Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Proxmox VE
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Proxmox VE
Cloud
Open-source hypervisor combining KVM and LXC virtualisation
- From
- €120/year
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- 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.; Proxmox VE per-socket licensing model: cost scales with CPU socket count, not vCore count, resulting in high costs for multi-socket servers
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Proxmox VE actually diverge.
| Attribute | Cortex | Proxmox VE |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | €120/year |
| Pricing model | quote | subscription |
| Platforms | Web, API | Linux, Web, API, Self-hosted |
| Category | Developer Tools | Cloud |
Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 Proxmox VE
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 Proxmox VE
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Proxmox VE
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Proxmox VE
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Proxmox VE
Proxmox VE
- Open-source datacenter virtualisation for hosting providers and cloud platformsnot Cortex
- Cost-sensitive enterprise virtualisation replacing commercial hypervisorsnot Cortex
- High-availability clustering for disaster recovery and business continuitynot Cortex
- Container deployments using LXC as lighter-weight alternative to Dockernot Cortex
- Hybrid VM and container workloads in a single management interfacenot Cortex
- Backup and archival infrastructure alongside primary virtualisationnot 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.
Proxmox VE
- Per-socket licensing model: cost scales with CPU socket count, not vCore count, resulting in high costs for multi-socket servers
- Linux-based host only; Windows hypervisors not supported, limiting adoption in Windows-focused organisations
- Clustering and high-availability setup requires operational expertise and careful network configuration
- Commercial support tiers limit advanced features (just-in-time access, network flow logs) to paid subscriptions
- Smaller ecosystem of third-party plugins and integrations compared to VMware vSphere
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Proxmox VE
€120/year- Community$120/year
- Enterprise Repository access
- Community forum support only
- Per-socket subscription model
- Basic$370/year
- 3 support tickets per year
- 1 business day response time
- Stable updates and Enterprise Repository
- Standard$550/year
- 10 support tickets per year
- 4-hour response time for critical issues
- Remote SSH support and offline updates
- Premium$1100/year
- Unlimited support tickets
- 2-hour response time for critical issues
- Remote SSH support and offline updates
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 Proxmox VE better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Proxmox VE at €120/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Proxmox VE?
- Cortex starts at On request and Proxmox VE at €120/year.
- Does Cortex or Proxmox VE run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Proxmox VE runs on Linux, Web, API, Self-hosted.
- 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 Proxmox VE is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Proxmox VE 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.
Proxmox VE: What is the licensing model for Proxmox VE?
Proxmox VE is open-source and free to deploy. Optional subscription tiers provide technical support, priority response times, and access to the Enterprise Repository for stable update channels. All tiers include identical virtualisation features.
SourceCortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Proxmox VE: Can I run Proxmox VE without a support subscription?
Yes. Community Edition (€120/year per socket) provides Enterprise Repository access with community-based support through forums. The core Proxmox VE platform is fully functional without any subscription.
SourceCortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Proxmox VE: What hypervisors does Proxmox VE support?
Proxmox VE includes both KVM for full virtualisation and LXC for Linux containers. It does not support Xen or Hyper-V. Workloads on those platforms must be migrated or reimplemented.
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.
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- Proxmox VE vs AWS (Amazon Web Services)
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- Proxmox VE vs DigitalOcean
- Proxmox VE vs Grafana Cloud
- Proxmox VE vs Rancher
- Proxmox VE vs Longhorn
- Proxmox VE vs Vultr
- Proxmox VE vs OpenEBS
- Proxmox VE vs Anyscale
- Proxmox VE vs Go
- Proxmox VE vs Chef
- Proxmox VE vs DeepInfra
- Proxmox VE vs Fireworks AI
- Proxmox VE vs Heroku
- Proxmox VE vs Vault
- Proxmox VE vs Lambda (AWS Serverless)
- Proxmox VE vs Jaeger