Monolith vs Microservices
A well-structured monolith is the right starting point for most products — simpler to build, deploy and reason about. Microservices win at scale, when many teams must ship independently or parts of the system have very different scaling needs. Splitting too early is a common, expensive mistake.
| Criterion | Monolith | Microservices |
|---|---|---|
| Speed to build early on | Fast — one codebase | Slow — distributed from day one |
| Operational complexity | Low | High — networking, orchestration |
| Independent deploys | Limited | Strong — ship services separately |
| Scaling hot spots | Scale the whole app | Scale just the busy service |
| Team autonomy at scale | Harder with many teams | Strong — clear ownership |
| Debugging & tracing | Simple — one process | Needs distributed tracing |
| Fit for early-stage product | Ideal | Overkill |
Choose Monolith when
New products, small-to-mid teams, and systems where simplicity and speed matter more than independent scaling. Start here; modularise internally.
Choose Microservices when
Large organisations with many teams, proven scale, or components with very different scaling and reliability needs.
The verdict
Start with a modular monolith and extract services only where you feel real pain — team coupling or a component that must scale alone. Lazlo designs monoliths that are easy to split later, so you get simplicity now without painting yourself into a corner.