Compensating Transactions vs Event Sourcing

Developers should learn and use compensating transactions when building distributed systems, such as microservices or cloud-based applications, where operations span multiple services or databases and require fault tolerance meets developers should use event sourcing when building systems that require strong auditability, temporal querying, or complex business logic with undo/redo capabilities, such as financial applications, e-commerce platforms, or collaborative tools. Here's our take.

Compensating Transactions

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use compensating transactions when building distributed systems, such as microservices or cloud-based applications, where operations span multiple services or databases and require fault tolerance

Pros

• They are essential for implementing saga patterns to manage complex business processes that cannot rely on two-phase commit protocols due to performance or scalability constraints
• Related to: distributed-systems, microservices

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Event Sourcing

Developers should use Event Sourcing when building systems that require strong auditability, temporal querying, or complex business logic with undo/redo capabilities, such as financial applications, e-commerce platforms, or collaborative tools

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in microservices architectures for maintaining consistency across services and enabling event-driven communication, as it decouples state storage from business logic and supports scalability through event replay
• Related to: domain-driven-design, cqrs

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Compensating Transactions if: You want they are essential for implementing saga patterns to manage complex business processes that cannot rely on two-phase commit protocols due to performance or scalability constraints and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Event Sourcing if: You prioritize it is particularly valuable in microservices architectures for maintaining consistency across services and enabling event-driven communication, as it decouples state storage from business logic and supports scalability through event replay over what Compensating Transactions offers.

The Bottom Line

Compensating Transactions wins

Developers should learn and use compensating transactions when building distributed systems, such as microservices or cloud-based applications, where operations span multiple services or databases and require fault tolerance