Monolith is simpler to start; microservices enable independent scaling and deployment at the cost of complexity.
Microservices vs Monolith
| Aspect | Monolith | Microservices |
|---|
| Deployment | All at once | Independent per service |
| Scaling | Scale entire app | Scale individual services |
| Technology | One stack | Best tool per service |
| Team | All in one codebase | Teams own services |
| Data | Shared database | Database per service |
| Complexity | Simple to start | High operational overhead |
# When to choose microservices:
# - Large team (>10 engineers)
# - Components need independent scaling
# - Need independent deployments
# Rule: start with monolith, extract when pain is felt