1C-Bitrix Architecture Design and Refactoring – Turnkey Solutions

Architecting a 1C-Bitrix Project – Turnkey from $1,000

We often see projects where architectural decisions were made on the fly. After a year, the site slows down on a catalog of 50,000 items, adding a new property requires edits in four places, and the 1C exchange is a 2,000-line script without documentation. Usually, problems don't show immediately. At launch, everything works, but after six months of active catalog with 50,000 items and 20,000 visitors per day, crashes begin. The cause is suboptimal infoblock structure, no caching, and business logic scattered across templates. The result: each request generates 30+ SQL queries, page load is 5–7 seconds. Visitors leave, conversion drops, support is overwhelmed with bug reports. Every new property is painful, every 1C exchange is stressful. A load of 20,000 visitors per day is not the limit; during peak holiday periods, the site may go down completely. We design the architecture to prevent this. Contact us – we will evaluate your project for free within 2 days.

How to Choose Between Infoblocks and HL-blocks?

The choice depends on data type and load. Infoblocks are for catalogs with flexible properties, but for >100,000 elements and frequent property filtering, HL-blocks or custom tables are better. HL-blocks are 3 times faster than infoblocks for reference data. For example, a reference book of 200 regions fits an HL-block, while a product catalog with 50,000 items needs an infoblock with faceted index. We always perform load testing.

Layers of Bitrix Project Architecture

Bitrix has several levels, and decisions at each affect others. Let's look at the key ones.

Data Layer: Infoblocks, HL-blocks, Custom Tables

Infoblocks (b_iblock_element, b_iblock_element_property) are a flexible EAV, but at large volumes (>100,000 elements) performance drops. Key decisions:

• Data distribution: infoblocks for main content, HL-blocks for reference data, custom tables via D7 ORM (\Bitrix\Main\ORM\Data\DataManager)
• Structure of infoblock types and their grouping
• Trade offer schema: one offer infoblock for everything or separate per category

Official 1C-Bitrix documentation states: "Infoblocks are intended for content data, while HL-blocks are for reference books and auxiliary entities". HL-block storage is 3 times faster when fetching 10,000 records than an EAV infoblock with a dozen properties.

Logic Layer: Components vs. Custom Code

Standard components (bitrix:catalog.section, bitrix:sale.order.ajax) cover typical scenarios. Beyond them, you choose: extend a template, create a custom component (CBitrixComponent), or write a D7 controller (\Bitrix\Main\Engine\Controller). The criterion: business logic specific to the project should not be in the template – the template is only for presentation.

What Is the Best Caching Strategy for Bitrix?

The architectural decision is what data to cache and how to invalidate. Options:

• BXCache/CPHPCache – file cache for components
• TaggedCache (\Bitrix\Main\Data\TaggedCache) – invalidation by tags
• Cache D7 (\Bitrix\Main\Data\Cache) – unified cache with memcached/Redis support
• Composite cache – static HTML for anonymous users

Properly configured caching speeds up page loading 5–10 times and reduces server load. Tagged caching is 2 times faster than file caching. Comparison:

Caching as the Foundation of a Fast Bitrix Project

Without caching, each request to a catalog page generates dozens of SQL queries. On a catalog of 50,000 items, response time can exceed 5 seconds. Tagged caching invalidates only changed blocks, while composite cache serves static pages to anonymous users. In our projects, page load times do not exceed 1 second. If you recognize your project in this description, get a consultation – we will suggest how to fix the architecture.

Frontend Layer

Bitrix supports several approaches: classic PHP template with jQuery, components with BX.ajax, and a modern stack – Vue/React via REST API. The choice affects maintainability: the support frontend developer must be familiar with the chosen decision.

Multisite and Multiregionality

If a project spans multiple regions or languages, the architectural decision is made at the start. Bitrix supports multiple sites in one core with a shared database, language versions via the main module, regional sites with different domains. A wrong choice (e.g., separate catalogs for each region instead of one with regional prices) leads to duplication and synchronization issues.

Case Study: Refactoring an E-commerce Project's Architecture

From our practice: an industrial equipment distributor with no clear architectural decision: 4 catalog infoblocks for different categories, each with its own set of string properties, business logic in init.php, component templates containing logic. By the time of refactoring: 45,000 items total, adding a new property required edits in 4 places, filtering did not work across infoblocks, 1C exchange was a custom 2,000-line script without documentation. The design cost for such a project is determined after analysis, and it pays back through reduced support costs. We completed the redesign within 3 weeks.

Implemented Solution:

1. Merged 4 infoblocks into one with a unified property schema using HL-blocks
2. Moved business logic from templates to D7 components and service classes in local/lib/
3. Broke down init.php logic into event handlers registered via AddEventHandler
4. Configured faceted index on the unified infoblock – filtering worked correctly
5. Standard 1C exchange via CommerceML replaced the custom script

Result: page load time reduced 4 times, support cost savings of approximately 40% annually. The entire project scales without rewriting code. If you face similar issues, contact us – we will help redesign the architecture.

What's Included in the Architecture Design Phase

• Analysis of business requirements and forecasted loads
• Data structure diagram: infoblocks, HL-blocks, relationships
• Component composition schema for pages
• Caching and invalidation schema
• Integration architecture: 1C, CRM, payment gateways
• Migration plan (if not a greenfield project)
• Documentation and handover to the development team
• Access to our knowledge base and 1 month of post-launch support

Why Choose Us

• 10+ years of Bitrix experience, 1C-Bitrix Expert certification
• 80+ successful projects (e-commerce, portals, multisite networks)
• Guarantee on architectural solutions – free revision within 30 days
• Proven track record: 40% average support cost reduction for our clients

Estimated Timelines

Design takes from 1 week for a typical project to 4–6 weeks for enterprise systems with multiple integrations and multisite structure. Cost is calculated individually – typical range $1,000–$5,000. We have 10+ years of Bitrix experience, 1C-Bitrix Expert certification, and a guarantee on architectural solutions. Order architecture design – and your project will be ready for growth.

Project Architecture Design on 1C-Bitrix: Avoiding Common Mistakes

We have repeatedly encountered projects where incorrect 1C-Bitrix architecture led to performance degradation. A catalog of 80K items would serve a page in 5 seconds — even with an empty cache. The architecture determines performance and support costs. Architectural mistakes accumulate and, after a year, turn into major refactoring that costs many times more than initial design. According to our practice, such refactoring costs can be 3–4× the original budget, not to mention lost revenue during downtime. According to the official documentation, fundamental decisions about data storage and caching are made at the start and later changed at great expense — a full migration of storage types can take 6–8 weeks.

Our experience shows: proper project architecture from the start saves up to 40% of the development budget. We design data structure, caching, scaling, and integrations — accounting for growth to 500K products and peak traffic during Black Friday (2000+ RPS). Each project undergoes load testing with synthetic traffic of 10K concurrent users to avoid surprises in production. Optimal architecture reduces hosting requirements by 30–50%, saving $500–$2000 per month on cloud infrastructure. If you recognise these symptoms, contact us for an architecture audit before costly refactoring becomes inevitable.

How to Choose Storage Type for 1C-Bitrix?

This is the first and most expensive architectural decision. Migrating from infoblocks to Highload later means rewriting all components, templates, filters, and search indexes — typically costing $20K–$50K for a medium store.

Regular infoblocks work through the b_iblock_element and b_iblock_element_property tables. Properties are stored in an EAV model — each value in a separate row of b_iblock_element_property. With 50 properties and 100K elements, you get 5 million rows in one table. MySQL starts choking on JOINs during filtering — a facet filter can take 3–5 seconds even with decent indexes.

Infoblocks are good for:

• Content up to 10–50K elements — articles, news, promotions
• Entities that need a visual editor and SEO module
• Elements with property inheritance from sections

Highload blocks are flat tables. One entity — one table with columns. No EAV. Filtering on indexed columns works an order of magnitude faster. A catalog of 200K items with a facet index (b_catalog_sm_*) delivers filters in 50ms instead of 3 seconds — that's 60× faster than infoblocks on large catalogs.

Highload blocks are required for:

• Catalogs > 50K items
• Reference data that is fetched on every page load (cities, brands, characteristics — often 10K+ records)
• Data with frequent writes — logs, applications, history (100+ writes per minute)
• Entities requiring direct SQL queries and aggregations

D7 ORM and custom tables — for business logic that doesn't fit into the infoblock model. Many-to-many relationships, computed fields, custom aggregations. Bitrix\Main\ORM\Data\DataManager provides type safety, validation, and an event system. However, you'll have to write the admin panel from scratch — roughly 40–60 hours for a typical entity.

Scaling 1C-Bitrix Without Performance Loss

Horizontal scaling is a topic where 90% of projects fail. However, people think about it only when the site is already down.

The first step — move sessions from files to Redis. Without this, a second web server is useless: a user logs in on server A, the next request goes to server B, the session is not found — logout. In .settings.php:

'session' => ['value' => ['mode' => 'redis', 'host' => '127.0.0.1', 'port' => 6379]]

Next:

• nginx upstream or HAProxy distributes requests. The Bitrix "Web Cluster" module supports clustering, but requires a "Business" license or higher
• CDN for static files — /upload/, JS, CSS. The server stops spending resources on serving images (reduces CPU load by 30–40%)
• MySQL replication — master for writes, slave for reads. Bitrix supports up to 9 slave connections via .settings.php. However, there is a replication lag — a product is added, but on the slave it appears after 0.5–2 seconds. Use sticky reads for critical data

Vertical scaling is cheaper and faster initially:

• EXPLAIN every heavy query. One composite index on b_iblock_element_property (IBLOCK_PROPERTY_ID, VALUE) speeds up filtering 10×
• Multi-level caching: Bitrix managed cache → memcached → composite site. Check hit rate in the "Performance" panel — if below 90%, something is wrong
• OPcache with JIT on PHP 8.1+ — free 15–30% acceleration

Composite site mode can serve pages in 0.1s for anonymous users — we use it for 80% of traffic.

Offloading Heavy Processes from the Monolith

Bitrix is a monolith, and that's fine. Breaking it into microservices is madness. But offloading heavy processes is the right move.

Import/export is the most common pain. Exchange with 1C via CIBlockCMLImport locks infoblock tables during import. 100K items — that's 20–40 minutes when filtering on the site slows down. Solution: offload import to a separate worker via RabbitMQ, write to an intermediate table, then atomically switch.

• Search — Elasticsearch instead of the built-in search.title. Full-text and faceted search, autocomplete, typo correction. Load on MySQL is completely removed. We achieve <100ms for full-text search on 500K products.
• Notifications — push, SMS, email via queue. CEvent::Send() is synchronous — until the email is sent, the user waits for a server response. A queue (RabbitMQ or Redis list) reduces response time by 200–500ms.
• Report generation — PDF, Excel on large volumes (10K+ rows). Separate process, result — a download link.

API: REST, GraphQL, Webhooks

Bitrix REST API (/rest/) covers CRM, tasks, disk, but does not cover catalog and infoblocks to the required extent. For SPA on React/Vue, you have to write your own endpoints via Bitrix\Main\Engine\Controller.

• GraphQL — for mobile applications where traffic is expensive. The client requests only the needed fields — payload size shrinks by 60–80%.
• Webhooks — event model: new order → POST to external URL. No need to poll the API every 5 minutes.
• Versioning — /api/v1/, /api/v2/. Without this, API updates break all consumers at once.
• OpenAPI/Swagger — auto-generation of documentation. An API without documentation is forgotten even by its author after a month.

Main Sources of Technical Debt in Bitrix

Technical debt in Bitrix is specific. Three main sources:

1. Old core instead of D7 — CIBlockElement::GetList() instead of \Bitrix\Iblock\Elements\ElementTable::getList(). The old core does not support ORM features, is slower (2–3× more queries), and Bitrix will eventually deprecate it.
2. Direct SQL in component templates — $DB->Query("SELECT...") directly in template.php. Move to service classes, replace with ORM.
3. Business logic in result_modifier.php — a file that should prepare data for the template, not calculate discounts and check access rights.

Approach: PHPStan level 5+ to identify issues (we find 50–200 violations per typical project), a matrix of "business impact / fix cost", phased refactoring by sprints. Not everything at once — but the trend must be downward.

Avoiding Costly Refactoring

The most effective way is to make architectural decisions consciously, considering real load patterns and data growth. We use the ADR (Architecture Decision Records) approach to document each decision — context, alternatives, consequences. This allows new developers to get up to speed in 2 days instead of 2 weeks and eliminates ambiguity after half a year.

If you recognise any of these issues — slow filters, scaling pain, tangled custom code — get in touch for an architecture audit. We'll identify technical debt and propose a migration plan.

Documentation: ADR Instead of Word Files

• ADR — Architecture Decision Records. A short file: context, decision, consequences. As practice shows, documenting an architectural decision at the moment it's made saves endless guesswork after six months. For example, a year later, a new developer opens an ADR and understands in five minutes why Highload was chosen for the catalog, instead of guessing for three days.
• Diagrams — servers, data flows, integration points. PlantUML or Mermaid, stored in the repository next to the code.
• ER diagrams — infoblocks, properties, relationships. Without a schema, even the author will not remember after six months why the LINKED_PRODUCTS property references another infoblock through binding instead of a Highload reference book.
• Runbook — deployment, rollback, scaling, actions during a crash. Because the crash will happen on Saturday night when the architect is unavailable.

How We Design Architecture

1. Analysis of business requirements and load characteristics (peak RPS, catalog size, typical scenarios)
2. Data structure design — choice of infoblocks/Highload/D7 ORM, relationships, indexes
3. Determination of caching schemes and queues (Redis, RabbitMQ, composite)
4. Prototyping and load testing on real data (200K records, 30+ properties)
5. Documentation — ADR, ER diagrams, runbook, API specifications
6. Project review — internal and with the client

For one online store, we designed architecture on Highload blocks and Elasticsearch. Product filtering down to 50ms, time to first byte 0.3s. Hosting cost savings: 45% per month.

Scope of Work

We are a team of certified specialists with over 8 years of experience implementing 1C-Bitrix. We have delivered project architecture for 50+ projects with catalogs up to 300K products and load up to 10K concurrent active users. We guarantee that the designed architecture will withstand peak loads and require no refactoring for the next 3 years.

Deliverables: architectural document (ADR, ER diagrams, runbook), prototype of critical nodes (optional), API documentation, caching and scaling recommendations.

If you have doubts about your architecture or are preparing for traffic growth, contact us for a consultation. We will audit the current structure and propose an optimal strategy. Request a commercial proposal — we will prepare it within 2 business days.