Developer Tools · pricing
Cortex pricing
Cortex publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the developer tools tools listed alongside it.
As of 31 August 2026, Cortex pricing is on request. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- On request
- Model
- Quote
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Not on record
Cortex plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cortex | On request | 5 | Entry tier |
What the product covers
The full Cortex feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Service catalogue
- Scorecards
- Initiatives
- Self-service templates
- Query language
- Eng intelligence
- Integrations layer
- On-call and ownership mapping
People bring Cortex in 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. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Cortex are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Developer Tools
Too few developer tools tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cortex (this page) | On request | quote | - | |
| Tilt | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Cortex |
| Hookdeck | Free, then $39/month | Per month by delivered event count | - | vs Cortex |
| Jitsu | Free, then $99/month | Per month by event volume | - | vs Cortex |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Free, then $20/month | Per month by compute unit | - | vs Cortex |
| Restate | Free, then $300/month | Per month by durable action count | - | vs Cortex |
| Cloud Native Buildpacks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Cortex |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Cortex badges page.
Before you pay for Cortex
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: a single tier at On request. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare Cortex against the tools that do have one before committing.
Cortex runs on web, api, and is published by Cortex Applications, Inc. of New York, New York, United States. The full record is on the Cortex review, and the rest of the category is under best developer tools tools.
Cortex pricing questions
- How much does Cortex cost?
- Cortex publishes a single tier, Cortex, at On request.
- Does Cortex have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: Cortex is listed as quote. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- Which developer tools tools can I use without paying?
- 8 of the 8 developer tools tools listed alongside Cortex have a free tier: Tilt, Hookdeck, Jitsu, Ona (formerly Gitpod), Restate.
- What am I actually paying for with Cortex?
- The record lists 8 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in 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.
- Does Cortex charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Cortex prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Cortex against before paying?
- The closest developer tools tools in this directory are Tilt, Hookdeck, Jitsu, Ona (formerly Gitpod). Each has a side-by-side comparison with Cortex covering price, platforms and features.