The Microservices Mistake
- We built a "scalable" architecture.
5 services. 3 databases. 2 message queues.
The MVP took 4x longer than it should have.
We learned.
Monolith: The Right Answer
For MVP, monolith wins.
Always.
Why Microservices Are Wrong for MVP
1. Complexity Explodes
5 services = 5 things to deploy.
5 databases = 5 backup strategies.
5 message queues = 5 failure modes.
Each one is manageable. Together, they kill you.
2. Debugging Is Hard
A bug spans services. You trace requests across systems.
Your logs are spread. Your errors are indirect.
3. Testing Takes Forever
Integration tests across services. Contract tests. End-to-end tests.
Your test suite takes 30 minutes.
4. Latency Adds Up
Service A calls Service B calls Service C.
Each hop adds latency. Your user waits.
When Microservices Make Sense
1. Teams > 50 People
Microservices solve org problems, not tech problems.
If your team can't coordinate, services help.
2. Different Scaling Needs
If one part needs 10x the resources of others, separate it.
But that's rare.
3. Different Languages
If you need Python for ML and Go for realtime, separate them.
But that's rare.
The Monolith Advantages
1. Simple
One codebase. One deploy. One database.
Debug in one place.
2. Fast
No network calls between services.
Direct function calls.
3. Easy Testing
Unit test a module. Integration test the whole thing.
Test suite takes 5 minutes.
4. Easy Refactoring
Change a module. Tests catch breaking changes.
In microservices? Change an API. Hope nothing breaks.
The Migration Path
Start monolith. When it hurts, extract one service.
We did this for one client:
- Built monolith
- Identified the bottleneck (file processing)
- Extracted to separate service
- Kept everything else monolith
That worked.
Starting microservices? That never works.
The Honest Answer
For MVP: Monolith.
For scale: Evaluate at 50+ engineers.
The problem isn't microservices. It's premature optimization.
Build fast. Learn. Then optimize.
