Compare microservices and monolithic architectures.

Monolith: single deployable unit, shared database, simpler to develop/deploy initially, tighter coupling. Microservices: independent services, own databases, deployed separately, communicate via APIs. Microservices benefits: independent scaling, technology diversity, fault isolation, team autonomy. Microservices challenges: distributed complexity, data consistency, operational overhead, network latency. Start monolith, extract services when needed. Consider: team size, domain complexity, scaling needs. Microservices require mature DevOps practices.