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Index › IT › Developer platform › Developer portals › Backstage vs Atlassian Compass
Internal developer portals · November 2026 Edition

Backstage vs Atlassian Compass

Zero of fourteen models named Backstage first on the direct prompt; zero named Atlassian Compass. Both were named by all fourteen models and Backstage carries 72 labels and Atlassian Compass 30, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Backstage

criticized challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

Atlassian Compass

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share12%4%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate42%17%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#5A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.
Labels7230A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Backstage reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Port was named alongside these two in twelve of the fourteen direct answers. Port vs Backstage · Port vs Atlassian Compass · Backstage vs Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the internal developer portals page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
BackstageFirst choices, of fourteen modelsAtlassian Compass
Direct004 against Backstage
Paraphrase107 against Backstage
Comparative80
Budget-constrained525 against Backstage
Scale-constrained002 against Backstage · 1 against Atlassian Compass
Negative0012 against Backstage · 4 against Atlassian Compass
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Backstage and Atlassian Compass were named in the same answer eighty-eight times, of the 218 answers naming Backstage and the 97 naming Atlassian Compass. In those answers Atlassian Compass took the first choice eight times and Backstage eighteen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Backstage and Atlassian Compass stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Backstage Atlassian Compass first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Backstage on the left and Atlassian Compass on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Backstage and Atlassian Compass stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Gemini 3.5 FlashPort alternatives: Atlassian Compass, OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, Roadie
Perplexity SonarPort alternatives: Atlassian Compass, Backstage, Humanitec, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Llama 4 MaverickPort alternatives: Backstage, OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
GLM 4.7 FlashXPort alternatives: Backstage, Humanitec, OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
MiniMax M2.5OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud alternatives: Backstage, Harness IDP, Roadie
GPT-6 LunaPort alternatives: Backstage, OpsLevel
Muse Glimmer 30BPort alternatives: Backstage, OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud

Neither was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
GPT-5.4 miniRoadie alternatives: Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, Port
Grok 4.20Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud alternatives: OpsLevel, Port, Roadie
Mistral SmallPort
DeepSeek V4 FlashPort alternatives: OpsLevel, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashPort alternatives: Humanitec
Kimi K2Port alternatives: OpsLevel

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Backstage leads by four points.
Backstage11%#2 of 7
Atlassian Compass7%#3 of 7
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Backstage leads by eight points.
Backstage12%#2 of 8
Atlassian Compass4%#5 of 8
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Backstage leads by twenty-two points.
Backstage24%#2 of 9
Atlassian Compass2%#8 of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Backstage

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“it is arguably the biggest trap for companies without a dedicated "Platform Team" of at least 3–5 senior engineers” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Backstage unless you have a dedicated platform engineering team and >1,000 developers” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Self-Hosting Backstage unless you have 2+ dedicated platform engineers” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · hard negative
“The Best Overall Choice (Zero Monetary Cost): Backstage ... the de facto industry standard for open-source developer portals” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Many teams start with Backstage for its flexibility but later discover they need more managed solutions” MiniMax M2.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“the best choice is usually open-source Backstage — if you can afford some engineering time” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about Atlassian Compass

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“I would not start a new evaluation with Atlassian Compass as a standalone option.” GPT-6 Luna · scale prompt · hard negative
“Avoid for new implementations — Atlassian is winding this down” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · hard negative
“Ecosystem-centric portals like Atlassian Compass... can lack the deep extensibility or custom integration freedom” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“The best internal developer portal for a company with a limited budget is Atlassian Compass, which is a cheap per-user IDP at $8/user/mo” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“Atlassian Compass is usually the best paid choice” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice
“If you're already using Atlassian tools, Compass is the most budget-friendly paid option.” Mistral Small · budget prompt · alternative
Also compared
Port vs BackstagePort vs Atlassian CompassBackstage vs Palo Alto Networks Cortex CloudBackstage vs RoadieBackstage vs OpsLevelPalo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud vs Atlassian CompassRoadie vs Atlassian CompassAtlassian Compass vs OpsLevelAll fifteen head-to-head pages and the full developer portals standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.