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Cortex vs Turso

Cortex logo

Cortex

Developer Tools

Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services

From
On request
Free plan
No
Visit CortexFull review
Turso logo

Turso

Databases

SQLite-lineage database platform for running very large numbers of small per-tenant databases, with an MIT-licensed engine.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit TursoFull review

The short version

  • Turso starts at $4.99/mo; Cortex prices on request.
  • Only Cortex lists service catalogue; only Turso lists per-tenant databases.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cortex and Turso actually diverge.

Attributes where Cortex and Turso differ
AttributeCortexTurso
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelQuoteFreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryDeveloper ToolsDatabases

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 Turso

  • Per-tenant databases
  • MIT licence
  • Embedded replicas
  • SQLite compatibility
  • HTTP access
  • Branching
  • Point-in-time restore
  • In-process engine

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 Turso
  • An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Turso
  • Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Turso
  • Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Turso

Turso

  • Multi-tenant SaaS where each customer gets their own database for real isolation, per-tenant restore and clean deletionnot Cortex
  • Agent or session infrastructure that creates a throwaway database per task and destroys it afterwardsnot Cortex
  • Local-first and offline-capable applications where an embedded replica serves reads at file speed and syncs when connectivity returnsnot Cortex
  • Embedding a SQLite-compatible engine in a product where the public domain original's closed contribution model is a problemnot 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

Turso

  • SQLite allows one writer per database, so a single tenant's write throughput cannot be scaled horizontally and a busy tenant serialises against itself with no sharding option
  • Per-tenant databases mean per-tenant migrations, so every schema change becomes a fan-out job that must be idempotent and resumable, and multi-database schemas, the feature meant to solve this, is deprecated
  • There are no cross-database queries; ATTACH is deprecated on the cloud, so any report or analytic spanning tenants must be assembled in your application or in a separate warehouse you also operate
  • Data Edge, the multi-region edge replication that was Turso's original positioning, is deprecated, so a large share of the tutorials and articles describing Turso as an edge database describe behaviour you can no longer rely on
  • Three engine lineages share the name, SQLite, the libSQL fork and the Rust rewrite, and the Rust engine is still maturing, so SQLite compatibility needs verifying against your specific pragmas, extensions and query patterns; the cloud already restricts journal_mode and busy_timeout and makes user_version read-only

Pricing, plan by plan

Cortex

On request
  • CortexOn request
    • Service catalogue and ownership mapping
    • Scorecards and initiatives
    • Self-service templates

Turso

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 100 databases
    • 5 GB storage
    • 500M monthly rows read
  • Developer$4.99/mo
    • Unlimited databases
    • 9 GB storage
    • 2.5B monthly rows read
  • Scaler$24.92/mo
    • Unlimited databases
    • 24 GB storage
    • 100B monthly rows read
  • Pro$416.58/mo
    • Unlimited databases
    • 50 GB storage
    • 250B monthly rows read

Which should you pick?

Choose Cortex if

  • You need service catalogue.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want scorecards.
Cortex review

Choose Turso if

  • You need per-tenant databases.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want mit licence.
Turso review

Questions people ask

Is Cortex or Turso better?
Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Turso at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cortex or Turso?
Turso has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for Turso.
Does Cortex or Turso run on more platforms?
Cortex runs on Web, API. Turso runs on Web.
Can I use Turso for free?
Yes. Turso 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 Turso is typically brought in for.
What can Cortex do that Turso cannot?
Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Turso covers Per-tenant databases, MIT licence, Embedded replicas, SQLite compatibility.

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.

Turso: Is Turso just hosted SQLite?

Not exactly. It hosts databases built on the SQLite lineage: libSQL, an MIT fork of SQLite, and Turso Database, a newer Rust rewrite. The platform adds branching, backups, an HTTP API and programmatic database creation.

Cortex: Is pricing published?

No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.

Turso: Can I really run a million databases?

That is the design goal and the platform API exists to make provisioning and deletion programmatic. The practical constraints are the ones that come with it: migrations fan out, and nothing can query across databases.

Cortex: Can it self-host?

It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.

Turso: How do embedded replicas handle read-after-write?

Reads come from the local replica and writes go to the primary, so a read immediately after a write can return stale data unless you wait for a sync. Application code has to account for that rather than assume it.

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.

Turso: What licence is it under?

libSQL and Turso Database are both MIT. Turso Cloud is a commercial managed service built on them, so the engine is genuinely open even though the platform is not.

Turso: Is Turso still an edge database?

No. Data Edge, the multi-region edge replication feature, is deprecated. The current positioning is per-tenant and embedded databases, and older material describing edge replication is out of date.

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