Who would’ve thought that a not-so-famous video-conferencing app with just 10 million users in 2019 was going to attract 200 million additional users in the next few months?! This sudden growth could cripple a less-prepared company, but not Zoom. Zoom used AWS scalability & a cloud-based hybrid network spread globally to sustain its growth.
What Zoom did in 2020 was impressive; in 2025, it’s a necessary ability for web apps to have. That’s where the whole discourse of scalable applications comes from! Can your app handle growth as more users begin using it? If your app starts to load slowly, crashing again and again, you’ll end up losing all the customers gained previously. So, building scalable apps is vital for success in 2025.
This blog will discuss everything you need to know about building scalable applications. Scalability is now a rising trend in web development and a necessary tool to future-proof your web-based apps.
How to Build Scalable Apps? A 10-Step Method
The world of app development is changing as more organizations join in the race to produce scalable as well as highly responsive apps. These apps are supposed to perform efficiently at scale, process/evaluate data in a snap, and not crash due to server overload. Here’s how you can create such apps:
- Use Fewer Coders
Gone are the days when professional programmers were hired to write code line by line. Called pro-code development, this trend is subsiding in favour of LCNC. Here’s what the term “LCNS” stands for:
- LC: Means low code, where people with basic coding skills can get the job done
- NC: Means no code, where no programming knowledge is needed at all (used in NCDPs or no-code development platforms)
While pro-code development requires an in-depth knowledge of programming languages, LCNC platforms make it easier to develop and integrate complex apps. That’s why “no code” devs are the future of building scalable apps with minimal resources.
- Use Monitoring Tools
It’s always a smart idea to be on the lookout for possible signs that your app is already slowing down. This way, you can pinpoint the key issues harming your app’s performance because the snowball effect comes into play later. Keep an eye on these metrics to catch your app lacking:
- CPU/memory usage by the system
- Network throughput (taken in Gbps)
- Latency (measure it in milliseconds)
- Identify Performance Issues
Surveys say that 7.5 billion people will be using the Internet by 2030. There are already 5.3B Internet users who amount to over two-thirds of the world’s population. So, you should anticipate user growth in 2025 and proactively do something about the performance bottlenecks your app might face, such as:
- Single databases
- Data inaccuracies
- Improper caching types
- Insufficient load-balancing
- Serious bandwidth limitations
Any of these issues could slow down your app. The solution lies in using cloud-based scaling. Using cloud infrastructure can help you scale your app up/down based on the number of users. Cloud lets you handle traffic spikes without over-provisioning your IT resources. With cloud, you can build scalable apps in two amazing ways:
- Horizontal: Adding more machines to handle increased load (e.g., adding more servers)
- Vertical: Increasing machine resources (CPU, RAM) (e.g., upgrading server specifications)
- Choosing the Right Architecture
You can essentially choose between these two architectures:
- Monolithic: All components of your app work in unison. This architecture is easy to create but can crash unexpectedly as your app gains more users.
- Microservices: Your app turns into different independent services to be deployed individually. So, your team members can work on each microservice autonomously.
You can see that microservices will become a new trend in 2025. This architecture allows for independent scaling of web apps with faster deployments and no system-wide failures.
- Database Optimization
The design of the database plays a key role in app scalability. A well-optimized app doesn’t fall easily under pressure and can sustain an expansive stream of audience. Did you know that each person produces some 1.7 megabytes of data every second? For that, you have to incorporate the right design elements into the design of your app, such as:
- Sharding: Distributing data across multiple databases/servers for performance enhancement
- Replication: Creating copies of data across different servers to enhance availability and reliability
- SQL or NoSQL: SQL databases work for structured data with complex queries; NoSQL databases excel in handling unstructured data and horizontal scaling
- Implement Caching Strategies
Caching is a great tool in a web app dev’s arsenal. You can keep frequently accessed data in the memory with caching. So the system doesn’t start flailing every time it needs to fetch this data from slow storage systems. Instead, it can recall the cache, resulting in faster response times. Now, there are different types of caches, such as:
- In-memory Caching: Using systems like Redis or Memcached to store data in RAM for quick access
- Distributed Caching: Spreading cache across multiple servers to handle large datasets and boost increase redundancy
- Content Delivery Networks: Utilizing CDNs to cache static content closer to users & reduce latency for global audiences
- Install Built-in Redundancies
If you’re not backing up your app data before 2025 hits, it’ll prevent you from scaling it up when the time comes! Every part of your application must have a backup, a facsimile, on the cloud. Automate redundancy to make sure that your app powers through traffic spikes and doesn’t crash when there’s a swarm of users trying to access it. That’s how you can bring scalability into app development next year.
- Test & Monitor Thoroughly
Let’s waltz back to Tip #2 and monitor your app again. Keep watching out for any performance issues in the app after scaling it up. Check the response time, error rates, etc., to monitor application health. You may even use different tools for effective app maintenance, such as:
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- New Relic
Also, conduct load tests to make sure that your app won’t crash due to traffic spikes. That’s how you build a resilient, future-proof app.
- Look into Security Concerns
As apps scale, security becomes complex. Larger attack surfaces require robust security measures that can adapt alongside application growth. You can do that by:
- Implementing strong authentication and authorization mechanisms
- Regularly updating dependencies and patch vulnerabilities
- Using encryption for data at rest and in transit
To cut the story short, scalable apps aren’t just about managing current demands but anticipating growth and preparing for it as well. Modern architectural practices, database optimization, caching strategies, and – most importantly, no-code/low-code programming – can help you achieve this goal. That’s how you can prepare your app for sustained growth in 2025, future-proofing your company’s tech products.
