Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Knack
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Knack
Databases
Hosted no-code database and web app builder priced by stored records and storage, with unlimited user accounts on every plan.
- From
- $59/month
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Knack starts at $59/mo; Cortex prices on request.
- Only Cortex lists service catalogue; only Knack lists visual database builder.
- Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Knack actually diverge.
Identical on both: free tier (No).
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 Knack
- Visual database builder
- User logins and roles
- Page builder
- Unlimited users
- E-commerce
- Automation flows
- Scheduled tasks
- REST API and webhooks
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 Knack
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Knack
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Knack
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Knack
Knack
- A member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own recordsnot Cortex
- Replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal toolnot Cortex
- Inventory, asset or case tracking for a small operations team that needs roles, forms and a record of who changed whatnot Cortex
- A registration or booking application for an association, school or non-profit where the user count is large and the record count stays modestnot 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
Knack
- Plans are capped by stored records, so an application that logs events or keeps history rather than current state climbs tiers on data volume alone, and archiving old records becomes a permanent maintenance chore rather than a one-off
- API access is capped per day, at 1,000 calls on the entry plan and 10,000 at the Corporate tier, so a scheduled sync or a busy automation can exhaust the day's quota before the working day ends and integrations then fail silently
- The application itself cannot be exported or self-hosted; records can be downloaded but the pages, roles, flows and business logic exist only inside Knack, so outgrowing the platform means rebuilding the app rather than moving it
- Customisation beyond the builder is limited to injected CSS and JavaScript that Knack's support does not cover, so any non-standard interface behaviour becomes yours to maintain against a DOM the vendor can change without warning
- Compliance capabilities that regulated buyers assume are baseline, HIPAA and GovCloud options, advanced SSO, IP restrictions and private environments, are gated to the Corporate and Enterprise tiers, so a small regulated pilot cannot legitimately start on an entry plan
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- CortexOn request
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Knack
$59/month- Starter$59/mo
- 20,000 database records
- Unlimited users, tables, fields
- 25 AI credits
- Pro$130/mo
- 50,000 database records
- Remove Knack branding
- E-commerce payments
- Corporate$300/mo
- 125,000-2.5M database records
- App restore functionality
- Advanced SSO
- EnterpriseOn request
- Dedicated account manager
- HIPAA/GovCloud-based options
- Custom pricing
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 Knack better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Knack at $59/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Knack?
- Cortex starts at On request and Knack at $59/month.
- Does Cortex or Knack run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Knack runs on Web.
- 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 Knack is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Knack cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Knack covers Visual database builder, User logins and roles, Page builder, Unlimited users.
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.
Knack: Is Knack charged per user?
No. User accounts are unlimited on all plans. Plans are bounded by stored record count, file storage, API calls per day and automation transactions.
Cortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Knack: What happens when I exceed the record limit?
You move to a higher tier or reduce stored records. Because the limit is on data rather than people, apps that accumulate history hit it while apps that track a fixed set of entities generally do not.
Cortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Knack: Can I export my application or self-host it?
You can export record data. The application itself, its pages, roles, permissions and flows, is not exportable and cannot be self-hosted, so leaving means rebuilding elsewhere.
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.
Knack: Is it suitable for public-facing portals?
That is its strongest case, because logins are unlimited and role-based permissions are built in. The constraint is record volume and API throughput, not audience size.
Knack: Can I use it for regulated data?
HIPAA-aligned and government cloud options exist but only on the Enterprise tier, along with private server environments. Lower tiers should not be used for regulated workloads.
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- Knack vs Atlantis
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- Knack vs Envoy
- Knack vs Istio
- Knack vs Nix
- Knack vs SonarQube
- Knack vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Knack vs Tilt
- Knack vs Vim
- Knack vs WarpBuild
- Knack vs Webpack
- Knack vs Avo
- Knack vs Azure DevOps
- Knack vs Airtable
- Knack vs BigQuery
- Knack vs Firebase Realtime Database
- Knack vs Dremio
- Knack vs etcd
- Knack vs DuckDB
- Knack vs Immuta
- Knack vs Trino
- Knack vs Turso
- Knack vs FaunaDB
- Knack vs Ninox
- Knack vs Privacera
- Knack vs PostgreSQL
- Knack vs Apache Kafka
- Knack vs RabbitMQ
- Knack vs Amazon Aurora
- Knack vs ClickHouse
- Knack vs Elasticsearch