𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗪𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗵

Software teams are changing their strategy. Many teams spent years breaking apps into microservices. Now, they are putting the pieces back together. They are not building old, messy monoliths. They are building modular monoliths.

Microservices create hidden costs. Distributed systems add massive complexity. Many teams adopt microservices because of hype, not because they need the scale. If you have a small team, microservices might be slowing you down.

A modular monolith gives you the best of both worlds. It stays as one deployable unit, but the code is organized into strict modules. You get clear boundaries without the high cost of running a distributed system.

Compare the two approaches:

• Deployment: Monoliths use one unit. Microservices use many. • Boundaries: Monoliths use strict code rules. Microservices use the network. • Communication: Monoliths use simple function calls. Microservices use network calls. • Overhead: Monoliths have low operational costs. Microservices have high costs.

When should you choose a modular monolith?

  • Your team has fewer than 50 engineers.
  • You need to reduce cloud infrastructure costs.
  • You want to simplify debugging and testing.
  • Your services often need to be deployed together anyway.

Real companies are already doing this. Shopify uses a modular approach to manage millions of merchants. Amazon Prime Video moved a specific workload from microservices back to a monolith. They saw a 90% reduction in infrastructure costs.

Do not build for the scale of Netflix if you are a small team. Start modular. Extract a service only when your data shows you truly need to.

Use this checklist to see if you need to consolidate:

  • Do you spend more time debugging service connections than building features?
  • Is your cloud bill growing faster than your users?
  • Do you have fewer than 5 DevOps engineers for many services?
  • Are engineers tracing one request across 3 or more services to find a bug?

If you answered yes, a modular monolith is likely the right move.

Source: https://dev.to/ail_akram_dcc5063c428734b/why-we-moved-back-to-a-modular-monolith-the-costly-reality-of-microservices-in-2026-3kbo

Optional learning community: https://t.me/GyaanSetuAi