What are TypeScript Microservices?

Microservices Architecture has been among the trendiest buzzwords in Software Development for many years. Even though it may not be ideal for every project according to business requirements, it's still one of the most efficient and tangible solutions to approach the Product Development Life Cycle. Microservices are especially powerful and convenient for large and scalable products. You may not need them for Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) or prototypes.

Commonly, large apps involve tons of features and complex functionalities. Building a product like that is less practical than making it on separate service instances. You can build robust Microservices using several Back-End languages like Python, Java, or Ruby on Rails. Yet, TypeScript stands out for many reasons. Let's explore why you should consider TypeScript for your Microservices journey instead of the alternative strategy of a monolithic application approach.

What is a Microservice?

Small projects like prototypes or landing pages often involve a simple User Interface (UI) with little to no functionality. But things get a bit more complex when a product requires multiple features. Think about all the options that FinTech apps or eCommerce stores offer, which involve many critical services. These kinds of products normally leverage the power of separate smaller apps and bring them together. Developing a robust architecture with a reactive programming approach involves building and integrating these smaller apps into a single product.

As you can see, building Microservices is a task related to Back-End Development. One major pitfall is managing communication between microservices. That's why Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are so important. Chances are that most of the web apps you interact with Microservices have a scalable Architecture. They projected the consumption of Microservice frameworks will triple by 2026. If it's still unclear, consider Microservices as independent and individual units or external services developed separately. They are the building blocks that compose modern and effective applications.

A practical, real-world example would be a social media app that handles services like registrations, comments, notifications, posts, searches, database services, and other standard services. A shopping cart application may use the microservice ecosystem to manage transactional operations and service-shopping management like shipments, order tracking, and payment services. Developers individually build these features (or single services) and connect them using Back-End API endpoints. Each real-time scenario mentioned is a sample of a multitude of microservices working together.

TypeScript Tools for Microservices

As mentioned, TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, essentially a Front-End tool. That means you must use some external tools to build Back-End servers when using JavaScript or TypeScript. That, of course, includes Microservices. Let's take a look at the best TypeScript tools for building Microservices.

TypeScript and Node for Microservices

Node.js is one of the most popular and formidable tools for building any functionality. It's hard to think of a product you can't bring to life using it. Some of the largest businesses in the world have chosen Node.js because it excels at communicating with services. Being such a giant tool in the Software Development industry, it can ensure top-notch performance and robust security. Used with TypeScript, Node.js promotes circuit breaker patterns, load balancing for incoming requests, and retry logic.

Moreover, Node.js' famous framework, Express.js, is one of MERN's most popular Web Development stacks. Node.js has also brought us another great TypeScript framework called Nest.js. As it happens, Nest.js offers native support for Microservices with tools like Pipes, Guards, Exceptions, Interceptors, and Decorators. Most importantly, Nest.js offers support for gRPC out-of-the-box.

TypeScript and gRPC for Microservices

Backed up by Google, gRPC is one of the most modern and fastest approaches for building Microservices. gRPC is a "universal" RPC framework focused on high-performance Microservices. It provides native support to many languages and tools, including Node.js. It uses bi-directional data streaming with HTTP/2 protocol and pre-defined contracts to boost the security and performance of platform services.

On top of that, both TypeScript and gRPC promote reusability and safety. That makes them an exceptional combination. Another cool thing about gRPC is that it is a language-agnostic framework. As a result, you can build inter-micro service communication patterns with framework-agnostic languages like Python or Java and create patterns of communication with your TypeScript apps.

TypeScript and Bun.js for Microservices

Bun is a blazing-fast, all-in-one JavaScript runtime that seamlessly supports TypeScript. Bun.js is compatible with Node.js frameworks, including Express.js and Nest.js. One great reason to consider Bun.js for a project involving Microservices is its top-notch Developer Experience (DX). Bun.js has access to a debugger, a bundler, a test runner, and a package manager. Plus, It can process HTTP client requests extremely fast and easily manage complex technical requirements of a Microservices environment.

As a result, it's perfect for projects with high throughput requiring low latency. Bun.js treats TypeScript as a "first-class citizen, "meaning it allows you to start working with TypeScript without any configuration. It will process TypeScript as Vanilla JavaScript, keeping all the advantages of TypeScript. This way, Bun.js, and TypeScript will help ensure the maintainability and performance of scalable applications. That's why you should consider them for building Microservices Architecture.

Why Use TypeScript Microservices?

Backed up by Microsoft, TypeScript is a superset of the most popular language, JavaScript. So, TypeScript is equal to the most popular language, with extra development tools and features that make it even more powerful. It can access all Back-End JavaScript libraries and frameworks, including Node.js and the state-of-the-art runtime Bun.js.

Combining that with strong IDE support and type safety capabilities gives you the perfect tool for building fault-tolerant Microservices. Being such a strict language, TypeScript allows for easy scalability and refactoring. Keeping your code well-organized is also great for maintaining independent services or Back-End units.

It's also worth mentioning that TypeScript is the star of the most modern and reactive approach to client-to-server communication, TypeScript Remote Procedure Call (tRPC). Building a Microservices framework with TypeScript opens the door to connecting the Front End and the Back End using tRPC to handle subsequent requests, which can significantly improve the Developer Experience (DX). On top of that, TypeScript shines because of its slick tooling, helping streamline the Product Development process.

Conclusion

TypeScript is an extension of the most popular programming language in the world. It inherits all its essential advantages and tolerant capabilities during development, its common functionalities, and its ecosystem to maintain core cross-cutting functionalities and performance metrics of modern applications. Microsoft released it over ten years ago, and since then, it's been an ideal solution to ensure efficient design patterns in Microservice Architecture. That gives TypeScript the major advantage of being backed up by one of the largest tech companies.

Over the past few years, TypeScript has become one of the most loved, adopted, and remarkable tools for Software Development teams with its generalized functionalities. I could explain all day why it is perfect for designing fault-tolerant Microservices applications. It simply checks all the boxes. That's why our specialized team of Software Developers highly recommends it for language-independent development.