The following case studies illustrate real-world Backstage Developer Portal (IPD) implementations, evaluating Developer Portals, we compared key aspects like Customization, Self-service, and Quality checks during implementation. These capabilities make the difference between a portal that developers actually use and one that gets ignored.
Implementing a truly valuable Backstage setup isn’t plug-and-play—it takes time, focus, and deep expertise. With our experience, you get a tailored, production-grade portal in a fraction of the time and cost.
Dynatrace – Integrating Observability into the Backstage Portal (2024)
Dynatrace adopted Backstage as its central developer portal to manage a newly modularized platform. They integrated Backstage with internal team-ownership data, StackOverflow Q&A, and CI/CD, creating a unified catalog of services and responsibilities.
Dynatrace engineers wrote a custom plugin to fetch real-time observability and security data (e.g., Kubernetes deployment health, error logs, vulnerabilities) into each service’s page. They also built self-service software templates using the Scaffolder plugin—developers can create new project repositories pre-wired with Dynatrace monitoring and security.
The portal now shows automated quality checks like “quality gate” validation results and vulnerability findings per service. Dynatrace reports that centralizing development artifacts and democratizing ownership has reduced onboarding time.
- Customization: High (custom plugin for Dynatrace API, extensive integrations)
- Self-service: Yes (templates with built-in monitoring)
- Quality checks: Yes (automated reliability/security checks)
Uplight – Automated Standards and Scorecards (2024)
Uplight used Backstage to build a full software catalog and enforce engineering standards. YAML descriptors were adopted across all services, achieving near 100% catalog coverage.
They used a Tech Insights plugin to define production-readiness checks. Each week, codified checks run and generate scorecards for documentation, testing, and deployment criteria. These checks enabled instant insights and drove measurable improvements.
- Customization: Moderate (configured Tech Insights plugin)
- Self-service: Indirect (data-driven answers via the portal)
- Quality checks: Yes (automated scorecards)
Baillie Gifford – Governance in a Regulated Enterprise (2024)
Baillie Gifford adopted Backstage to enforce code catalog governance in a regulated environment. They imported systems via Azure DevOps and used Tech Insights for catalog completeness and onboarding checks.
Leadership championed adoption, while teams embraced TechDocs and Scaffolder templates. The portal now enforces compliance and fosters decentralized ownership.
- Customization: Moderate (scripting for import; standard plugins)
- Self-service: Yes (TechDocs and templates adopted organically)
- Quality checks: Yes (scorecards via Tech Insights)
Paddle – From Self-Hosted to Managed Backstage (2024)
Paddle ran a self-hosted Backstage with a custom Go backend for 4+ years, including custom plugins for testing and deployment. Due to maintenance overhead, they migrated to Backstage in 2024.
With infrastructure offloaded, they rebuilt Scaffolder templates and launched automated checks using Tech Insights. Strong vendor support helped them sustain momentum.
- Customization: High (initial custom backend; continued plugin use on Backstage)
- Self-service: Yes (project templates, infrastructure)
- Quality checks: Yes (scorecards for RFCs, DRs, security)
Contentful – InnerSourcing and Expert-Led Implementation (2022)
Contentful scaled from ~40 to ~250 engineers and adopted Backstage to enable InnerSource and code reuse. They hired experts to set up the portal while focusing internally on standards.
They built a custom Scaffolder plugin, created a Tech Radar plugin, and centralized API docs in TechDocs. Within a year, 90% of services had metadata and the Scaffolder became the default service creation path.
- Customization: Moderate (custom plugins for scaffolding and tech radar)
- Self-service: Yes (templates and centralized docs)
- Quality checks: No (focus was on consistency and reuse)
Lunar – Rapid Growth and Self-Service Onboarding (2021)
Lunar adopted Backstage during a growth phase to ease onboarding. Pre-rollout surveys revealed pain points in service discoverability and documentation.
After 9 months, Backstage streamlined ownership visibility and enabled self-service. They used mostly community plugins, with only one custom plugin (for RabbitMQ). TechDocs and API specs are widely used, especially for mobile development.
- Customization: Low (one custom plugin; mostly community plugins)
- Self-service: Yes (onboarding and documentation)
- Quality checks: Partial (Snyk plugin for security alerts)
Expedia Group – Enterprise-Wide Backstage (2021)
Expedia rolled out Backstage to ~5,000 developers. The MVP focused on documentation and catalog integration using TechDocs and a bootstrapped registry.
They built custom plugins for security scanning and DORA metrics and planned Scaffolder templates for new apps. Within two months, documentation hygiene improved significantly.
- Customization: High (custom plugins and enterprise integrations)
- Self-service: Yes (Scaffolder and docs improved API consumption)
- Quality checks: Yes (security and performance metrics)
Spotify – Originator Example (Ongoing)
Spotify, creator of Backstage, uses the platform extensively. Engineers generate new projects using predefined Scaffolder templates that create repos, allocate resources, and connect systems.
They use the Soundcheck plugin to configure pass/fail rules (e.g., reliability, compliance) and generate scorecards. The PagerDuty plugin displays incidents and on-call info per service.
- Customization: High (internal tooling and plugins like Soundcheck)
- Self-service: Yes (fully automated project setup)
- Quality checks: Yes (configurable scorecards via Soundcheck)
Conclusion
For small and medium-sized enterprises, adopting Backstage can be a game-changer—bringing structure, visibility, and efficiency to internal development workflows. But realizing its full potential isn’t straightforward. A successful implementation requires more than just installing plugins; it demands thoughtful design, alignment with internal processes, and careful attention to developer experience.
That’s where we come in.
As enterprise-grade experts, we specialize in setting up and implementing Backstage specifically for SMEs. We understand the resource constraints and the need for quick, tangible ROI. Our approach balances robust architecture with practical outcomes—delivering a high-quality, maintainable portal without the overhead of a large internal team or steep learning curve.
With our support, SMEs can get a tailored, production-ready Backstage instance in a fraction of the time and investment it would take to do it alone—so you can start realizing the benefits faster, with less risk and greater confidence.
References
- Dynatrace, Improving Developer Experience with a Central Developer Portal, Dynatrace DevOne Conference, 2024.
- Dynatrace, Backstage: From DevOps Toolchain Chaos to Developer Joy, Developer Blog, Dynatrace, 2024.
- Dynatrace, How Dynatrace Uses Backstage for Self-Service, Observability and Quality Checks, Internal Engineering Docs, 2024.
- Uplight, Developer Enablement with Backstage and Roadie, Uplight Engineering Blog, 2024.
- Roadie, Case Study: How Uplight Uses Backstage Scorecards to Track Engineering Standards, Roadie.io, 2024.
- Baillie Gifford, Using Backstage for Governance and Audit-Readiness in Fintech, Roadie Case Study, 2024.
- Paddle, Migrating from Self-Hosted Backstage to Roadie: Lessons Learned, Roadie Blog, 2024.
- Paddle, Custom Plugins and Productivity Gains with Managed Backstage, Roadie Tech Insights Series, 2024.
- Paddle, Standardizing Engineering Processes with Backstage Scorecards, Paddle Engineering Blog, 2024.
- Contentful, Scaling Developer Experience with Backstage and Roadie, Contentful Engineering Blog, 2022.
- Lunar, Scaling Onboarding and Documentation with Backstage, Backstage.io Case Study, 2021.
- Lunar, How We Adopted Backstage to Support Our Hypergrowth, Medium post by Lunar Engineering, 2021.
- Expedia Group, Why Expedia Adopted Backstage as Their Developer Portal, Backstage.io Presentation, 2021.
- Spotify, What the Creators of Backstage Learned from Scaling Developer Productivity, Spotify Engineering Blog, 2020.
- Spotify, Soundcheck Plugin for Backstage: Defining Production Readiness, Backstage.io Plugin Docs, 2024.
- Spotify, How Spotify Uses Backstage to Accelerate Developer Productivity, Backstage.io Engineering Whitepaper, 2021.