Backstage · FinOps Profile

Backstage Finops

FOCUS-aligned FinOps for Backstage: open-source framework with no license cost; total cost of ownership is dominated by the underlying compute, database, storage, observability, and engineering time to operate the portal. Commercial distributions (Spotify Portal, Roadie, RHDH) introduce per-developer subscription cost on top.

Backstage Finops is the FinOps profile for Backstage on the APIs.io network, aligned with the FinOps Foundation Framework.

It defines 5 billable meters, billed in USD, on a monthly cycle, and pricing category subscription.

The profile maps 8 FOCUS columns for cost-allocation reporting.

Tagged areas include Developer Portal, Open Source, Internal Developer Platform, FinOps, and FOCUS.

Category: Developer Tools Pricing: Subscription Billing: Monthly FOCUS v1.3
Developer PortalOpen SourceInternal Developer PlatformFinOpsFOCUS

Framework Alignment

Framework
FinOps Foundation Framework
Data Spec
FOCUS v1.3

Charge Categories

UsagePurchaseAdjustment

FOCUS Columns

BillingCurrency
USD
ChargeCategory
Usage
InvoiceIssuerName
varies (self-hosted; Spotify, Roadie, Red Hat for commercial)
PricingCategory
Open Source / Subscription
ProviderName
CNCF / Backstage
PublisherName
CNCF / Backstage Community
ServiceCategory
Developer Tools
ServiceName
Backstage

Meters

hosting_compute
Unit: instance-hour
Cluster compute time hosting Backstage frontend / backend / scaffolder workers
database_storage
Unit: GB-month
PostgreSQL / managed DB capacity backing the Backstage catalog
techdocs_storage
Unit: GB-month
TechDocs static-site storage (typically S3 / Blob)
integration_api_calls
Unit: request
Calls into upstream developer tools (GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Jira, Kubernetes) made by Backstage on behalf of users
developer_seats
Unit: developer
Per-developer subscription for commercial Backstage distributions (Spotify Portal, Roadie, RHDH)

Sources