Microfront-ends como uma evolução arquitetural?: uma análise comparativa com aplicações monolíticas

Abstract

In recent years, the increasing complexity and maintenance challenges of traditional monolithic architectures have intensified the search for more scalable and modular solutions. Inspired by the principles of back-end microservices, the microfront-ends (MFE) architectural approach has emerged as a means of applying modularity and team autonomy to user interface development. This study investigates whether the benefits of microfront-end architectures effectively outweigh their technical and operational challenges when compared to a monolithic approach. The primary objective is to assess the technical and operational impacts of adopting microfrontends, particularly their influence on Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline efficiency and on application performance metrics based on Web Vitals indicators. The research adopts a comparative analyses methodology, in which a video streaming application was implemented in two distinct versions: a traditional monolithic architecture and a microfrontend-based architecture employing vertical route segmentation. Both implementations rely on automated CI/CD pipelines configured using GitHub Actions. The evaluation is conducted through the analysis of artifacts and metrics generated during the continuous integration process, including pipeline execution time, bundle size growth, and application performance indicators. The results indicate that while the monolithic architecture presents lower initial operational costs and smaller bundle sizes, the microfront-end approach demonstrates superior long-term maintainability, exhibiting lower growth rates in pipeline execution time (4.08%) and bundle size (14.68%), approximately half of those observed in the monolithic architecture (11.79% and 28.63%, respectively), with negligible impact on perceived loading performance for the end user.