Side by side
Backstage vs Gantry
Both stand on internal developer platforms. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan APILinuxMac+2
Backstage brings a software catalog, documentation, templates, search, and integrations into a customizable developer portal. Organizations should plan for self-hosting and a protected deployment environment.
Visit Backstage Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+2
Choose Gantry if your engineering team needs a self-hosted catalog and self-service workflows, with GitOps configuration and official Kubernetes, GitHub, and ArgoCD integrations. Teams that need APIs and schemas to remain stable across releases should account for its active development status.
Visit GantryThe facts
| Backstage | Gantry | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web | Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | backstage.io | gantryidp.dev |
| On internal developer platforms | #1 of 27 | #4 of 27 |
Backstage: what it does well
- Free, open-source framework.
- Catalog tracks software ownership and metadata.
- Templates publish generated projects to GitHub or GitLab.
- TechDocs keeps documentation close to code.
- Kubernetes feature aggregates service deployments.
What to know first
- Self-hosted deployment required.
- Standalone demo setup is not production-ready.
- Minimum requirements include 20 GB disk and 6 GB memory.
- Denial-of-service protection is described as rudimentary.
Gantry: what it does well
- Free and open source under Apache 2.0.
- Catalog tracks services, owners, teams, and dependencies.
- Runbooks and workflows use schema-driven forms.
- YAML configuration supports review, diffs, and rollback.
- Official integrations include Kubernetes, GitHub, and ArgoCD.
What to know first
- APIs and schemas may change between releases.
- PagerDuty, Datadog, Grafana, and Flux are planned integrations.
- Designed for self-hosting.
Alternatives to Backstage Alternatives to Gantry The whole list