Architecture Style Comparison

Style	Type	Core Strength	Primary Tradeoff	Typical Use Cases
Layered	Monolith	Simplicity, fast initial development	Limited scalability, tight coupling	Small apps, MVPs, prototypes, tight budgets
Pipeline	Monolith	Clear data flow, composable filters	Limited to sequential processing	ETL, data transformation, build systems
Microkernel	Monolith	Customization without core changes	Core becomes bottleneck at scale	Product platforms, plug-in systems
Modular Monolith	Monolith	Domain autonomy with simple deployment	Discipline required to maintain boundaries	Domain-driven teams, new systems, tight budgets
Service-Based	Distributed	Pragmatic distributed benefits	Coarse services limit fine-grained scaling	Mid-complexity domains, pragmatic teams
Event-Driven	Distributed	Responsiveness, decoupling	Complex debugging, eventual consistency	Variable workflows, reactive systems
Microservices	Distributed	Maximum evolvability and independence	Operational complexity, eventual consistency	Large systems, mature DevOps teams
SOA	Distributed	Legacy integration	Tight coupling through ESB	Enterprise integration scenarios
Space-Based	Distributed	Extreme elasticity	Memory limits, eventual consistency	Variable unpredictable load spikes