Forum Discussion
Is clean architecture overkill for small teams maintaining a single web app ?
I've been exploring clean architecture and while I appreciate its separation of concerns and testability, I can't help but wonder, it is over for small teams ( say 2-4 devs) maintaining a single, relatively stable web application ?
Implementing clean architecture means more layers, more interfaces, and potenitally more ceremony, which might slow things down, especially if the team is trying to move quickly or lacks deep experience with the pattern.
At the same time, I get the value of long-term maintainability and scalability, even for small projects that could grow. What pain points or benefits did you encounter ? Did it help or hinder onboarding, testing or refactoring ?
For a small team with a stable web app, full Clean Architecture is usually overkill the extra layers and abstractions can slow you down more than they help. A lighter, “clean-ish” approach works best: keep business logic separate from framework/DB code, but skip unnecessary ceremony. This way you get testability and maintainability without sacrificing velocity.
2 Replies
Yes, it might become overkill for small teams working with a single application. Most importantly, if the business doesn't anticipate significant growth in requirements, there is no point in complicating things and making your life difficult when building the solution.
For a small team with a stable web app, full Clean Architecture is usually overkill the extra layers and abstractions can slow you down more than they help. A lighter, “clean-ish” approach works best: keep business logic separate from framework/DB code, but skip unnecessary ceremony. This way you get testability and maintainability without sacrificing velocity.
