Why We Built Our Own Developer Portal
After evaluating every off-the-shelf developer portal solution on the market, we made the decision to build our own. Here is what we learned, why we went custom, and what the result looks like.
Why Not Off-the-Shelf
Existing solutions fell into two categories: lightweight portals that lacked deep integration capabilities, and heavyweight platforms that required months of customization. Neither fit our needs for a portal that would serve both internal engineers and external customers.
Core Architecture
Our portal is built as a plugin system at its core. Every feature — documentation, API keys, monitoring dashboards, deployment controls — is a plugin that registers with the portal kernel. This allows us to ship new capabilities independently and lets customers enable only what they need.
Developer Experience
The portal includes a built-in API playground, real-time log streaming, and a metrics explorer backed by Prometheus. We focused heavily on making the onboarding experience under 60 seconds: sign up, create an API key, and make your first request.