Side by side

Backstage vs Hygen

Both stand on code generators. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Backstage

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

Hygen

Free plan LinuxMacWindows

Hygen provides a project-local, template-driven way to generate files and modify existing ones. Its folder-based command structure and lack of automatic template discovery down folder trees are worth considering when organizing generators.

Visit Hygen

The facts

	Backstage	Hygen
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web	Linux, Mac, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	backstage.io	hygen.ecmascript.pizza
On code generators	#7 of 33	#11 of 33

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.

Hygen: what it does well

Free and MIT licensed.
Templates can live alongside project code.
Can add files and inject content into existing files.
Supports prompts, arguments, and shell commands.
Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

What to know first

Does not discover templates down folder trees by default.
No IDE plugins are listed.
No schema-to-code generation.

Alternatives to Backstage Alternatives to Hygen The whole list