Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Fig
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
F
Fig
Developer Tools
IDE-style autocomplete for your existing terminal
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Fig 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.; Fig shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Fig actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).
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 Fig
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 Fig
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Fig
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Fig
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Fig
Fig
No use cases recorded yet. See the Fig review.
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.
Fig
- Shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
- The standalone desktop app is no longer available or supported
- The completion specs remain open source on GitHub, but the product that consumed them is gone
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Fig
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Fig review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Fig better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Fig at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Fig?
- Fig has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for Fig.
- Does Cortex or Fig run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Fig runs on Web.
- Can I use Fig for free?
- Yes. Fig 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 Fig is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Fig 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.
Cortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Cortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
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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- Fig vs Backstage
- Fig vs OpsLevel
- Fig vs Earthly
- Fig vs Spacelift
- Fig vs Atlantis
- Fig vs Depot
- Fig vs Nix
- Fig vs SonarQube
- Fig vs Keycloak
- Fig vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Fig vs Vite
- Fig vs Bazel
- Fig vs Namespace
- Fig vs Nixpacks
- Fig vs Octopus Deploy
- Fig vs Okteto
- Fig vs Visual Studio Code
- Fig vs ESLint
- Fig vs Turborepo
- Fig vs pnpm
- Fig vs Sweep
- Fig vs Cody
- Fig vs Warp
- Fig vs Rust
- Fig vs CodeSandbox
- Fig vs Daytona
- Fig vs GNU Emacs
- Fig vs Keil MDK