What is the Micro Frontend?

Micro frontend architecture is a frontend development approach that divides a monolithic codebase like microservice architectures. This approach’s aim is to manage big and complex web projects.

What are the benefits of using a micro frontend architecture?

Micro frontends offer some important advantages for modern web application development. These are:

Independent Development and Deployment: Teams can develop and deploy their own micro frontend projects independently. That provides a more flexible, efficient and faster development process.

Tech Stack Flexibility: Different teams can use different tech stacks thanks to micro frontends. Thus, each team can select their own tech stack.

Scalability: You can focus on specific parts of the application, which makes improving scalability easier.

Faster Load Time: It can reduce the risk of preloading redundant code, because typically, only the required micro frontends will be loaded.

Reusable Components: Common components become easier to reuse, which help increase the overall productivity.

Autonomy of Teams: Teams can work independently on their own components. This helps in managing the project and coordinating the team members’ activities.

What are the bottlenecks of using micro frontend architecture?

Micro frontend architectures offer numerous benefits, but also come with some challenges and bottlenecks. These are:

Complexity in Integration: Integrating multiple micro frontends into a cohesive user experience can be challenging. Managing communication, data flow, and dependencies between different micro frontends requires careful planning and implementation.

Performance Overhead: Loading multiple micro frontends can introduce performance overhead, such as increased network requests and larger JavaScript bundles, potentially affecting the application’s load time and responsiveness.

Consistent UI/UX: Maintaining a consistent look & feel across different micro frontends can be difficult, especially when they are developed by different teams or using different frameworks and technologies.

Cross-team Coordination: While micro frontends allow teams to work independently, this independence also requires strong coordination mechanisms to ensure that the entire application works seamlessly together, which can be challenging in terms of project management and communication.

Versioning and Dependency Management: Managing versions of shared dependencies across micro frontends can become complex. Ensuring compatibility and avoiding version conflicts require meticulous dependency management.

Security Concerns: The distributed nature of micro frontends introduces additional security considerations. Isolating and securing each micro frontend, as well as managing data access and exchange between them, requires robust security strategies.

How to transition your monolithic app to a micro frontend architecture?

Transitioning your monolithic app to a micro frontend architecture can help make large and complex applications more manageable, scalable, and flexible. This process involves breaking down your application into smaller, independently developable, deployable, and scalable parts. Here’s a step-by-step guide with code examples showing how to transition to a micro frontend architecture:

1. Analyze Your Application

• Identify parts of your application that can be separated into micro frontends.
• You can segment based on features, user stories, or functionality.
• Identify dependencies and integration points.

2. Designing Micro Frontends

• Each micro frontend should encapsulate a specific functionality.
• Adopt a component-based development approach; use modern frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular.
• Consider using an event bus or API gateway for communication.

// Example Event Bus Usage

document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('loginSuccess', { detail: { userId: '123' } }));

document.addEventListener('loginSuccess', (event) => {
    console.log('User login successful:', event.detail.userId);
});

3. Create a Shared Library for Micro Frontends

• Create a shared library containing reusable items such as style guides, component libraries, and utility functions.
• For instance, a UI component library can be shared across micro frontends.

// A common Button component

const Button = ({ onClick, children }) => (
    <button onClick={onClick}>{children}</button>
);

4. Determine Deployment Strategy

• Each micro frontend should be deployable independently.
• Set up CI/CD pipelines so that you can deploy each micro frontend independently or as a whole.

5. Integrating Micro Frontends

• Use a container application to bring together the micro frontends.
• Webpack Module Federation is a popular method for integrating micro frontends.

// Webpack Module Federation example
// host-config.js
module.exports = {
  name: 'hostApplication',
  remotes: {
    ProductModule: 'productModule@http://localhost:3001/remoteEntry.js',
  },
};

6. Testing and Optimization

• Perform independent tests for each micro frontend.
• Optimize for performance and user experience.
• Ensure the application works seamlessly as a whole.

7. Monitoring and Updates

• Monitor the performance of the application and micro frontends.
• Continuously improve based on error tracking and user feedback.

These steps can guide you through the transition to a micro frontend architecture. However, it’s important to adapt each step to the specifics of your own application. Although the process requires time and resources, it will make your application more sustainable and flexible in the long run.

When to use micro frontend?

When considering whether to use micro frontend architecture, it’s important to weigh the benefits against the complexity it introduces. Here are scenarios where micro frontend architecture is particularly beneficial;

1. Large-Scale Applications

For large-scale applications with multiple teams working simultaneously, micro frontends offer a way to compartmentalize the development process. This architecture allows different teams to work on different parts of the application independently, reducing bottlenecks and improving productivity.

2. Need for Scalability

When your application needs to scale, either in terms of features or user load, micro frontends provide a structured way to manage this growth. They allow you to scale parts of your application independently, making it easier to add new features or handle more users without a complete overhaul.

3. Diverse Technology Stacks

Micro frontends are ideal when different parts of your application benefit from different technology stacks. This architecture allows teams to choose the best tools for their specific part of the application without being locked into a single technology for the entire project.

4. Incremental Upgrades

If you need to gradually upgrade or refactor your application, micro frontends allow you to tackle this piece by piece. Instead of a big bang update, you can update one part of your application at a time, reducing risk and allowing for continuous improvement.

5. Autonomy and Faster Iterations

Teams can work more autonomously on a micro frontend, as they’re responsible for a specific feature or section of the application. This setup leads to faster iterations, as changes can be made and deployed without waiting for the entire application to be updated.

When Not to Use Micro Frontends

However, micro frontends are not a silver bullet and might not be suitable for all projects. Here are a few scenarios where micro frontends might not be the best approach:

• Small-to-Medium-sized Projects: For smaller projects, the complexity and overhead of implementing micro frontends might not justify the benefits.
• Tightly Coupled Features: If your application’s features are tightly coupled, splitting them into micro frontends can introduce unnecessary complexity and hinder performance.
• Limited Development Resources: Implementing and maintaining a micro frontend requires significant resources and expertise. If your team is small or lacks experience with this architecture, it might be challenging to manage.

In summary, micro frontend architecture is best suited for large-scale applications requiring scalability, flexibility in technology stacks, and faster iteration cycles. However, it’s crucial to consider the specific needs and constraints of your project before deciding to adopt this architecture.

If you want to read more about the transition from monolithic to Micro Front-end architecture, you can read my colleague Kayahan Güven’s article here.