Series

Replatforming a Subscription Platform

From recognising the monolith's limits, through the build vs buy analysis and stakeholder review, to the migration and its measured results.

10 parts · 33 min total reading
  1. 1
    Architecturemonolithmicroservicesreplatforming

    The Monolith Tipping Point: 6 Signs Your Platform Needs More Than a Patch

    Every monolith reaches a tipping point: the moment when the next patch costs more than it saves. I've run several platform reviews at this point. Here are the six signals that tell you incremental improvement is no longer the right answer.

    20 Apr 2023 · 4 min read
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  2. 2
    Architecturebuild-vs-buyShopifysubscription

    Build vs Buy for Subscription E-Commerce: A Detailed Cost Analysis

    After running a rigorous build vs buy analysis for a subscription e-commerce platform, the numbers told a clear story. Here's the full framework, the cost breakdown, and why 'just use Shopify' is the wrong answer for complex subscription models.

    15 May 2023 · 4 min read
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  3. 3
    CTO CraftShopifytransaction-feesplatform-economics

    Transaction Fees: The Hidden Cost That Makes Platform Economics Counterintuitive

    When teams evaluate SaaS e-commerce platforms vs custom builds, they focus on the obvious costs: subscription fees, development time, staff. The number that actually swings the decision is almost always the one buried in the small print: transaction fees.

    5 Jul 2023 · 4 min read
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  4. 4
    CTO CraftCTOinfrastructure-reviewstakeholder-management

    How to Run a CTO Infrastructure Review That Stakeholders Actually Trust

    A platform infrastructure review that produces the right technical answer but fails to bring stakeholders with it is a failed review. Here's the process I use: structured to produce decisions that the board, product leadership, and engineering teams can all trust.

    1 Sept 2023 · 4 min read
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  5. 5
    Engineeringmonorepomulti-repoarchitecture

    Multi-Repo vs Monorepo: A Practical Decision Framework for Small Teams

    The monorepo vs multi-repo debate generates more heat than light. Here's the framework I used, and why multi-repo won for a subscription platform replatforming with four applications and a lean team.

    15 Jul 2024 · 3 min read
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  6. 6
    EngineeringTypeORMPrismaORM

    TypeORM vs Prisma: Choosing Your ORM for a TypeScript Migration

    During a platform replatforming, we ended up using two different ORMs in the same project: TypeORM for the core backend API, Prisma for the admin panel. Here's why, and what each is genuinely better at.

    10 Sept 2024 · 2 min read
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  7. 7
    ArchitecturereplatformingTypeScriptNext.js

    Platform Replatforming at Freddie's Flowers: The Decision Framework

    Replatforming a production subscription e-commerce business without disrupting operations is one of the most complex engineering programmes a CTO can run. Here's the decision-making framework we used at Freddie's Flowers.

    5 Nov 2024 · 2 min read
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  8. 8
    EngineeringPHPTypeScriptmigration

    PHP to TypeScript: Why We Migrated a Production Subscription Platform

    Migrating a production subscription platform from PHP to TypeScript is not a decision taken lightly. Here's the honest case for why we did it, the alternatives we rejected, and what the migration actually delivered.

    18 Feb 2025 · 3 min read
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  9. 9
    Scale & PerformanceCore Web VitalsperformanceLCP

    Core Web Vitals as a Replatforming Success Metric: Real Before and After Numbers

    When running a platform infrastructure review, you need objective metrics to evaluate options and measure success. Core Web Vitals gave us exactly that: here are the actual before/after numbers from a full replatforming, and why they mattered more than we expected.

    10 Jun 2025 · 4 min read
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  10. 10
    InfrastructureAWS Lambdaserverlesscontainers

    Serverless vs Containers vs EC2: Choosing Infrastructure for a Lean Engineering Team

    The infrastructure decision for a replatforming project forces you to answer a question with no universal answer: what's right for your specific team, workload, and economics? Here's the framework I used, and why serverless won.

    9 Sept 2025 · 3 min read
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