🧩 From Monolithic to Microservices with NestJS — A Real-World Journey
We started with a Monolithic architecture — and it worked perfectly fine.
But as the system grew, we began to hit limits: scalability, tangled dependencies, and deployment bottlenecks.
So our team decided to take on the challenge:
Splitting a working Monolithic NestJS system into fully functional Microservices.
And yes — it was harder than it looked.
⚙️ What We Learned
1️⃣ Don’t start with Microservices
Begin with a stable Monolithic app first.
You’ll understand your business logic deeply before scaling it out.
2️⃣ Communication matters
Avoid REST for inter-service communication.
Use TCP or gRPC for lower latency and better reliability.
3️⃣ Choose your language & framework wisely
Both NestJS (Node.js) and Java shine here — strong DI/IoC support, structured architecture, and mature tooling.
4️⃣ Microservices ≠ automatic success
It adds complexity: larger codebase, higher infrastructure cost, and more coordination.
Only make the move when your business logic and traffic demand it.
🧠 Architecture in Action
We started with two core modules running in one service:
- 🧾
OrdersModule - 📦
ProductsModule
Then, we split them into independent services that communicate through TCP transport.
The API Gateway handles authentication by verifying JWT tokens before routing requests to each microservice.
🚀 The Result
- Cleaner separation of business logic
- Easier deployment and scaling
- Independent service updates
- Centralized authentication through the API Gateway
But we also learned: don’t chase Microservices for the hype.
Evolve your architecture only when your system truly needs it.
📖 Read the Full Story
👉 Full article with detailed diagrams and step-by-step migration on Medium:
🔗 NestJS: How Our Team Successfully Migrated from Monolithic to Microservices
💬 Before You Go
In Daily Better 🚀
Thank you for being part of the Daily Better community! 🌱
- 👏 Clap and follow the author if you enjoyed this story.
- 💬 Follow Daily Better for more inspiring tech and self-growth articles.
- ✍️ Want to write with us? Join our writer community and share your story — your experience could inspire someone today.
Written by Austin Hoang • Backend Developer | NestJS | Microservices | System Design
Top comments (0)