From Microservices to Modular Monolith: When to Consolidate

The Microservices Reality Check

After a decade of microservices adoption, many organizations are discovering that distributed systems bring complexity that does not always justify the benefits. The modular monolith offers a middle ground.

Signs You Have Over-Distributed

More time debugging distributed systems than building features. Simple changes require coordinating multiple teams. Observability costs exceeding infrastructure costs.

What is a Modular Monolith?

A modular monolith maintains clear module boundaries within a single deployable unit. Think of it as microservices without the network: well-defined domains with explicit interfaces, each module owns its data schema, compiler prevents cross-boundary violations, and single deployment means no network calls.