Should you start with a monolith and scale later, or go straight into microservices?
Tech giants like Amazon and Netflix swear by microservices, but startups often stick with monoliths for speed. Which approach is best for your project? Let’s break it down!
- What is a Monolithic Architecture? 🏗️
A monolithic application is a single, unified codebase that handles everything—from the database to business logic and the frontend.
✅ Pros of Monoliths:
✔ Simpler to develop and deploy: Everything is in one place.
✔ Easier debugging and testing: No need to manage multiple services.
✔ Faster initial development: Great for startups and MVPs.
❌ Cons of Monoliths:
❌ Scalability challenges: Scaling means duplicating the whole app.
❌ Slower deployment cycles: A small bug can require redeploying the entire application.
❌ Tight coupling: Changes in one part of the app may affect everything else.
When to Use a Monolith?
🔹 When you're building an MVP or small project that needs to go to market quickly.
🔹 When you have a small development team with limited DevOps expertise.
🔹 When your app has low traffic and doesn’t need horizontal scaling.
- What is a Microservices Architecture? 🔗
Microservices break the application into small, independent services that communicate via APIs. Each service is responsible for a specific function.
✅ Pros of Microservices:
✔ Better scalability: Services can be scaled independently.
✔ Faster deployment cycles: Teams can update services separately.
✔ Technology flexibility: Use different languages, databases, and frameworks per service.
✔ Improved fault tolerance: If one service fails, the whole system doesn’t go down.
❌ Cons of Microservices:
❌ Increased complexity: Managing multiple services requires a DevOps culture.
❌ Higher infrastructure cost: Needs API gateways, monitoring, and container orchestration.
❌ Difficult debugging: A single issue can span multiple services.
When to Use Microservices?
🔹 When your app is expected to scale massively (e.g., Netflix, Uber).
🔹 When you have multiple teams working on different parts of the project.
🔹 When you need high availability and independent deployments.
Monolith vs. Microservices: Key Differences 🔍
When to Transition from Monolith to Microservices?
Start with a monolith and transition to microservices when:
✅ Your user base grows, and the app struggles to handle requests.
✅ Your development team expands, and deployments become a bottleneck.
✅ Your business needs faster releases and independent scaling.
✅ Your monolithic codebase is hard to maintain and update.
Strategy for Migration:
🔹 Identify performance bottlenecks in your monolith.
🔹 Start by extracting the most critical services (e.g., authentication, payments).
🔹 Use API gateways for communication between services.
🔹 Implement containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) for easier deployment.
- DevOps and Organizational Challenges 🤯
For Monoliths:
🔹 Easier CI/CD pipeline with simple deployments.
🔹 Less need for complex monitoring and logging tools.
For Microservices:
🔹 Requires DevOps expertise (Kubernetes, API gateways, observability).
🔹 More focus on automated testing, security, and service communication.
- The Final Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?
Go with Monolith if:
✅ You’re a startup building an MVP or a small team with limited DevOps experience.
✅ Your app won’t need to scale massively in the near future.
✅ You want a simpler deployment process.
Go with Microservices if:
✅ You’re building a large-scale application with high traffic.
✅ Your app needs independent scaling and frequent updates.
✅ You have a team structure that supports independent services.
💡 Final Thoughts: Start Smart, Scale Wisely!
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Start with a monolith, and when the time is right, transition into microservices. The key is balancing speed, cost, and scalability.
Which architecture are you using? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Top comments (16)
monolith can solve 80% of your problem, the rest is not about the architecture
Most small to medium size business will almost never need a true micro services architecture. There are exceptions maybe. Like if you really going grow to enterprise scale due to a guarantee of contract or corporate buyout with the expectations (and guaranteed funds) to grow the business.
Absolutely! For most small to medium-sized businesses, a well-structured monolith is often the best choice. Microservices introduce complexity that isn’t always justified unless there’s a clear need, like rapid scaling, enterprise-level growth, or specific workload separation.
Your point about guaranteed contracts or corporate buyouts changing the equation is a solid one. I’ll be updating the article soon to highlight this perspective so others can make more informed decisions. Appreciate your input, thanks for sharing!
Correct
Agreed 👍
Nice, interesting topic.
I won't go for microservices too early on. If you don't plan on building a mobile app, then just go with a monolith. If you plan on a mobile app, just split your app into an API and a frontend layer.
The bottleneck is often the DB layer with web applications. When your traffic grows you can just load balance DB servers, cache servers, and even web servers so long as your monolith is stateless (you store images on S3, sessions in Redis, and other user data in the DB).
A microservice only makes sense when you need to squeeze maximum performance or when part of your application requires special hardware. For instance, if you run scrapers, these require running a headless browser.
You don't want to run those processes on the same server as your primary website because they are resource-intensive. Instead, you could build a microservice to use Cloudflare workers. They spawn and self-destruct on the fly depending on what resources you need at any given time. This could be way cheaper than just running a dedicated server as well. Since serverless worker runtimes are memory and disk space-sensitive, you don't want to shove your entire monolith in there, hence why a lightweight microservice makes more sense.
Great insights! You’ve outlined some key considerations that many developers overlook when deciding between a monolith and microservices. Your point about handling high traffic with proper load balancing, caching, and database scaling before jumping into microservices is spot on. Also, the example of offloading resource-intensive tasks like scrapers to Cloudflare Workers is a fantastic real-world application.
I’ll be updating the article soon to integrate these valuable points so everyone can benefit from them. Really appreciate your input, uthanks for sharing your expertise!
Awesome, thank you for the kind words. Glad it was useful.
My pleasure
Most of the time Microservices are overkills.
Yes. Monolith is great for start up, however, we cannot underestimate the role of microservice in big company who need separation of concern in infrastructural management
Nice.
I was unsure which option would suit me better, but after reading this, I am now convinced that a monolith is the way to go.
Thanks for the post!
You are always welcome🙏
Great posts.
Thank you