Architecture that fits your business, not the hype cycle
Monoliths, modular monoliths, headless setups, static delivery, or a careful split into services. We pick the architecture your team can actually run — and your budget can survive. Projects from €1990.
patterns compared
systems
architecture work
multi-service projects
Pick the architecture your business actually needs
Modular monolith
From €1990One deployable codebase, clear internal modules. Right answer for most Cypriot sites, catalogues and shops.
Server-side rendering
From €2490HTML assembled per request. Justified when content changes by user, session or region. You pay with server time on every visit.
Static / JAMstack
From €2990Pre-built pages served from CDN. Fast, cheap to host, boring to operate. The default for marketing sites and landing pages.
Classic CMS
From €1990WordPress or similar with server-rendered pages. Editors know it, plugins cover most needs. You pay with maintenance and updates.
Headless CMS
From €3990Content API decoupled from frontend. Justified when the same content feeds web, app and kiosk. Otherwise it's extra moving parts.
Microservices
From €14900Independent services per domain. Only makes sense with multiple teams and real scaling pressure. For most companies it's a cost sink.
Hybrid / split later
From €4990Start modular, extract services only when a module shows real independent load. The sane path from monolith to distributed.
Infrastructure audit
From €890Review of current setup, hosting costs, deployment flow, monitoring gaps. Concrete recommendations before you rebuild anything.
Which architecture fits your business?
We start with a free architecture review. Most websites, catalogues and shops on Cyprus run perfectly on a modular monolith — you don't need Kubernetes to sell.
Monolith vs microservices
→ Monolith wins for most teams. One codebase, one deploy, one database. Microservices pay off only with multiple independent teams and heavy, isolated workloads.
Server rendering vs static
→ Static on CDN for speed, SSR only for real-time content. Static pages cost almost nothing to host; server rendering means running Node, queues and cache layers 24/7.
Classic CMS vs headless
→ Classic CMS covers 90% of marketing sites. Headless adds API complexity, separate frontend hosting and a bigger maintenance bill — rarely justified for a corporate site.
Not sure where to start?
→ Free architecture review (1 hour). We map your traffic, team and content workflows, then recommend the simplest setup that won't punish you monthly.
How we choose architecture: audit first, then a working stack
Load and team audit
We map your traffic, content workflows, and who actually operates the site. This decides the ceiling on complexity you can afford.
Stack selection
We match architecture to your organisation: monolithic, headless, static, or a hybrid. No fashion-driven choices.
Cost-of-ownership model
We calculate servers, monitoring, and on-call time before writing code. You see the monthly bill before launch.
Runbook and handover
Deployment guides, incident runbooks, and a named person responsible for infrastructure. 30 days of support included.
Architecture options at a glance
Starting prices after the 62% discount for agreeing to a case study. The final figure is locked in the contract before work begins.
4 reasons to work with us
Start with an audit
Free process audit in 1 hour. We'll show you which tasks to automate first, without pushing expensive systems.
Below market price
From €490 in exchange for case study publication. Fixed amount in the contract — no 'surprise' additional charges during implementation.
Full transparency
Reports every 3 days, tasks in tracker, chat in Telegram. See progress in real-time without "when then?".
Warranties in the contract
30 days free support, refund at any stage if not suitable, fixed deadlines.
Software architecture for business: options, real costs, and when to change
Why architecture matters more than your stack
Most companies on Cyprus don't have a Netflix-scale problem. They have a website, a catalog, maybe a booking system or an online store. Yet every month we see businesses paying for infrastructure they don't use and complexity nobody on the team can maintain. Architecture is not a fashion statement — it's a monthly bill. Choose wrong, and you'll pay for idle servers, extra developers, and a system that breaks in ways nobody understands. Limassol, Nicosia and Paphos are full of companies running microservices that should have been a monolith.
Monolith vs microservices: the honest comparison
Two ways to structure a backend. One is boring and works. The other is exciting and expensive.
- Modular monolith — one deployable application, clean internal boundaries. Justified for: websites, catalogs, booking systems, most e-commerce up to ~10k orders/month. You pay with: a single point of failure, slower release coordination when the team grows past 8-10 developers. Time to change when: deploys take more than 30 minutes, or different modules need to scale independently.
- Microservices — independent services, separate deployments. Justified for: multiple teams working in parallel, real-time systems, compliance isolation, genuinely independent scaling. You pay with: infrastructure overhead, distributed tracing, eventual consistency headaches, and a €3k-€8k monthly ops bill before you write a single feature. Time to change when: your monolith's database becomes the bottleneck and you've already tried read replicas and caching.
For a website, catalog, or most shops in Cyprus, the right answer is a modular monolith. Full stop.
Server-side rendering vs static generation
How your pages reach the browser determines speed, SEO, and hosting costs.
- Server-side rendering (SSR) — HTML is built on each request. Justified for: authenticated dashboards, personalized content, anything that changes per user. You pay with: server compute on every visit, slower time-to-first-byte, and a hosting bill that scales with traffic. Time to change when: your content is mostly public and the same for everyone.
- Static generation — HTML is pre-built and served from a CDN. Justified for: marketing sites, blogs, documentation, product catalogs that update a few times a day. You pay with: build times as content grows, and a rebuild step when content changes. Time to change when: pages need real-time personalization or user-specific data.
Classic CMS vs headless CMS
The difference is where the content lives and how it's delivered.
- Classic CMS (WordPress, etc.) — content and presentation in one system. Justified for: small teams, marketing sites, content editors who want to see what they're editing. You pay with: plugin maintenance, security updates, and a frontend tied to the CMS. Time to change when: you need the same content across web, mobile app, and other channels.
- Headless CMS — content in an API, frontend separate. Justified for: multi-channel publishing, React/Vue frontends, teams with developers and content editors working separately. You pay with: more moving parts, a separate frontend to build and host, and no visual preview out of the box. Time to change when: your team spends more time fighting the CMS than publishing.
JAMstack: when static sites make sense
JAMstack means JavaScript, APIs, and Markup — pre-built pages served from a CDN. It's not a framework, it's an approach to shipping.
- When it's justified: content sites, landing pages, documentation, portfolios, anything where traffic spikes are predictable and content is public.
- What you pay with: a build pipeline to maintain, and a delay between content edits and live updates. For a site with daily content changes, this is manageable. For real-time inventory, it's not.
- Time to change when: you need server-side logic on every request, or content updates must go live instantly without a rebuild.
Total cost of ownership: what architecture actually costs per month
The sticker price of development is only the beginning. Here's what ownership looks like in practice:
- Servers and infrastructure — a simple monolith on a VPS: €20-€80/month. A microservices setup with Kubernetes, managed databases, and message queues: €500-€2500/month before traffic. CDN for static sites: €0-€50/month for most projects.
- Monitoring and observability — basic uptime checks and logs: €0-€30/month. Distributed tracing, metrics dashboards, alerting for microservices: €100-€600/month in tools alone.
- On-call and maintenance — a monolith needs someone to check logs and restart occasionally: 2-5 hours/month, roughly €80-€300. A microservices system needs a rotation: 20-40 hours/month, €1000-€4000, because when one service fails, you need someone who understands the graph of dependencies.
We've seen companies pay more for infrastructure than for the original build. The complexity tax is real, and it's billed monthly.
FAQ: architecture decisions, answered directly
- Do we need microservices? If you have fewer than 3 development teams, fewer than 10k daily orders, and no regulatory requirement for service isolation — no. A modular monolith will serve you better and cost less.
- Can we start with a monolith and split it later? Yes, and that's exactly the right order. Build clean module boundaries inside the monolith first. When a module genuinely needs independent scaling or a separate team, extract it. Splitting a messy monolith is hard; splitting a modular one is a weekend task.
- What's faster for SEO: SSR or static? Static, almost always. Pages served from a CDN have lower time-to-first-byte, which correlates with better rankings. SSR is only faster for SEO when content changes per request and can't be cached.
- Who maintains the infrastructure after launch? For a monolith or static site: your team, with occasional help from us. For microservices: you'll need a dedicated DevOps engineer or a support contract. Budget €1500-€5000/month for that role in Cyprus.
- How much does a server cost? For most websites and shops: €20-€80/month on a VPS. For a modest microservices setup: €500-€2500/month. For a high-availability cluster with managed services: €3000-€8000/month. The right question isn't "how much is a server" — it's "how much architecture can we afford to operate."
Architecture decisions from our portfolio
Architecture questions we hear from teams in Cyprus
Do we really need microservices?
Can we start with a monolith and split it later?
What is faster for SEO: server-side rendering or static?
Classic CMS or headless?
Who will maintain the infrastructure after launch?
How much does a server cost for a typical project?
What is the total cost of ownership for an architecture?
Not sure which architecture fits?
We will look at your load, team and budget — and tell you straight if a simple setup is enough.
What else might be needed for a CRM
Let's pick the architecture your business actually needs
A 20-minute call or an email thread. We'll ask about your load, team, and growth plans — then tell you honestly if a modular monolith is enough. Response within 60 minutes during working hours (GMT+3).
Application sent
Thank you! We'll get back to you within an hour. In the meantime, you can write directly to us in Telegram for a faster response.
Not sure which architecture your project actually needs?
One working session with our engineers — and you'll know whether a modular monolith covers your load, what it costs to run, and when you'd genuinely need to split.