Learn about the most popular software architecture frameworks and their pros and cons. Find out how to choose the best framework for your software project.

Some other frameworks/principles to consider are - 1. DDD (Domain Driven Design) principles 2. Clean Architecture practices. These are used widely with other popular architectures.

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1 Layered Architecture

Layered architecture is one of the most common and simple software architecture frameworks. It organizes the software system into layers that have specific responsibilities and dependencies. For example, a typical web application may have a presentation layer, a business logic layer, a data access layer, and a database layer. The advantage of layered architecture is that it separates the concerns and allows for easy modification and testing of each layer. The disadvantage is that it can introduce performance and complexity issues due to the rigid hierarchy and coupling of layers.

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Slava Korenblit

Senior Software Engineer | Driving Innovation and Delivering Robust Solutions
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Layered architecture organizes a software system into distinct levels, each with its own responsibility. This separation of concerns enhances modularity and maintainability. The IDesign method further refines this by advocating a top-to-bottom flow (client -> managers -> engine -> resource), ensuring clarity and efficiency. It's essential to balance the number of services to avoid complexity or excessive costs. By focusing on volatility, we achieve an adaptable architecture. The goal is to find the minimal set of services that meet all core use cases and encapsulate volatilities.

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Md Shamimuddin(SHAMIM)

Enterprise Architect | Technical Solution Manager | Enterprise Architecture, System Design, Cloud native architecture, Application Modernization, Application Development, Security, DevOps, Technical Project Management.
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Layered architecture is one of the most structured approaches of well-defined loosely coupled software design, enhancing maintainability. Most widely used logical layers are Interaction/helper layer, Business logic, Data Access etc. Mentioned layers also deployed together as application to service specific purpose. Its fairly easy to detect and isolate issue during debugging within specific layer without affecting the entire system. This modularity simplifies maintenance tasks. I would highly recommend this while developing single application or microservices.

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Rajeev Kumar

Senior Software Architect | Java | Python | Micro Services | Apache Kafka | Apache Ignite | Machine Learning | React JS | C++ I Agile Lead
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One should definitely consider the SOLID design principle. This is a set of highly effective 5 rules that need to be considered while designing class structure.

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Mohammad Kamruzzaman

Servant Leader | Software Architect | E-Commerce | E-Ticketing | Health Tech | Delivery Tech | Team Building & Management | Director of Engineering @Shohoz
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Some of the most popular software architecture frameworks include the Model-View-Controller (MVC), which separates an application into three main components; the Microservices architecture, which structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled services; the Layered architecture, which organizes components into horizontal layers; and the Domain-Driven Design (DDD), which focuses on domain modeling and collaboration between technical and domain experts. These frameworks provide guidelines and best practices for designing and organizing software systems, helping developers create scalable, maintainable and efficient applications.

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Eugene H.

Entrepreneurship, Technology & Innovation
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Layer architecture focused on functional abstraction. The abstraction forces the application to separate the responsibilities and keeping the domain complexity specific and manageable further encourages high functional cohesion. IMO, the pros of employing it outweigh the cons.

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2 Microservices Architecture

Microservices architecture is a software architecture framework that breaks down the software system into small, independent, and loosely coupled services that communicate through APIs. Each service has its own functionality, data, and deployment. The benefit of microservices architecture is that it enables high scalability, availability, and resilience, as well as faster development and delivery cycles. The drawback is that it requires more coordination, monitoring, and testing, as well as more network and infrastructure resources.

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Himanshu Singh

Staff Software Engineer at TomTom
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In my view, crafting and perfecting individual microservices generally present fewer hurdles than the intricacies involved in integrating them into projects. Moreover, despite their independent design, it's crucial to establish means of inter-service communication, whether through REST APIs or messaging services. Therefore, determining the quantity of microservices and delineating their logical boundaries is highly essential.

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Jithendra Pagadala

Highly motivated Leader with a masterâ€™s from IIT, Kharagpur and strong expertise in Product Management and Agile Scrum Management.
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Microservices makes the developer life easy for the below reasons. 1. Quick development as size would be small/medium 2. Easy maintenance and deployment 3. Easy to test But the harsh reality is that there should be proper maintenance of documentation of all micro services and their purpose. Otherwise it will become very clumsy to understand the entire batch of micro services in the application.

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Eugene H.

Entrepreneurship, Technology & Innovation
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Microservices architecture is an attempt to create reusable services somewhat. The key to this is to keep the service as simple as possible and at the same time keep the number of services in check. If you do this well, investing in microservice architecture will pay you in many folds.

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Sujeet Kumar

Senior Software Engineer | Cloud -AWS & Azure | Gen AI, RAG, LLMs, Agent | Microservice, RESTful APIs | Dynamics 365 F&O, PowerApp
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ðŸ” ð— ð—¶ð—°ð—¿ð—¼ð˜€ð—²ð—¿ð˜ƒð—¶ð—°ð—²ð˜€ ð—”ð—¿ð—°ð—µð—¶ð˜ð—²ð—°ð˜ð˜‚ð—¿ð—² ðŸ” Divides a system into small, independent services for flexibility and efficiency. ðŸ”¹ High Scalability & Availability - Facilitates growth and ensures reliability through distributed services. ðŸ”¹ Faster Development Cycles - Enables rapid deployment and iteration by isolating service updates. ðŸ”¹ Increased Overhead - Demands more in terms of coordination, monitoring, and infrastructure management. #SoftwareEngineering #Microservices #SystemDesign

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Muhammad israr

Expert Backend NodeJs | NestJs | AWS
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TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework): Widely used for enterprise architecture, providing a comprehensive approach. Zachman Framework: Organizes perspectives on enterprise architecture and promotes a structured approach to design and decision-making. Archimate: Focuses on visual modeling and notation for enterprise architecture, providing a standardized way to represent architectural concepts. MODAF (Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework): Primarily used in defense and security domains, offering a framework for system development and integration. Microservices Architecture: Although not a traditional framework, the microservices architectural style is gaining popularity for building scalable and modular systems.

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3 Event-Driven Architecture

Event-driven architecture is a software architecture framework that relies on the production and consumption of events to trigger the actions and interactions of the software components. An event is a significant change in the state or condition of the system or its environment. For example, a user clicking a button, a sensor detecting a motion, or a message arriving in a queue. The advantage of event-driven architecture is that it supports high responsiveness, flexibility, and scalability, as well as decoupling of the components. The disadvantage is that it can increase the complexity and unpredictability of the system, as well as the difficulty of debugging and tracing.

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Eugene H.

Entrepreneurship, Technology & Innovation
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I love event service, because it models after human behavior. An event triggers some actions. The application can easily model any event flow with relative ease. The concern for this architecture is that events can get complex quickly and unanticipated events can easily slip through and create unintended behaviors.

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Sujeet Kumar

Senior Software Engineer | Cloud -AWS & Azure | Gen AI, RAG, LLMs, Agent | Microservice, RESTful APIs | Dynamics 365 F&O, PowerApp
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ðŸ“¡ ð—˜ð˜ƒð—²ð—»ð˜-ð——ð—¿ð—¶ð˜ƒð—²ð—» ð—”ð—¿ð—°ð—µð—¶ð˜ð—²ð—°ð˜ð˜‚ð—¿ð—² ðŸ“¡ Leverages events to drive interactions and actions within software systems. ðŸ”¹ ð—›ð—¶ð—´ð—µ ð—¥ð—²ð˜€ð—½ð—¼ð—»ð˜€ð—¶ð˜ƒð—²ð—»ð—²ð˜€ð˜€ & ð—™ð—¹ð—²ð˜…ð—¶ð—¯ð—¶ð—¹ð—¶ð˜ð˜† - Enables immediate reaction to state changes for dynamic system behavior. ðŸ”¹ ð—¦ð—°ð—®ð—¹ð—®ð—¯ð—¶ð—¹ð—¶ð˜ð˜† & ð——ð—²ð—°ð—¼ð˜‚ð—½ð—¹ð—¶ð—»ð—´ - Facilitates system growth and simplifies component integration by minimizing dependencies. ðŸ”¹ ð—œð—»ð—°ð—¿ð—²ð—®ð˜€ð—²ð—± ð—–ð—¼ð—ºð—½ð—¹ð—²ð˜…ð—¶ð˜ð˜† & ð——ð—²ð—¯ð˜‚ð—´ð—´ð—¶ð—»ð—´ ð—–ð—µð—®ð—¹ð—¹ð—²ð—»ð—´ð—²ð˜€ - Adds complexity to system architecture and complicates tracing and debugging processes. #SoftwareEngineering #EventDrivenArchitecture #SystemDesign

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4 Hexagonal Architecture

Hexagonal architecture is a software architecture framework that aims to isolate the core logic of the software system from the external dependencies and interfaces. It consists of three parts: the core, the ports, and the adapters. The core contains the business rules and domain models of the system. The ports define the contracts and interfaces for the communication between the core and the outside world. The adapters implement the ports and handle the specific details of the external systems, such as databases, web services, or user interfaces. The benefit of hexagonal architecture is that it enhances the testability, maintainability, and portability of the system, as well as the separation of concerns. The drawback is that it can add more layers and abstraction to the system, as well as more effort and complexity to the design and implementation.

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Sujeet Kumar

Senior Software Engineer | Cloud -AWS & Azure | Gen AI, RAG, LLMs, Agent | Microservice, RESTful APIs | Dynamics 365 F&O, PowerApp
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ðŸ”· ð—›ð—²ð˜…ð—®ð—´ð—¼ð—»ð—®ð—¹ ð—”ð—¿ð—°ð—µð—¶ð˜ð—²ð—°ð˜ð˜‚ð—¿ð—² ðŸ”· Focuses on separating core logic from external interactions through a structured layout. ðŸ”¹ ð—§ð—²ð˜€ð˜ð—®ð—¯ð—¶ð—¹ð—¶ð˜ð˜† & ð— ð—®ð—¶ð—»ð˜ð—®ð—¶ð—»ð—®ð—¯ð—¶ð—¹ð—¶ð˜ð˜† - Facilitates easy testing and updates without affecting external dependencies. ðŸ”¹ ð—¦ð—²ð—½ð—®ð—¿ð—®ð˜ð—¶ð—¼ð—» ð—¼ð—³ ð—–ð—¼ð—»ð—°ð—²ð—¿ð—»ð˜€ - Enhances clarity by isolating business logic from input/output mechanisms. ðŸ”¹ ð—”ð—±ð—±ð—²ð—± ð—–ð—¼ð—ºð—½ð—¹ð—²ð˜…ð—¶ð˜ð˜† & ð—˜ð—³ð—³ð—¼ð—¿ð˜ - Requires more layers of abstraction, increasing design and implementation challenges. #SoftwareEngineering #HexagonalArchitecture #SystemDesign

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5 Serverless Architecture

Serverless architecture is a software architecture framework that leverages the cloud services to run and manage the software components without requiring servers or infrastructure. The software components are executed on demand by the cloud provider in response to events or requests, and are charged based on the usage and resources consumed. The advantage of serverless architecture is that it reduces the operational and maintenance costs, as well as the development and deployment time. The disadvantage is that it introduces more dependency and latency issues, as well as more challenges in testing, debugging, and monitoring.

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Eugene H.

Entrepreneurship, Technology & Innovation
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Lazyman's approach. Outsource it when you can. Use it on demand and let the expert worry about how to optimize and maintain the hardware. Love this but be warned you also give up a lot of control and it can be costly and very much vendor-centric.

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Sandhya Koravi

Expert Engineer | Product Architect and Vice President at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Agree on all the points above about serverless architecture, few more thoughts to consider- There is a good potential to create a tight coupling or dependency with infrastructure provider/ cloud platforms unless carefully planned. Going serverless can reduce the carbon footprint of application since infra is provisioned on demand. Again, right configuration in terms of provisioned capacity and cold starts are needed.

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Sujeet Kumar

Senior Software Engineer | Cloud -AWS & Azure | Gen AI, RAG, LLMs, Agent | Microservice, RESTful APIs | Dynamics 365 F&O, PowerApp
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â˜ï¸ ð—¦ð—²ð—¿ð˜ƒð—²ð—¿ð—¹ð—²ð˜€ð˜€ ð—”ð—¿ð—°ð—µð—¶ð˜ð—²ð—°ð˜ð˜‚ð—¿ð—² â˜ï¸ Utilizes cloud services for running software components, eliminating the need for managing servers. ðŸ”¹ Reduced Operational Costs - Minimizes expenses related to server management and maintenance. ðŸ”¹ Faster Development & Deployment - Accelerates the process from development to deployment by leveraging cloud capabilities. ðŸ”¹ Increased Dependency & Latency - Introduces challenges such as higher reliance on cloud providers and potential latency issues. #SoftwareEngineering #ServerlessArchitecture #CloudComputing

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Himanshu Singh

Staff Software Engineer at TomTom
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It's important to note that the specific serverless offerings and features may vary between cloud providers, and adopting certain vendor-specific functionalities might create a level of vendor lock-in. If you heavily leverage unique services or features provided by a particular cloud provider, migrating away from that provider could be challenging. To mitigate vendor lock-in concerns, some organizations choose serverless frameworks that are compatible with multiple cloud providers, allowing them to switch between providers more easily. Additionally, adhering to standard practices and avoiding reliance on proprietary services can contribute to a more portable serverless architecture.

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Stephen Hsu
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Great for small shops starting out, needing little expertise...but costly once you're up and running, very costly once you reach a medium size...

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6 Hereâ€™s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that donâ€™t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Dinesh Varyani

Engineer at Google with expertise in Software Engineering Practices | Youtuber | Instructor | Author | Mentor
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Some other frameworks/principles to consider are - 1. DDD (Domain Driven Design) principles 2. Clean Architecture practices. These are used widely with other popular architectures.

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Jitendra Mishra

Technology Leader & Product Manager | Multi-Cloud Architect (AWS, Azure) | Data Strategy & Solutions Architect | Event-Driven Microservices | Big Data Ecosystems | Kubernetes | Cloud Innovation & Training
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Model driven architecture - Develop products with the focus on empowering self service. - Enable Requirement as Code - Empower Governance

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Himanshu Singh

Staff Software Engineer at TomTom
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Many businesses still utilize monolithic architecture, which proves effective for simpler applications or during the initial stages of software development for proof-of-concept purposes. The decision to transition from a monolithic structure to microservices hinges on factors such as workload and scalability needs.

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Akanksha Singh

Full Stack .NET Developer | Expertise in Angular, React, Azure, AWS, Microservices, SQL Server | Open to Remote Opportunities
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Other famous architecture types includes vertical slice architecture, n-tier architecture. These also help in building applications that are easier to maintain and modify.

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Divyesh Tandel

Automation|DevOps|Cloud|CI/CD|
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Some of the architecture frameworks I have come across are as below. 1. MVC (model view controller) architecture 2. SOA (service oriented architecture) 3. EDA (event driven architecture) 4. Layered architecture

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Directory

What are the most popular software architecture frameworks?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Layered Architecture

2 Microservices Architecture

3 Event-Driven Architecture

4 Hexagonal Architecture

5 Serverless Architecture

6 Hereâ€™s what else to consider

Software Engineering

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