Turborepo vs Nx: Monorepo Tooling for Modern TypeScript Projects

Monorepos beat separate repos when multiple packages share code and deploy together. Here's how to pick your tooling.

Turborepo Setup

npx create-turbo@latest my-monorepo

// turbo.json
{
  "tasks": {
    "build": { "dependsOn": ["^build"], "outputs": [".next/**", "dist/**"] },
    "test": { "dependsOn": ["^build"], "inputs": ["src/**", "test/**"] },
    "lint": { "inputs": ["src/**"] }
  }
}

Turborepo's core value: never rebuild what hasn't changed. Remote caching means CI skips unchanged packages across machines.

Nx: For Larger Teams

nx affected:test  # Only tests changed packages
nx affected:build # Only builds what's affected

Nx adds code generation, dependency graph visualization, and module boundaries enforcement.

Package Structure

my-monorepo/
  apps/
    web/     # Next.js frontend
    api/     # Express backend
  packages/
    ui/      # Shared components
    types/   # Shared TypeScript types
    config/  # Shared ESLint/TS configs

Turborepo vs Nx

	Turborepo	Nx
Learning curve	Low	Higher
Code generation	No	Yes
Best for	Startups	Large orgs

For most SaaS products, Turborepo is the right call. The AI SaaS Starter Kit ships with a Turborepo setup for web + API + shared packages.