Stop 11 · Cloud Architecture PatternsTopics · 5/9

Microservices vs Monolith in the Cloud

In short

"Netflix uses microservices, so we should too" has hurt many small teams. Both styles work in the cloud. The real question is which problems you want to have.

A monolith is simpler to build and deploy initially but can become unwieldy at scale; microservices offer independent scaling and deployment at the cost of significant operational complexity — the right choice depends on team size and system maturity.

The blob character holds a full steel thali beside several separate small food stalls.

Think of it like this

Thali or food court

One kitchen serving a full thali is simple: one cook, one bill, one plate. A food court has separate counters for dosa, chaat and juice, each with its own staff. More choice and scale, but more coordination.

Watch it happen

One deployable or many

Monolith

One codebase, one deploy, one database
Easy local setup and debugging
Grows tangled; scales as one unit

Microservices

Teams deploy services independently
Scale only the busy service
Network calls, tracing, more ops work

Start with a well-organised monolith. Split out services when team size or scaling needs clearly demand it.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Modular monolith

One deploy, but clean internal modules with clear boundaries. Easy to split later if needed.

Team-shaped

Microservices pay off most when separate teams own separate services and release on their own schedule.

Own your data

Each microservice should own its database. Shared tables quietly couple services back together.

Ops tax

Every service needs CI, monitoring, alerts and on-call. Ten services means ten of each.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Splitting a two-person app into eight services on day one.

Do this instead

You'll spend more time on networking and deploys than features. Keep it one app until it hurts.

Oops

Microservices that all read the same database tables.

Do this instead

That's a distributed monolith. Give each service its own data and talk through APIs or events.

Your mission

Draw the seams

~30 min

Quick check

What's a sign you're ready to split out a microservice?

Go deeper

1List 2 advantages of a monolith and 2 advantages of microservices for a hypothetical startup.
2Learn why 'start with microservices' is often premature optimization for an early-stage product.
3Understand the operational overhead (service discovery, distributed tracing, network reliability) microservices introduce.