Mono-Repo + Multi-Repo: How We Structured 6 Apps Across 4 Repositories
Most teams treat "monorepo vs multi-repo" as a binary choice. Pick one, commit, move on. We ended up with a hybrid, and it turned out to be the right call — not out of indecision, but because our apps have genuinely different deployment and ownership characteristics. Here's what we built, why, and what it costs. The System The platform consists of six applications: App Type Primary Users REST API backend Node.js + TypeScript — (consumed by all apps) Society dashboard React web app Society managers, admins, accountants Company admin panel React web app Internal operations Marketing website Next.js Public Resident mobile app React Native (Expo) Residents Guard mobile app React Native (Expo) Security personnel All six apps talk to the same API. But they have very different deployment cycles, team ownership, and testing requirements. The Structure: 4 Repositories repo: main-platform (monorepo) ├── api/ — Express + Prisma backend ├── web-society/ — Society dashboard ├── web-admin/ — Company admin panel └── web-marketing/ — Marketing site repo: mobile-resident — Resident app (React Native) repo: mobile-guard — Guard app (React Native) repo: mobile-staff — Society staff mobile app (React Native) The web apps and the API live together in one monorepo. The three mobile apps each have their own repository. Why Split Mobile From Web? The driving factor was deployment cadence and review process . Web apps deploy on push — merge to main, CI builds, CDN updated within minutes. The feedback loop is fast, rollbacks are instant, and there's no approval gate between code and production. Mobile apps go through app store review. A release cycle includes building a release APK, submitting to Google Play (and Apple App Store), waiting for review, and then a staged rollout. The cadence is measured in days, not minutes. Mistakes are expensive to reverse — a bad release means submitting a patch, waiting again, and potentially having a broken version live for days. Given that difference, mob