Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Structurizr VS Encore.dev

Compare Structurizr VS Encore.dev and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Structurizr logo Structurizr

Structurizr is a workspace editor that creates software architecture diagrams and documentation based on the C4 model.

Encore.dev logo Encore.dev

Encore Cloud helps you scale your engineering, not your DevOps.
  • Structurizr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-23
  • Encore.dev Encore Cloud Dashboard
    Encore Cloud Dashboard //
    2025-02-12

Encore Cloud automates infrastructure and DevOps, letting you ship 3x faster with 90% less DevOps work, using your own cloud on AWS & GCP. ✓ Get enterprise-grade infrastructure without the complexity and DevOps overhead ✓ Enable safe AI-assisted development with built-in guardrails ✓ Gain full visibility across your stack with built-in Service Catalog, API documentation, and tracing

Key Features:

Production-Ready AI Assisted Development: Encore's parser validates all generated code to ensure it correctly implements service and API definitions, infrastructure integrations, etc.

No boilerplate: Encore drastically reduces the boilerplate needed to set up a production ready backend application. Define backend services, API endpoints, and call APIs with a single line of Go code.

Distributed Tracing: Encore instruments your application for excellent observability. Automatically captures information about API calls, goroutines, HTTP requests, database queries, and more. Automatically works for local development as well as in production.

Infrastructure Automation: Encore automatically provisions and manages your cloud infrastructure. Works with all the major cloud providers and you deploy to your own account (AWS/Azure/GCP).

Simple Secrets: Easily store and securely use secrets and API keys. Never worry about how to store and get access to secret values again.

Service Catalog and Automatic API Documentation: Encore parses your source code to understand the schemas for all your APIs and automatically generate interactive API Documentation.

Structurizr

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Encore.dev

$ Details
freemium $99.0 / Monthly (Pro, per user)
Platforms
AWS Cloud Web Browser Google Cloud Platform GCP CLI
Release Date
2021 May

Structurizr features and specs

  • Expressiveness
    Structurizr allows architects to create detailed and expressive architecture diagrams using a code-based approach. This can lead to clearer and more precisely defined diagrams compared to traditional diagramming tools.
  • Version Control
    Because Structurizr uses a code-based approach to create diagrams, it integrates smoothly with version control systems like Git. This makes tracking changes and collaborating on architecture diagrams easier.
  • Auto Layout
    Structurizr can automatically lay out diagrams, reducing the manual effort required and helping maintain consistent styling and positioning across diagrams.
  • Modularity
    Structurizr enables modularizing diagram definitions, allowing architects to reuse components across different diagrams, improving maintainability and consistency.

Possible disadvantages of Structurizr

  • Learning Curve
    New users may face a learning curve as they need to get familiar with the Structurizr DSL (domain-specific language) or the various libraries available for different programming languages.
  • Less Interactive
    Compared to interactive GUI-based tools, Structurizr can be less intuitive and lacks direct manipulation of elements on diagrams, which might be a drawback for users who prefer a visual approach.
  • Limited Customization
    While Structurizr provides layout features, customization options in terms of visual styling may be limited compared to more traditional diagramming tools.
  • Integration Complexity
    Integrating Structurizr with existing systems and environments might be complex, especially for teams used to GUI-based tools, which could result in additional setup time.

Encore.dev features and specs

  • Infrastructure Automation
    Encore Cloud automates infrastructure provisioning and deployment in your cloud on AWS and GCP.
  • Automatic API Documentation
    Encore Cloud automatically provides API documentation and a complete Service Catalog for your entire system.
  • Observability
    Encore Cloud provides distributed tracing, metrics, and logs, without requiring any manual instrumentation.
  • AI Enablement
    The Open Source Encore framework extends the capabilities of AI coding tools like Cursor and Copilot, enabling them to create both application and infrastructure.
  • Preview Environments
    Encore Cloud sets up dedicated Preview Environments for each pull request.

Analysis of Encore.dev

Overall verdict

  • Encore.dev is considered a good choice for developers looking to streamline their backend development process, particularly those who prefer to focus more on code and less on infrastructure management. However, as with any platform, the suitability can vary based on specific project needs and team preferences.

Why this product is good

  • Encore.dev is a platform designed for building backend applications efficiently. It offers features such as automatic infrastructure management, built-in support for microservices, and simplified API development. By focusing on developer productivity, Encore.dev aims to reduce the complexity traditionally associated with cloud development. This can lead to faster deployment times and fewer infrastructural concerns for developers.

Recommended for

  • Developers who are building cloud-native applications
  • Teams looking to reduce time-to-market for backend services
  • Developers interested in an integrated approach to manage infrastructure
  • Companies seeking to implement microservices architecture with minimal overhead

Structurizr videos

Simon Brown: C4 Architecture Model and Structurizr

Encore.dev videos

Encore.ts is 9x faster than Express.js

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to build and event-driven application with Encore
  • Demo - Encore Framework introduction

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Structurizr and Encore.dev)
Diagrams
100 100%
0% 0
Backend Framework
0 0%
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
27 27%
73% 73

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Structurizr and Encore.dev

Structurizr Reviews

Top 7 diagrams as code tools for software architecture
Structurizr builds upon “diagrams as code”, allowing you to create multiple diagrams from a single model using a number of tools and programming languages.

Encore.dev Reviews

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
Encore is designed for startups building ambitious, event-driven, and distributed systems. If you’re a team that values speed, productivity, and code quality, Encore’s purpose-built tooling and streamlined workflows will help you move faster and build better backends.
Source: genezio.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Encore.dev should be more popular than Structurizr. It has been mentiond 79 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Structurizr mentions (8)

  • Could someone give me some feedback on my first 2 diagrams?
    You are welcome! It’s a nice way of breaking down problems. You can go one step further and generate them from code using something like Structurizr (https://structurizr.org/) if you want to get fancy. Source: about 2 years ago
  • System Design How to?
    Regarding documentation, I created the C4 model for visualising software architecture as a way to introduce some structure into architecture diagrams, because even today most of what I see is still ad hoc boxes and arrows, with little thought into what (abstractions) and how (notation) an architecture is described. My own tooling (https://structurizr.org) allows you to create multiple diagrams from a single model,... Source: about 2 years ago
  • D2, a text-to-diagram tool and library written in Go
    Would love to see a comparison to structurizr, which is a higher level dsl that essentially renders to any of the other three you're comparing. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Diagram as Code
    I just watched a goto conference talk by Simon Brown on https://structurizr.org/. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Diagrams as Code 2.0
    You can look at https://structurizr.org/ for a free version. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Encore.dev mentions (79)

  • How to use Logto for your Encore application
    Encore is a backend development platform that makes it easy to build production-ready APIs and microservices. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to build a Polling System with Node / TypeScript using Encore.ts
    Encore is an open-source backend framework for building scalable, distributed systems. It’s a dev-friendly tool that makes building robust, type-safe applications easy with it’s high-performance API framework. Whether you like TypeScript or Go, Encore supports both. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Rails for Everything
    I could really recommend Encore https://encore.dev/ that works best when you use their PaaS offering https://encore.cloud/ (think of NextJS & Vercel combo). One can argue it goes against some of the Go principles, but it's a really nice stack for solos or small teams without dedicated SREs. And as you grow you can BYOC & deploy it yourself or completely rewrite your API layer using Go stdlib. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Next.js vs Encore.ts — When should you NOT use Next.js for Backend?
    In this article I will compare Next.js with Encore. I will show you how they differ and how they compliment each other. If you have a Next.js app and want to expand the backend functionality of that app then this article is for you! - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Launch Week Day 3: Open Source Independence
    Refocused encore.dev solely on the open source project, making navigation easier. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Structurizr and Encore.dev, you can also consider the following products

IcePanel - Collaborative modelling and diagramming tool based on the C4 model. Software architecture design made fun! 🧊

OpenShift - OpenShift gives you all the tools you need to develop, host and scale your apps in the public or private cloud. Get started today.

draw.io - Online diagramming application

AlwaysData - Simple, fast and managed hosting.User-friendly and full-featured administration panel SSD disks.Praised by developers.Many languages and database systems: SSH, API, IPv6.

Terrastruct - A diagramming tool for software architecture

Docker Compose - Define and run multi-container applications with Docker