🧠The Misconception About Microservices
Many developers believe microservices will magically simplify everything.
They expect:
Faster deployments
Faster releases
Fewer bugs
Independent teams
Cool bullet points on their resume
Sounds great, right? But reality looks very different.
🚨 The Harsh Reality of Microservices
Here’s what developers actually face when they dive into microservices too early:
Managing over a hundred Git repositories
Distributed transaction nightmares
Strong consistency issues
Complex saga and compensation logic
Debugging across multiple services
Event-driven architecture complexities
Communication failures between services
Monitoring dozens of services
Logging across disconnected systems
Orchestrating deployments
Version mismatches
Increased network latency
Synchronization problems
Difficult configuration management
Troubleshooting across service boundaries
Service-to-service security challenges
Painful local development setups
Load balancing issues
Team coordination difficulties
In short, complexity does not vanish. It just changes form and moves to another layer.
🧩 Start with a Modular Monolith
You don't need microservices for every project.
In fact, most projects do not need them.
The best approach is often to start with a modular monolith. This architecture combines:
The simplicity of a monolith
The structure of microservices
The scalability to grow when you need to
With a modular monolith you work within a single codebase but modules are clearly separated by domain or responsibility. This enables teams to work independently without the communication overhead of distributed systems.
You maintain fast development cycles and easy debugging while keeping your architecture clean and scalable.
💡 Why It Works So Well
I have worked with many different architectures throughout my career. The one that consistently delivers the best balance of performance and maintainability is the modular monolith.
When built correctly, a modular monolith allows you to delay the switch to microservices until it becomes truly necessary not because of hype or pressure but because the system has naturally outgrown its original boundaries.
The transition from modular monolith to microservices becomes easier and safer because the modules are already defined and decoupled.
📚 A Recommended Resource
If you want to go deeper into this topic, I highly recommend following Milan Jovanović and his detailed work on modular monoliths:
👉 What Is a Modular Monolith – Milan Jovanović
He explains how to structure your code, when to scale out and how to avoid the traps many developers fall into when they adopt microservices too early.
✅ Final Thoughts
Microservices are not magic. They are powerful but complex and they require serious investment in infrastructure and expertise.
Start simple. Build strong. Grow when the time is right.
The best microservices usually evolve from well-structured modular monoliths.