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React Native Feature-Based Architecture

Overview

Feature-based (or feature-driven) architecture is widely endorsed by top tech companies, industry leaders, and the React/React Native community. This document provides comprehensive references supporting this approach and demonstrates a practical example with a UserProfile feature.

Industry Leaders & Major Companies

1. Facebook/Meta (React Native Creators)

  • Source: React Native Documentation - Project Structure
  • Recommendation: "Organize your project by feature, not by file type"
  • Quote: "Instead of organizing files by their type (components, screens, etc.), organize them by feature. This makes it easier to find related files and understand the codebase."

2. Airbnb Engineering

  • Source: Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide
  • Blog : "Rearchitecting Airbnb's Frontend"
  • Approach: Feature-based organization with clear boundaries
  • Quote: "We organize our code by feature rather than by file type, which makes it easier to find related code and understand the relationships between different parts of the application."

3. Netflix Engineering

  • Source : Netflix Tech Blog - "Componentization at Netflix"
  • Approach: Micro-frontend architecture with feature-based modules
  • Quote: "We've found that organizing code by business domain (features) rather than technical concerns leads to better maintainability and team autonomy."

4. Spotify Engineering

  • Source : Spotify Engineering Culture
  • Approach: Squad model with feature-based ownership
  • Quote: "Each squad owns a specific feature or component, with full autonomy over their codebase organization."

React/React Native Community Leaders

1. Dan Abramov (React Core Team)

  • Source: Twitter Thread on Project Structure
  • Quote: "I prefer organizing by features. Put files that change together close to each other."
  • Principle: Colocation of related code

2. Kent C. Dodds (Testing Library Creator)

  • Source: Blog Post - "Colocation"
  • Quote: "The concept of colocation is: place code as close to where it's relevant as possible."
  • Recommendation: Feature-based organization with colocation principles

3. Robin Wieruch (React Expert & Author)

4. Josh W. Comeau (CSS & React Expert)

Academic & Research Sources

1. Martin Fowler (Software Architecture Expert)

  • Source: Article - "Modular Monoliths"
  • Principle: Domain-driven design with feature boundaries
  • Quote: "Organize around business capabilities, not technical layers."

2. Eric Evans (Domain-Driven Design)

  • Source: Book - "Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software"
  • Principle: Bounded contexts align with feature boundaries

3. Robert C. Martin (Clean Architecture)

  • Source: Book - "Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design"
  • Principle: "Screaming Architecture" - structure should reveal intent
  • Quote: "The architecture should scream about the use cases of the application."

Open Source Projects & Examples

Industry Articles & Best Practices

Conference Talks & Presentations

  • React Conf Talks on "Scaling React Applications" recommend feature-based organization
  • React Native EU/US Conferences showcase large-scale apps using feature-based structures

Tools & Frameworks Supporting This Approach

  • Next.js: Feature-based organization in app/ directory
  • Nx Monorepo: Feature libraries as first-class citizens
  • Create React App: Community templates favor feature-based structure

Architectural Patterns Supporting Feature-Based Organization

  • Micro-Frontends: Feature-based boundaries enable micro-frontend architecture
  • Component-Driven Development: Features as component boundaries (Storybook Docs)
  • Atomic Design with Features: Features maintain their own atomic hierarchies

Performance & Scalability Benefits

  • Code Splitting: Natural feature-based boundaries (React Docs)
  • Bundle Optimization: Features can be independently optimized and lazy-loaded (Webpack Docs)
  • Team Scalability: Feature-based architecture aligns with team ownership and Conway's Law

Criticism & Alternative Approaches

  • Layer-based architecture advocates prefer technical separation; feature-based scales better in modern apps
  • Atomic Design purists prefer strict atomic hierarchy; hybrid approach works within features

Conclusion

Feature-based architecture is widely supported by:

  • ✅ React/React Native creators and core team members
  • ✅ Major tech companies
  • ✅ Industry experts and thought leaders
  • ✅ Open source community consensus
  • ✅ Academic research
  • ✅ Modern tooling and frameworks

Example: UserProfile Feature

Feature Export Convention

  • Public component exported from feature directory:
import {UserProfile} from '@/features/UserProfile';
  • File placement:
    • src/features/UserProfile/UserProfile.tsx → main component
    • src/features/UserProfile/index.ts → public API barrel
    • Sub-components, hooks, utilities, types in the same directory

Architecture Structure

src/features/UserProfile/
├── index.ts
├── UserProfile.tsx
├── types.ts
├── components/
│   ├── ProfileHeader.tsx
│   ├── ProfileDetails.tsx
│   └── ProfileSettings/
│       ├── index.ts
│       ├── SettingsForm.tsx
│       └── SettingsActions.tsx
├── hooks/
│   ├── useUserProfile.ts
│   └── useUserSettings.ts
└── lib/
    ├── validations.ts
    └── formatters.ts

Key Benefits Demonstrated

  • Clear separation of business logic (hooks) and UI (components)
  • Related functionality colocated in feature folder
  • Hierarchical sub-feature organization
  • Clean public API via index.ts
  • Testability at multiple levels

Performance Benefits

  • Code splitting via dynamic import
  • Bundle optimization and tree-shaking per feature

Implementation Guidelines

  • Define public API first
  • Separate hooks and UI
  • Use sub-features for complex modules
  • Keep dependencies flowing inward
  • Centralize API calls and caching in shared utilities

Additional Resources