Turborepo Alternatives - When You're Done With Vercel's Bullshit

The Breaking Points

You know it's time to switch when Turborepo stops being the solution and becomes the problem.

JavaScript-Only Support Will Fuck You Over

Got a Go microservice? Python data pipeline? Rust library? Congratulations, you now need wrapper scripts like it's fucking 2015. The GitHub issues are full of teams spending more time writing bash scripts than actual features. I watched our team spend 3 days wrapping a simple go build command in package.json scripts just so Turborepo wouldn't shit itself.

We had a React app, a Node.js API, and one tiny Go service for image processing. Turborepo couldn't cache the Go builds, so every change triggered a complete Docker rebuild. Took us three weeks to realize the "fast" monorepo tool was slower than our old shell scripts. Nx handles polyglot projects without the scripting nightmare, Bazel was designed for this from day one.

Cache Corruption Becomes a Weekly Ritual

The cache works great until it doesn't. GitHub issue #4591 documents cache stall issues, but the real problem is cache corruption every few days. You'll memorize this command:

rm -rf node_modules/.cache/turbo

I watched our CI builds randomly fail with CACHE_CORRUPTION errors at least twice a week. The "solution" in their GitHub issues? Delete the cache and rebuild everything from scratch. When your build system's most-used command is rm -rf .turbo, maybe it's time to admit the cache is fundamentally broken. Last month we had builds failing with Error: unable to verify the first certificate because their cache SSL handling is also fucked. Nx remote cache fails maybe once a month, Bazel's remote cache actually works reliably.

Vercel Vendor Lock-in (Update: They Fixed the Pricing, Broke Everything Else)

Remote caching used to cost $20/month per developer until Vercel made it free in December 2024. Cool, now the financial argument for leaving is gone, but the technical problems got worse. Deploy anywhere else and you still lose half the optimizations, plus the cache randomly fails for reasons they won't explain.

Set up your own S3 bucket and discover Turborepo's remote caching configuration is still intentionally obtuse. GitHub discussions show the hoops you jump through just to get basic S3 caching working. Meanwhile, Bazel works with any S3-compatible storage out of the box without the configuration nightmare.

What Actually Works When You Escape

Nx: The Reasonable Migration Path

Nx is what Turborepo should have been. Same task-running concepts, but with actual polyglot support, working cache, and migration tools that don't suck.

The migration took our team two weeks instead of the three months we budgeted. Nx automatically converts your turbo.json to their format. Most importantly, when the cache breaks, it actually tells you why instead of silently corrupting.

Bazel: For When You Need It to Actually Work

Bazel is the nuclear option - complex as hell but unfuckwithably reliable. If Google uses it to build Chrome, it can probably handle your monorepo. The learning curve is brutal, but the builds are fast and the cache never corrupts.

BUILD files are a pain to maintain, but at least they're explicit about dependencies. No more mystery cache misses because someone forgot to declare a dependency. The migration guide walks you through converting from npm scripts.

Rush: Microsoft's Enterprise Answer

Rush is overkill for most teams but perfect if you need enterprise governance. Version management, policy enforcement, and pnpm workspace integration that actually works.

The configuration is complex, but at least it's documented. Unlike Turborepo's "figure it out yourself" approach to anything beyond basic caching. Rush policies can prevent the monorepo anti-patterns that break caching in the first place.

Pants: The Polyglot Alternative That Doesn't Suck

Pants handles Python, Java, Go, and JavaScript without wrapper scripts or cache corruption. The configuration is simpler than Bazel but more powerful than Turborepo.

Started by ex-Twitter engineers who were tired of maintaining thousands of BUILD files. Less magic than Nx, more reliable than Turborepo, easier than Bazel. Check out this Python monorepo example to see how it handles mixed codebases.

The choice depends on your pain tolerance and requirements. Turborepo is fine for simple JavaScript projects until it breaks. Everything else handles complexity better, with varying degrees of setup pain.

Migration planning sounds great on paper but here's what really happens: Phase 1 takes twice as long as expected, Phase 2 breaks your CI in unexpected ways, and Phase 3 is when you discover all the edge cases no one documented.

The Real Decision Tree

Step 1: Are you happy with Turborepo?

• Yes? Stop reading. Don't fix what isn't broken.
• No? Continue to step 2.

Step 2: What's your biggest pain point?

"Turborepo randomly breaks our builds"

→ Try Nx first. Their migration tool actually works and you'll have similar concepts. If you're feeling brave, Bazel never randomly breaks, but good luck learning it.

We switched to Nx after Turborepo's cache corrupted for the third time in a month. The migration took two weeks, not the three months we budgeted. Most importantly, when Nx's cache has issues, it tells you why instead of silently failing.

"We need to build non-JavaScript stuff"

→ Bazel if you have time and patience, Pants if you want something that works this decade. Both handle polyglot codebases without wrapper script hell.

Our team added a single Go service (Go 1.21, nothing fancy) and suddenly Turborepo became useless. Every change triggered Docker rebuilds because the cache couldn't understand non-JS dependencies. We tried wrapping go build in npm scripts but Turborepo 1.10.16 kept throwing UNKNOWN DEPENDENCY errors. This Bazel tutorial will crush your soul, but at least it handles our entire tech stack without wrapper script hell.

"Vercel's remote caching is still a pain in the ass"

→ Nx remote cache works more reliably, or configure Bazel with S3 if you want to own your cache. Yeah, Vercel made caching free in December 2024, but the configuration is still obtuse and the cache still randomly breaks. Free broken shit is still broken shit.

"We need enterprise compliance/governance"

→ Rush is overkill but works. Built by Microsoft for Microsoft-scale problems. The policy system will make your compliance team happy and your developers miserable.

What Actually Matters (Size Doesn't)

Team size is bullshit advice. What matters is your tolerance for pain and complexity.

If You Want It to Just Work

→ Nx. Similar concepts to Turborepo, better execution, actual migration tools. You'll be productive in a week instead of a month.

If You Need Maximum Performance

→ Bazel. Google's nuclear option. Steep learning curve but unfuckwithably fast once configured. Plan on hiring someone who knows it or budget 6 months of weekends.

If You're Mostly Python/Java with Some JS

→ Pants. Simpler than Bazel, better at polyglot than Nx. Created by Twitter engineers who were tired of BUILD file hell. Check their Python tutorial to see if it fits.

If You Want Simple and Don't Need Features

→ Lerna but it just uses Nx under the hood now. Skip the middleman and use Nx directly.

Migration Reality Check

Every migration guide lies about timelines. Here's what actually happens:

Week 1: "This is going great!"

Set up the new tool, migrate a simple package. Everything works. You're a genius.

Week 2-4: "Why is everything broken?"

Module resolution breaks. TypeScript paths change. CI fails in mysterious ways. Half your team can't build locally. You question your life choices.

Week 6-8: "OK, it's mostly working"

Fixed most issues. Builds are faster. Cache mostly works. Still finding edge cases, but the team isn't actively plotting your demise.

Week 12: "Should've done this months ago"

Everything works better than Turborepo ever did. You forget why you waited so long.

Timeline reality:

• Budget 2x your estimate
• Plan for at least one "everything is broken" crisis
• The migration is done when you stop finding new edge cases

How to Actually Do This Without Getting Fired

Don't Migrate the Entire Monorepo at Once

Start with the least critical package. When that works, do the most problematic one. When that works, do everything else.

Keep Turborepo Running During Migration

Hybrid systems are painful but better than a completely broken build. Nx supports gradual migration, most others can coexist temporarily.

Test the Cache Before You Commit

Run the same build twice. The second time should say "cached." If not, figure out why before migrating more packages. Cache problems get worse with scale, not better.

Have a Rollback Plan

Keep your Turborepo configs until the new system is stable. When (not if) something breaks, you need a way back to working builds.

When Not to Migrate

If your builds work and aren't slow, don't migrate. Every build tool has bugs and edge cases. Turborepo's issues are known; your new tool's issues are surprises.

If you're launching soon, wait. Migrations always uncover unexpected problems. Don't introduce new variables during crunch time.

If your team is already overwhelmed. Build tool migrations require debugging time. Make sure someone can focus on this without neglecting other work.

The grass isn't always greener. Sometimes it's just a different shade of brown. Check out these real migration experiences: Nx success story, Bazel at Uber, Rush at Microsoft.

Make sure you're solving a real problem, not just chasing the latest tool. Your future self will thank you.

Forget careful planning and gradual execution. Here's what really happens when you migrate from Turborepo, based on teams who lived through it.

The Real Migration Strategy

Start with the Package Everyone Hates

Don't pick "non-critical packages" - that's consultant bullshit. Pick the package that's been broken forever and nobody cares if you break it more. When you fix that, you're a hero. When you break it, nobody notices.

Our team picked the documentation build that hadn't worked properly in months. Nx migration tools turned 2 days of suffering into 2 hours of mild annoyance. When it worked better than the original, management started paying attention.

Run Both Systems Until Someone Forces You to Choose

Hybrid systems are messy but better than broken builds. Keep Turborepo running while you migrate packages one by one. Most alternatives can coexist temporarily:

• Nx gradual migration lets you migrate incrementally
• Bazel can build alongside existing npm scripts
• Pants supports mixed setups during transition

Pro tip: Keep the old system for at least a month after "migration is complete." You'll need it when something breaks at 2am.

What Actually Breaks (That No One Tells You About)

Your CI Will Explode

Every CI config change breaks something unexpected:

• Command syntax changes (turbo run build → nx run-many --target=build → 404 errors for hours)
• Cache locations move (goodbye node_modules/.cache/turbo, hello debugging PATH issues)
• Environment variables need updating (TURBO_TOKEN → NX_CLOUD_AUTH_TOKEN → authentication fails silently)
• Docker builds break because paths changed (spent 4 hours figuring out why COPY commands stopped working)
• GitHub Actions need new setup that nobody documents properly

Budget a full day just for CI fixes. You'll need it.

Developer Workflow Pain

Week 1: "Why doesn't turbo dev work anymore?"

Week 2: "Where are my build artifacts?"

Week 3: "Why is my VS Code workspace broken?"

Week 4: "OK, the new commands are actually better"

Create a cheat sheet of old vs new commands. Post it in Slack. Reference it constantly for the first month. Check out these command translations to save yourself some pain.

Custom Scripts Die Horribly

Any script that called Turborepo APIs directly needs rewriting. This includes:

• CI scripts that parsed turbo run output
• Deployment scripts that checked cache status
• Custom tools that relied on turbo.json format
• Shell scripts that used Turborepo's CLI

Most alternatives have different APIs, different output formats, different everything.

Tool-Specific Suffering

Nx: Plugin Hell

Nx plugins do everything, which means choosing wrong plugins breaks everything. The React plugin conflicts with the Next.js plugin in mysterious ways.

Survival strategy: Start with minimal plugins, add more as needed. Don't try to use every available plugin on day one.

Bazel: BUILD File Nightmare

Writing BUILD files for JavaScript packages is like explaining async/await to your grandmother in ancient Latin. Every dependency must be explicitly declared, every output must be specified.

## This is what you need just to build a React component
load("@npm//@bazel/typescript:index.bzl", "ts_library")
load("@npm//@bazel/webpack:index.bzl", "webpack_bundle")

ts_library(
    name = "my_component",
    srcs = ["component.tsx"],
    deps = [
        "@npm//react",
        "@npm//@types/react",
        "//shared/types",
    ],
)

Reality check: Hire someone who's done this before or budget 6 months minimum. Check out this Bazel tutorial and prepare for pain.

Rush: Policy Configuration Purgatory

Rush policies control everything: which packages can depend on what, version management, review requirements. Setting them up requires understanding Microsoft's enterprise development model.

Warning: Developers will hate the policies initially. They're designed for massive teams with compliance requirements, not 10-person startups.

Pants: Python Toolchain Hell

If your team doesn't know Python packaging, Pants configuration will be confusing. The toolchain setup assumes Python expertise most JavaScript teams don't have.

Performance Reality Check

Initial performance will probably suck. New tools need tuning for your specific codebase. Don't panic when builds are slower for the first few weeks.

Performance tuning actually means:

• Figuring out why the cache doesn't work (usually NODE_ENV inconsistencies between local and CI)
• Adjusting parallelization settings (8 parallel tasks killed my MacBook Pro, 4 barely helps)
• Finding the configuration that doesn't randomly fail with EMFILE: too many open files
• Reading documentation that assumes you know things you don't (what the fuck is a "target executor"?)

Timeline: 2-4 weeks of performance archaeology after basic migration. Sometimes longer if your codebase is weird (it probably is).

Long-term Reality

Someone Becomes the Build System Expert (Congratulations, It's You)

Whoever initiates the migration becomes the go-to person for all build system issues. Forever. Hope you like debugging cache configurations and explaining why builds are slow.

Pro tip: Document everything immediately. Future you will thank past you when the configuration breaks at midnight before a deadline.

Updates Break Things Randomly

Every tool update is a potential disaster. Nx updates usually work smoothly. Bazel updates can break everything. Plan accordingly.

Survival strategy: Test updates in a branch first. Always. Every time. No exceptions.

Hybrid Hell Never Ends

Many teams never fully migrate. You'll have some packages on the new system, some still on Turborepo, and special cases that use neither. This is normal but painful to maintain.

Reality: Perfect migrations are rare. Good enough migrations that solve your immediate problems are common and often sufficient.

The most important thing is solving your actual problem, not achieving build system purity. If Nx fixes your cache issues, that's success. If Bazel handles your polyglot requirements, that's success. Perfect configuration is less important than working builds.

Migration success means builds work better than before, not that everything is perfect. Check out real migration stories: Nx success stories, Bazel adoption at scale, Rush enterprise usage.