Advantages of microfrontends.json over using Next rewrites?

[nico-martinucci]

Summary

I think the title covers it - we use Next rewrites for our microfrontends right now, are there any major advantages to switching to the new microfrontends.json set-up available in 2.6.x?

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[saraeloop]

They solve different layers, so it's less "switch from rewrites" and more "what do you want your local dev to look like":

The key distinction: Turborepo's built-in microfrontends.json proxy is local dev only. Next rewrites run in production. So if you're not deploying on Vercel, you'll still need rewrites (or an edge/reverse proxy) in prod either way.

What you gain locally:

• Your host app stops being a router. With rewrites, every request to a child zone goes through the parent app's dev server, so it always has to be running. The Turbo proxy (default localhost:3024) sits in front of all apps and routes by path, so you can run just the zone you're working on. If the other apps' routes still need to resolve, give them development.fallback targets.
• The proxy supports HMR and WebSocket forwarding.
• Fallback URLs. Any app that isn't running locally can proxy to its configured fallback (e.g., staging) instead of needing env-dependent rewrite destinations.
• One declarative routing map instead of rewrites() branching between localhost:300x and prod URLs.

If you're on Vercel: when @vercel/microfrontends is installed, turbo dev defers to its proxy, and Turbo's schema is a subset of Vercel's, so the same microfrontends.json works for both. If you adopt Vercel Microfrontends, that shared configuration can replace your inter-app routing rewrites. Any unrelated rewrites stay as they are.

TL;DR

• If you adopt Vercel Microfrontends: the shared configuration can replace the inter-app routing rewrites.
• Self-hosted: use microfrontends.json for local dev if needing the host app running is a pain point, and keep rewrites for prod.
• Rewrites working fine locally: no urgent reason to change.

Docs: https://turborepo.dev/docs/guides/microfrontends#integrating-with-production