Turborepo helps manage large JavaScript or TypeScript monorepos by analyzing, caching, parallelizing and optimizing build tasks to speed up the process. In large monorepos, projects often depend on each other; rebuilding all dependencies for every change is inefficient and time-consuming, but Turborepo makes this easier. Unlike Nx, Turborepo's default setup uses multiple package.json files — one per project — which allows having dependencies with different versions (multiple versions of React, for example) in a single monorepo, which Nx discourages. While this might be considered an anti-pattern, it does address certain use cases, like migrating from multi- to monorepo, where teams may temporarily require multiple versions of dependencies. In our experience, TurboRepo is quite simple to set up and performs well.
One of the topics that seems to perennially draw interest in our discussions is the issue of monorepos. Some places have embraced them for the whole organization, while others have applied the concept in certain narrow applications such as mobile applications or combined UI/BFF development. Regardless of whether or where monorepos are appropriate, the industry seems to be revisiting tools that can effectively manage large codebases and build them efficiently into deployable units. Turborepo is a relatively new tool in this category that offers an alternative to Nx or Lerna for large JavaScript or TypeScript codebases. One of the challenges with large repos is executing builds quickly enough that they don't interrupt developer flow or reduce efficiency. Turborepo is written in Rust which makes it highly performant; it also builds incrementally and caches intermediate steps to speed things up further. However, it does require changes to the developer workflow that take time to learn and is probably best suited to large codebases with multiple independent builds where a different approach is warranted. We've found that the documentation is sparse, leading some teams to stick with more established tools for now. However, it's worth assessing and seeing if Turborepo and its newer companion, Turbopack (currently in beta), continue to evolve.
