Introduction
Microservices are commonly used to establish independent and autonomous teams, but they are primarily limited to backend development. Frontend development, despite the best microservice architecture, relies on significant interdependence, causing coupling and communication overhead that hampers efficiency.
Can we extend microservice patterns to the frontend? Indeed, companies like Netflix, Zalando, and Capital One have pioneered this approach, paving the way for micro frontends. This article will examine micro frontends, their pros and cons, composition and frameworks to implement them
What are Micro Frontends?
Micro frontends are a design pattern that aims to split a large, monolithic frontend into smaller, more manageable pieces. Each of these pieces is its own standalone application or module, developed and deployed by a separate team, typically using different technologies and frameworks. These modules can then be assembled into the final web application by a master frontend, which can be a separate module in the same or a different language, or even a dedicated aggregator.
The concept of micro frontends is similar to microservices, which are small, independent backend components that communicate with each other through APIs. Just like microservices, micro frontends can be developed, tested, and deployed independently of each other, which allows for greater flexibility, agility, and scalability.
Advantages
The following are some of the advantages of micro frontends:
Improved Modularity: Micro frontends improve modularity by enabling developers to break down the complex frontend into smaller, more cohesive components. This separation makes it easier to understand and maintain the application.
Technology Freedom: Micro frontends allow each team to use the technology they prefer or that best fits their needs, instead of being forced to conform to a single technology stack. This means a greater variety of tools and techniques can be used for each component, allowing for increased innovation and efficiency.
Autonomy: Each team has the autonomy to develop and deploy their component independently, without affecting other teams. This increases the overall velocity of the development process since iterative cycles are shorter.
Reusability: Micro frontends can be reused and redeployed in different applications, even developed by different teams, increasing the speed of future projects and ensuring consistency.
Scalability: Micro frontends can be scaled up and down depending on the load of the application. Teams can spin up or down instances of micro frontends independently, avoiding unnecessary infrastructure and hosting costs.
Disadvantages
The following are some of the disadvantages of micro frontends:
Complexity: With micro frontends, there’s an added level of complexity that must be managed. It can be difficult to coordinate the different modules and ensure they work together seamlessly, so teamwork and communication are critical.
Cost: While micro frontends can reduce infrastructure costs in some areas, it comes with increased costs of orchestration and deployment since each module needs to be treated as its own separate project.
Performance: There may be slight impacts on performance as individual micro frontends may not always be as optimized for performance as a single, monolithic frontend.
Test management: Teams need to ensure the proper coordination of tests between the micro frontends, as well as making sure the components work seamlessly together in an isolated environment.
Micro Frontend Frameworks
There are several frameworks that can be used such as
Piral: implements isolated components called pilets. Pilets are modules that bundle content and behavior.
Ragu: a framework of frameworks. It allows us to embed code written in any framework as widgets.
Single SPA: a meta-framework for piecing a UI together using any combination of frontend frameworks like React, Angular, and Ember, among others.
Frint: another modular framework for building component-based applications. Integrates with React, Vue, and Preact.
WebPack Module Federation: a WebPack plugin to create Single Page Applications (SPAs) by bundling separate builds. These builds can be developed independently of each
Conclusion
Micro frontends provide a modular and scalable approach to web development, enabling independent teams to develop and deploy their respective features. With advantages like independent development, scalability, and technology diversity, micro frontends offer a compelling alternative to monolithic frontends or single-page applications. However, they also come with challenges such as increased complexity and potential performance overhead. Choosing the right framework and communication mechanisms is crucial for successful micro frontend implementation. As web development continues to evolve, micro frontends are expected to play a significant role in building flexible, maintainable, and scalable web applications.