Modular Monolith Versus Microservices
TradeoffMidSeniorUpdated
Small team (8 engineers) building a new B2B SaaS product.
Short answer: Modular monolith. Microservices add operational complexity (deploy, observability, distributed tx) that an 8-person team rarely has capacity for.
The Two Options
A
Modular monolith
B
Microservices
Drill This: Your Pick First
The Better Pick
Option A
Modular monolith
Microservices add operational complexity (deploy, observability, distributed tx) that an 8-person team rarely has capacity for. Keep boundaries clear in code; split later if scaling demands.
When the Other One Wins
Microservices
When team count grows to where independent deploys and language flexibility become bottlenecks, splitting along domain boundaries pays off.