Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Frontegg
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Frontegg
Cybersecurity
Customer identity and access management platform for SaaS applications
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Only Frontegg 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.; Frontegg detailed per-unit pricing beyond the free tier is not published, requiring use of an online calculator or sales contact to estimate costs.
- They diverge on capability: Cortex covers Service catalogue, Frontegg covers Hosted login.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Frontegg actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web, API), 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 Frontegg
- Hosted login
- Enterprise SSO/SCIM
- Multi-tenant organizations
- Custom domains
- M2M tokens
- Fraud protection
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 Frontegg
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Frontegg
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Frontegg
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Frontegg
Frontegg
- Adding enterprise SSO/SCIM to a B2B SaaS productnot Cortex
- Multi-tenant customer identity managementnot Cortex
- White-labeled, custom-domain login experiencesnot Cortex
- Securing AI agent access to a SaaS product via Agen.conot 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.
Frontegg
- Detailed per-unit pricing beyond the free tier is not published, requiring use of an online calculator or sales contact to estimate costs.
- Advanced fraud protection and multiple environments are Enterprise-only, unavailable on the Pay As You Go plan.
- The 7,500 free monthly active users is comparatively modest next to some competitors' free tiers.
- As a broader CIAM platform, it can be more complex to integrate than lighter-weight developer-first auth tools for smaller apps.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Frontegg
Free- Pay As You GoFree
- 7,500 monthly active users included
- 5 enterprise connections (SSO/SCIM)
- Unlimited organizations
- Enterprise$undefined/month
- Custom pricing
- Multiple environments
- Advanced fraud protection
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Choose Frontegg if
- You need hosted login.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, api.
- You also want enterprise sso/scim.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Frontegg better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Frontegg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Frontegg?
- Frontegg has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for Frontegg.
- Does Cortex or Frontegg run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Frontegg runs on web, api.
- Can I use Frontegg for free?
- Yes. Frontegg 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 Frontegg is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Frontegg cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Frontegg covers Hosted login, Enterprise SSO/SCIM, Multi-tenant organizations, Custom domains.
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.
Frontegg: What does Frontegg cost?
Frontegg's Pay As You Go plan is free up to 7,500 monthly active users, after which pricing scales with users, enterprise connections and M2M tokens via an online calculator; Enterprise pricing is custom.
SourceCortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Frontegg: Is there a free plan and what are its limits?
Yes, the free Pay As You Go plan includes 7,500 monthly active users, 5 enterprise SSO/SCIM connections, unlimited organizations, and a custom domain.
SourceCortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Frontegg: How is usage metered?
Pricing is consumption-based, driven by monthly active users, monthly enterprise connections (SSO/SCIM), and monthly M2M tokens, with customers paying only for usage beyond the free 7,500-user threshold.
SourceCortex: 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.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Cortex vs Backstage
- Cortex vs OpsLevel
- Cortex vs Earthly
- Cortex vs Spacelift
- Cortex vs Atlantis
- Cortex vs Depot
- Cortex vs Nix
- Cortex vs SonarQube
- Cortex vs Keycloak
- Cortex vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Cortex vs Vite
- Cortex vs Bazel
- Cortex vs Dagger
- Cortex vs Deep Code
- Cortex vs Deno
- Cortex vs Fig
- Cortex vs Frappe
- Cortex vs Git
- Cortex vs Clerk
- Cortex vs Authelia
- Cortex vs Akeyless
- Cortex vs Entrust Identity as a Service
- Cortex vs 1Password
- Cortex vs authentik
- Cortex vs Logto
- Cortex vs Ory Kratos
- Cortex vs Ping Identity
- Cortex vs Speakeasy
- Cortex vs Doppler
- Cortex vs Infisical
- Cortex vs Diligent
- Cortex vs Endor Labs
- Cortex vs Enpass
- Cortex vs Featurespace ARIC Risk Hub
- Cortex vs Fortinet FortiGate
- Frontegg vs Backstage
- Frontegg vs OpsLevel
- Frontegg vs Earthly
- Frontegg vs Spacelift
- Frontegg vs Atlantis
- Frontegg vs Depot
- Frontegg vs Nix
- Frontegg vs SonarQube
- Frontegg vs Keycloak
- Frontegg vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Frontegg vs Vite
- Frontegg vs Bazel
- Frontegg vs Dagger
- Frontegg vs Deep Code
- Frontegg vs Deno
- Frontegg vs Fig
- Frontegg vs Frappe
- Frontegg vs Git
- Frontegg vs Clerk
- Frontegg vs Authelia
- Frontegg vs Akeyless
- Frontegg vs Entrust Identity as a Service
- Frontegg vs 1Password
- Frontegg vs authentik
- Frontegg vs Logto
- Frontegg vs Ory Kratos
- Frontegg vs Ping Identity
- Frontegg vs Speakeasy
- Frontegg vs Doppler
- Frontegg vs Infisical
- Frontegg vs Diligent
- Frontegg vs Endor Labs
- Frontegg vs Enpass
- Frontegg vs Featurespace ARIC Risk Hub
- Frontegg vs Fortinet FortiGate