What is Turborepo? A quick guide for founders

Turborepo is a build system for monorepos in JavaScript and TypeScript.

A monorepo means you keep all your code in one repository, even if it runs as separate apps. For example, a complex SaaS might have a marketing site, a web app, a documentation site, and shared UI components. Instead of creating four different repositories, you put them all in one.

Turborepo makes this fast. It caches your builds locally and in the cloud. If you change a button on the marketing site, Turborepo knows it doesn't need to rebuild the web app. It only builds what changed.

Why do SaaS boilerplates use it?

Kits like supastarter use Turborepo because they give you a lot of separate pieces out of the box. You get a frontend app, an admin dashboard, and a marketing site. Turborepo keeps these organized in separate folders (apps/web, apps/marketing, packages/ui) so they don't turn into a tangled mess.

Should you use it?

If you are building a simple MVP with just a landing page and a dashboard, a single Next.js app is easier. You don't need a monorepo.

If you are building B2B software where you need separate apps for your users, your admins, and your marketing team, Turborepo saves you from duplicating configuration and UI components across multiple repositories. You pay the cost of learning how it works upfront, but it keeps your codebase clean as you grow.