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Developer Tools · head to head

Cortex vs .NET

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
.NET logo

.NET

Web Development

Free, cross-platform, open source developer platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only .NET has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real 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.; .NET .NET 8 and .NET 9 both reach end of support on 10 November 2026, per dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy (Aug 2026), forcing an upgrade to .NET 10 by that date
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cortex and .NET actually diverge.

Attributes where Cortex and .NET differ
AttributeCortex.NET
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteopen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryDeveloper ToolsWeb Development

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 Cortex

  • Service catalogue
  • Scorecards
  • Initiatives
  • Self-service templates
  • Query language
  • Eng intelligence
  • Integrations layer
  • On-call and ownership mapping

Only in .NET

Nothing recorded that Cortex does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Cortex

  • A platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a Kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of servicesnot .NET
  • An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot .NET
  • Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot .NET
  • Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot .NET

.NET

  • Web development with ASP.NET Core and Entity Frameworknot Cortex
  • Cloud-native application development for Azurenot Cortex
  • Mobile and desktop apps with .NET MAUI cross-platform frameworknot Cortex
  • AI and machine learning applications using C#not Cortex

Where each one falls short

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

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.

.NET

  • .NET 8 and .NET 9 both reach end of support on 10 November 2026, per dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy (Aug 2026), forcing an upgrade to .NET 10 by that date
  • Standard Term Support releases get only 2 years of patches versus 3 years for Long Term Support releases, per Microsoft's own support policy page, so teams on an STS release face a shorter upgrade cycle

Pricing, plan by plan

Cortex

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

.NET

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the .NET review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Cortex if

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

Choose .NET if

  • You want to start without paying.
.NET review

Questions people ask

Is Cortex or .NET better?
Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and .NET at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cortex or .NET?
.NET has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for .NET.
Does Cortex or .NET run on more platforms?
Cortex runs on Web, API. .NET runs on Web.
Can I use .NET for free?
Yes. .NET has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cortex starts at On request.
What is Cortex best used for?
Cortex is most often used for a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services, an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions, enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident review, replacing a self-hosted backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgraded. Of those, a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services and an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions are not what .NET is typically brought in for.
What can Cortex do that .NET cannot?
Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

.NET: Is .NET free to use?

Yes. .NET is completely free and open-source, available on GitHub.

Source
Cortex: Is pricing published?

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

.NET: What platforms does .NET support?

.NET supports Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker. A single C# codebase can run across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, and cloud environments.

Source
Cortex: Can it self-host?

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

.NET: How large is the .NET ecosystem?

NuGet provides 390,000+ unique packages with 50,000+ new packages added annually. .NET has 474K+ GitHub stars and active community support across multiple platforms.

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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