Migration · Monolithic application → Microservices (or modular monolith)
Monolith to Microservices Migration Guide (When to Actually Do It)
Most teams reach for microservices too early — and pay for it in operational complexity. We help you decide whether the split is actually worth it, then run a strangler-fig migration if it is. Often the right answer is a modular monolith instead.
Why teams migrate
- Independent deploy cadences blocked by monolith release coordination
- Specific service scaling needs not met by scaling the whole monolith
- Team structure has split into multiple product lines
- Different parts of the system have very different language / runtime needs
- Specific compliance / data-residency requires service-level isolation
Our migration approach
Phase 0 — Decide if you should
We audit the monolith, organisation structure and pain points. Often the right call is a modular monolith with strong internal boundaries, not microservices. We don't push the trendy answer.
Phase 1 — Identify seams
We map domain boundaries — billing, identity, notifications, content, etc. Each becomes a candidate service. The seams determine the order of extraction.
Phase 2 — Strangler fig pattern
We route new traffic for one seam through a new service. Old monolith handles everything else. One seam at a time, never a big-bang.
Phase 3 — Operational maturity
Service discovery, distributed tracing, idempotency, retries, circuit breakers, deployment pipelines per service. Microservices is an ops investment, not just a code investment.
Pitfalls we've seen
- Microservices increase complexity. Do not migrate for resume-driven reasons.
- Distributed transactions are hard. Design seams so that cross-service transactions are rare.
- Build observability before you split. Otherwise you'll be debugging blind.
- Don't split until the boundaries are stable in the monolith. Extract once domain logic is clean.
Pricing and timeline
Price range
$30,000 – $120,000
USD, fixed-cost after written scope
Timeline
16 – 32 weeks (phased)
Phased rollout from kickoff to legacy retirement
FAQ
Should we migrate to microservices?
Usually not. Most teams ship faster on a well-modularised monolith than on microservices. We only recommend the split when independent scaling, independent deployment or organisational structure genuinely demand it.
How do you avoid distributed-system chaos?
We design for explicit contracts (OpenAPI / gRPC schemas), idempotent operations, async messaging where possible, circuit breakers and graceful degradation. And we don't split a seam until it's stable.
What does this cost?
Highly variable. A focused two-service extraction can be $30,000. A full migration over 6+ months runs $120,000+. We scope phase-by-phase, not in one big number.
Considering this migration?
We'll scope it phase-by-phase and share a fixed-cost proposal within 48 hours. See the related service below for our standard api & cloud services approach.