Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Signicat
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Signicat
Cybersecurity
European digital identity hub connecting national eID schemes
- From
- On request
- 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.; Signicat national eID scheme fees are passed through on top of Signicat's own charge, so a single-country business almost always pays less by integrating with the scheme directly.
- They diverge on capability: Cortex covers Service catalogue, Signicat covers eID scheme brokering.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Signicat actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Signicat
- eID scheme brokering
- Qualified electronic signatures
- Document verification
- AML screening
- Authentication
- Digital onboarding flows
- eIDAS compliance
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 Signicat
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Signicat
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Signicat
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Signicat
Signicat
- A lender expanding from Norway into Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands without four separate eID integrationsnot Cortex
- An insurer needing eIDAS qualified signatures on policy documents that will hold up in a European courtnot Cortex
- A bank that wants customers to onboard with their existing national bank ID rather than photographing a passportnot Cortex
- A public sector body needing cross-border recognition of notified eID schemes under eIDASnot 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.
Signicat
- National eID scheme fees are passed through on top of Signicat's own charge, so a single-country business almost always pays less by integrating with the scheme directly.
- Value is concentrated in Northern and Western Europe, and coverage in Southern and Eastern Europe is thinner, so a pan-European rollout still hits gaps requiring document fallback.
- Pricing is per transaction and quoted, and because scheme rates vary by country the cost per onboarded customer differs materially between markets in ways that complicate unit economics.
- Each eID scheme connection typically carries its own setup fee and approval process, so adding a country is a project with a lead time rather than a configuration change.
- Availability is tied to the national schemes, meaning an outage at BankID or MitID stops your onboarding entirely and there is no vendor-side mitigation for it.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Signicat
On request- Signicat Platform$undefined/year
- Priced per transaction with national scheme fees passed through
- Signature and verification products licensed separately
- Setup fee per eID scheme connected
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Choose Signicat if
- You need eid scheme brokering.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want qualified electronic signatures.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Signicat better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Signicat at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Signicat?
- Cortex starts at On request and Signicat at On request.
- Does Cortex or Signicat run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Signicat runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- 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 Signicat is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Signicat cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Signicat covers eID scheme brokering, Qualified electronic signatures, Document verification, AML screening.
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.
Signicat: Is this an alternative to a document verification vendor?
Only where national eID exists. In markets with a mature bank ID scheme it is better; elsewhere you fall back to document checks, which Signicat also provides.
Cortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Signicat: Do we still pay the eID schemes?
Yes. Scheme fees are passed through in addition to Signicat charges. Ask for the split when comparing to a direct integration.
Cortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Signicat: Are signatures legally qualified?
Signicat supports eIDAS qualified electronic signatures, which carry the highest legal standing in the EU, as well as advanced signatures.
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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- Signicat vs SonarQube
- Signicat vs Keycloak
- Signicat vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
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- Signicat vs Dagger
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- Signicat vs Deno
- Signicat vs Fig
- Signicat vs Frappe
- Signicat vs Git
- Signicat vs Jumio
- Signicat vs Sumsub
- Signicat vs IDnow
- Signicat vs Trulioo
- Signicat vs Veriff
- Signicat vs iDenfy
- Signicat vs Yoti
- Signicat vs Shufti Pro
- Signicat vs Socure
- Signicat vs March Networks
- Signicat vs Featurespace ARIC Risk Hub
- Signicat vs Semperis
- Signicat vs MetricStream
- Signicat vs Microsoft Defender
- Signicat vs Mimecast
- Signicat vs Motorola Vigilant
- Signicat vs Nessus
- Signicat vs Microsoft Sentinel