# Backstage: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 74 judge labels across 3 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/backstage

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Internal developer portals](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/developer/internal-developer-portals/index.md) | 12% | 2 | 42% | 72 |
| [Infrastructure as code](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/infrastructure-as-code/index.md) | 0% | 23 | 0% | 1 |
| [Intelligent document processing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/intelligent-document-processing/index.md) | 0% | 109 | 100% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "The Best Overall Choice (Zero Monetary Cost): Backstage ... the de facto industry standard for open-source developer portals" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Developer portals)
- "Many teams start with Backstage for its flexibility but later discover they need more managed solutions" (MiniMax M2.5, Developer portals)
- "the best choice is usually open-source Backstage — if you can afford some engineering time" (GPT-5.4 mini, Developer portals)
- "The "original gangster" of developer portals... holds roughly 90% market share by adoption." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Developer portals)

## And against it

- "it is arguably the biggest trap for companies without a dedicated "Platform Team" of at least 3–5 senior engineers" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Developer portals)
- "Avoid Backstage unless you have a dedicated platform engineering team and >1,000 developers" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Developer portals)
- "Avoid Self-Hosting Backstage unless you have 2+ dedicated platform engineers" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, Developer portals)
- "Avoid or be cautious about Backstage if you expect a turnkey solution" (Mistral Small, Developer portals)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Backstage, from 197 of the 218 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- cycloid.io: 83
- port.io: 83
- opslevel.com: 80
- toolradar.com: 71
- dupple.com: 69
- backstage.io: 51 (its own site)
- gane.ai/index: 50
- roadie.io: 46
- cortex.io: 42
- controlplane.com: 41

### Pages cited

- https://dupple.com/learn/best-internal-developer-portals: 69
- https://toolradar.com/guides/best-internal-developer-portals: 68
- https://opslevel.com/resources/internal-developer-portal-the-buyers-guide: 47
- https://controlplane.com/blog/post/best-internal-developer-platforms: 41
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-internal-developer-portals: 36
- https://cycloid.io/blog/top-11-internal-developer-platforms-idps-in-2026: 32
- https://guideflow.com/blog/internal-developer-platform: 29
- https://roadie.io/blog/7-best-developer-portals-for-enterprise-engineering-teams: 27

## In its own words

What Backstage's own pages state, read 2026-10-05. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: an open source framework for building developer portals (https://backstage.io/)
- For: your product teams (https://backstage.io/)

## What it publishes

Every page backstage.io exposes, read 2026-09-29: 1779 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 63 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-04-20
- glossary or explainer: 5 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2020-03-01
- Recent: 2026-04-20 blog: Backstagecon kubecon 26 amsterdam https://backstage.io/blog/2026/04/20/backstagecon-kubecon-26-amsterdam
- Recent: 2026-02-25 blog: Get a jump on contribfest https://backstage.io/blog/2026/02/25/get-a-jump-on-contribfest
- Recent: 2025-12-30 blog: Backstage wrapped 2025 https://backstage.io/blog/2025/12/30/backstage-wrapped-2025
- Recent: 2025-11-25 blog: Backstagecon kubecon 25 atlanta https://backstage.io/blog/2025/11/25/backstagecon-kubecon-25-atlanta
- Recent: 2025-10-15 blog: Backstage contribfest kubecon guide https://backstage.io/blog/2025/10/15/backstage-contribfest-kubecon-guide
- Recent: 2025-08-08 blog: Migrating legacy services to a modern developer portal https://backstage.io/blog/2025/08/08/migrating-legacy-services-to-a-modern-developer-portal

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.