month
    • 20 million messages per month
    • 200 connections
    • 2,000 queue maximum
  • RabbitMQ - Tough Tiger$19/month
    • 10 million messages per month
    • 100 connections
    • 1,000 queue maximum

Cortex

On request
  • Cortex$undefined/year
    • Service catalogue and ownership mapping
    • Scorecards and initiatives
    • Self-service templates

Which should you pick?

Choose CloudAMQP if

  • You want to start without paying.
CloudAMQP review

Choose Cortex if

  • You need service catalogue.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want scorecards.
Cortex review

Questions people ask

Is CloudAMQP or Cortex better?
Neither clearly leads. CloudAMQP 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, CloudAMQP or Cortex?
CloudAMQP has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for CloudAMQP and On request for Cortex.
Does CloudAMQP or Cortex run on more platforms?
CloudAMQP runs on Web. Cortex runs on Web, API.
Can I use CloudAMQP for free?
Yes. CloudAMQP has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cortex starts at On request.
What is CloudAMQP best used for?
CloudAMQP is most often used for message queue services, message brokers for distributed systems, rabbitmq and lavinmq hosting, asynchronous task processing. Of those, message queue services and message brokers for distributed systems are not what Cortex is typically brought in for.
What can CloudAMQP do that Cortex cannot?
Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CloudAMQP: Does CloudAMQP offer free plans?

Yes, CloudAMQP offers free tiers: LavinMQ Loyal Lemming with 2M messages/month, and RabbitMQ Little Lemur with 1M messages/month. Both include connection and queue limits.

Source
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.

CloudAMQP: What is the cheapest paid plan?

Both LavinMQ Elegant Ermine and RabbitMQ Tough Tiger cost $19/month. LavinMQ includes 20M messages/month with 200 connections; RabbitMQ includes 10M messages/month with 100 connections.

Source
Cortex: Is pricing published?

No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.

CloudAMQP: How are messages charged on CloudAMQP?

CloudAMQP plans include monthly message quotas. All plans are charged on a per-second basis with monthly billing cycles.

Source
Cortex: Can it self-host?

It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.

CloudAMQP: What add-ons are available?

CloudAMQP offers Virtual Private Cloud add-on at $99/month, and extra disk space at $0.35/month per GB (25-2,000 GB available).

Source
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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