Web application architecture is the main reason certain web apps perform poorly and others excellently. This is because architecture defines how various software components interact with each other and the end user (frontend, backend, and user).
Creating modern web applications is continuously evolving and so are the architectures on which these apps are built. There are several options for web app architectures, from microservice architecture to serverless architectures.
This post will discuss things to consider while building your high-performant applications.
What is Web Architecture?
Before understanding web architecture, you should know how the web application works.
In a nutshell, a web application is software that is accessed using a web browser. From the above definition, you can see the two leading players in a web application, i.e. “software” and “web browser”.
These players, in familiar terms, are the Backend and Frontend or Client servers. How this works is that a user sends a request from the browser (Frontend) to the backend server. The backend server receives the request, processes it, and sends back a response to the front for the user to see or access it.
A web app architecture can be likened to a layout containing all the software components required to build an application and how they interact.
Modern web architecture can be classified like the following, based on software development and deployment:
- Microservice Architecture
- Serverless Architecture
- JAMstack Architecture
Microservices Architecture
Microservices are one of the most popular modern web architectures for building extensive and distributed web applications. It is loosely coupled and gives the flexibility to update, change, and scale services independently. Each microservice is built around a single business function, which may be created with a custom set of technologies and usually has its data flow and database.
Microservices are popular thanks to the availability of microservice-friendly cloud infrastructures like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and others.
This approach is known for its high reliability, reusability, huge scalability potential, and incredible tech and business agility. It solves the problems of earlier architecture (Monolithic).
However, as these microservices grow, managing them and deploying multiple services with runtime instances becomes challenging.
Serverless Architecture
Serverless architecture, not like the name, has servers. How this works is that your application is deployed on servers elsewhere owned and maintained by some cloud service providers.
In this approach, you don’t have to worry about execution and deployment but can focus on product quality. It lowers costs since you only pay for the infrastructure when it’s in use and not for idle time or unused space.
This architecture reduces development measures and costs and is highly scalable since all the services are created as separate entities and the backend code gets simplified.
Below are some approaches to serverless architecture:
Function-as-a-Service(FaaS)
Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a serverless method to execute modular code on edge. FaaS lets developers write and update a piece of code on the fly which can then be performed in response to an event such as a user clicking on an element in a web application. This makes it easy to scale code and is a cost-efficient way to implement microservices.
Backend-as-a-Service(BaaS)
Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a cloud service model in which developers outsource all of the backend aspects of a web or mobile application and focus on writing and maintaining just the front end.
BaaS vendors like Appwrite provide pre-written software for activities on servers, such as user authentication, database management, remote updating, data security, push notifications (for mobile apps), and cloud storage.
JAMstack Architecture
Jamstack is an architectural approach that decouples the web experience layer from data and business logic, improving flexibility, scalability, performance, and maintainability.
Jamstack removes the need for business logic to dictate the web experience.
You can also think of Jamstack as a web development approach for building a static web application with dynamic functionalities.
Over the years Jamstack web development approach has become more popular because of the following functionalities:
- Framework agnostic
- Cost-effectiveness
- Highly scalable
- Security
- Great developer experience
So, with JAMstack’s pre-rendered HTML files and its dynamic functionalities handled by third-party APIs through JavaScript, you get the advantage of both static and dynamic websites.
Best Practice
Choosing the best web app architecture for your applications depends on your needs and how you plan to develop the application. Microservice and serverless computing are both critical to web application development; the difference is that microservice architecture offers a long-term solution with high scalability, while serverless computing offers code efficiency.
However, microservices architecture will be great if you build a big enterprise like Uber, Airbnb etc., mainly because of its quick scalability. But if you are building a web or mobile application in a startup, serverless will be your best bet since it has a low scaling cost and works perfectly with lightweight applications.
When you intend to build static pages or an eCommerce application that require SEO, great user experience, and incredible load capacity, it is excellent to adopt the Jamstack approach.
Conclusion
This post discussed modern web development architecture and what to consider before choosing the architecture for your next performant application.
Resources
The following resources might be helpful:
Top comments (2)
Fantastic breakdown of modern web architectures for high-performance apps! Your insights on the importance of a well-thought-out web application software architecture resonated well. It's a crucial aspect often overlooked, and your article serves as a valuable guide for developers navigating this landscape.
Thank you, Olivia!