Monolith or microservices?

This is one of the most debated choices in software architecture, and the honest answer is that it depends on your team and your domain more than on technology. Answer seven questions about your situation to see which approach fits, and why.

1 of 7How many teams will work on this system in the next two years?

One teamTwo to four teamsFive or more teams

2 of 7How well do you understand the business domain and where its boundaries are?

Still discovering it; the product is newMostly clear, some areas still changingWell understood and stable

3 of 7Do parts of the system have very different load or availability needs?

No, load is fairly evenOne or two parts are very differentMany parts differ significantly

4 of 7How mature are your delivery and operations practices?

Basic: manual steps, limited monitoringSolid CI/CD and monitoring for one applicationAutomated pipelines, tracing, containers and on-call per team

5 of 7How often does one business action need to update data in several areas at once?

Very often, and it must all succeed or fail togetherSometimes; brief delays between areas are acceptableRarely; areas are mostly independent

6 of 7How different are the release needs of different parts?

Everything can release togetherOne or two parts must release on their own schedule or be certified separatelyMost parts need independent releases, several times a day

7 of 7What matters most right now?

Shipping the first versions quicklyRemoving a specific bottleneck in an existing systemScaling an organization that is already large

Show my recommendation

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For the full trade-offs, read microservices vs modular monolith. For how real organizations decided, see Shopify, Segment, Monzo and Uber.