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When to Break a Monolith: A Developer’s Checklist
Monoliths are simple to start with and often ideal for early-stage applications. However, as systems grow in complexity and scale, teams often reach a point where the monolith starts showing cracks.
The question isn’t “Should we move to microservices?” �� it’s when and why.
This article walks you through a practical developer’s checklist to help you decide when breaking a monolith is not just a trend-following decision — but a technical and business necessity.
Why Start with a Monolith?
Before diving into breaking it, let’s acknowledge why monoliths are often the right starting point:
- Simpler to develop and deploy
- Fewer moving parts
- Easier to debug and test
- Ideal for startups and MVPs
- Lower infrastructure and DevOps overhead
However, the architecture that got you started may not scale well as your team, codebase, and customer base grow.
🚨 Warning Signs: Is It Time to Break the Monolith?
Here are the most common indicators that suggest it may be time to move toward a microservices architecture — gradually and strategically.
