10 Modern Best Practices for Structuring Large-Scale Angular Applications

Building large-scale Angular applications is more than just knowing the framework—it’s about designing for scalability, maintainability, and collaboration. Poor structure leads to technical debt, slower delivery, and frustrated teams.

Here are 10 modern best practices for structuring Angular apps that stand the test of time.

1. Adopt a Monorepo with Nx

Instead of managing multiple repositories, use a monorepo powered by Nx. It encourages consistent patterns, dependency graph visualization, and advanced tooling like computation caching.

Why?

• Consistency across projects
• Shared libraries for UI, utilities, and data access
• Improved CI/CD performance

npx create-nx-workspace my-org 

2. Organize with Domain-Driven Design (DDD)

Structure code by business domains (users, payments, events) rather than technical layers. Each domain should encapsulate its features, UI, and data access.

Good example:

libs/ users/ feature/ ui/ data-access/ 

This keeps business logic close to where it’s used.

3. Use Standalone Components & Feature Modules Wisely

Since Angular 14, standalone components reduce boilerplate. For small or isolated features, go standalone. For complex, multi-part domains, combine with feature modules for clarity.

@Component({ standalone: true, selector: 'app-user-card', templateUrl: './user-card.html', imports: [CommonModule, MatCardModule], }) export class UserCard {} 

4. Leverage Angular Signals for State Management

Angular 16+ introduced signals, a powerful reactivity model. For local UI state, prefer signals over external state libraries.

readonly counter = signal(0); increment() { this.counter.update(c => c + 1); } 

For global state, combine signals with inject() or libraries like @ngrx/signals.

5. Create Clear Library Boundaries

Shared code should live in well-scoped libraries:

ui/ → reusable components
data-access/ → API clients, SDKs
util/ → helpers, pipes, validators

This avoids spaghetti imports and makes dependencies explicit.

6. Implement Feature-Based Routing

Each domain should own its routes. Lazy load features to improve startup performance.

const routes: Routes = [ { path: 'users', loadChildren: () => import('@myorg/users/feature').then(m => m.UsersFeatureRoutes), }, ]; 

This ensures separation of concerns and faster navigation.

7. Standardize Styling with Design Tokens

Instead of scattering CSS variables or SCSS across components, define design tokens in a central library.

:root { --color-primary: #1976d2; --color-accent: #ff4081; } 

Then consume them across apps for consistent branding.

8. Write Tests Close to the Code

Organize tests next to their implementation (*.spec.ts). Use Jest with Nx for fast unit tests, and Cypress for e2e.

it('should increment counter', () => { const comp = new CounterComponent(); comp.increment(); expect(comp.counter()).toBe(1); }); 

9. Document with Storybook

Integrate Storybook for isolated UI development. This helps teams explore components without spinning up the whole app.

npx nx g @nx/angular:storybook-configuration my-ui-lib 

10. Automate with CI/CD and Code Quality Gates

Scaling teams need guardrails. Use:

• Prettier + ESLint for formatting/linting
• Husky for Git hooks (pre-commit, commit-msg)
• CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, CircleCI) to run tests, linting, and builds

This ensures quality from commit to production.

Conclusion

Large Angular applications thrive when built on strong architectural foundations.

By combining Nx, domain-driven design, signals, and modern tooling, you'll create a structure that scales with both codebase size and team growth.

👉 Start small: refactor one feature using these best practices, then expand across your app.

💬 What other best practices have worked for you in large Angular apps? Share your thoughts below!