How to Architect Scalable Dashboards in Vue 3 with Modular Components

Lomanu4 · 14 Май 2025

Creating a dashboard might start as a quick project — a few charts, tables, and sidebars. But as features pile up, performance drops, code becomes messy, and onboarding new developers becomes painful.

That’s why building dashboards with a modular architecture from day one is a hallmark of senior Vue.js developers.

In this article, you’ll learn how to architect a scalable dashboard in Vue 3, using modular components, lazy loading, scoped state, and clean folder structures — all while maintaining performance and clarity.

? Why Modularity Matters

Dashboards often grow fast:

Pages evolve into multiple tabs
Charts become interactive
Permissions and role-based views are added
Data becomes dynamic and real-time

Without modularity, your Vue project can quickly turn into a monolith — hard to debug, test, or scale.

? Recommended Folder Structure

Start with a domain-first, feature-based structure rather than a type-based one.

src/
├── components/ # Shared/reusable UI components
├── modules/ # Feature-specific modules
│ ├── finance/
│ │ ├── views/
│ │ ├── components/
│ │ └── store/
│ ├── users/
│ │ ├── views/
│ │ ├── components/
│ │ └── store/
├── router/
├── store/ # Global Vuex or Pinia store
├── services/ # API logic
├── composables/ # Reusable logic (Vue 3)
└── App.vue

Each module (finance, users, etc.) becomes self-contained — with its own components, views, and optionally scoped state and routes.

? Component Design: Atomic & Scoped

Split components using the Atomic Design principle:

BaseButton.vue, BaseCard.vue → reused in multiple features
FinanceOverviewCard.vue → lives inside modules/finance/components/

Keep presentation components dumb — they should receive data via props and emit events, never fetch or mutate state directly.

Lazy Load Feature Modules

Use Vue Router’s lazy loading for dashboard views:

// router/index.ts
const FinanceRoutes = () => import('../modules/finance/views/FinanceDashboard.vue');

{
path: '/finance',
component: FinanceRoutes,
}

You can even split child routes inside each module:

// modules/finance/router.js
export default [
{
path: '',
name: 'FinanceHome',
component: () => import('./views/FinanceDashboard.vue')
},
{
path: 'report',
name: 'FinanceReport',
component: () => import('./views/FinanceReport.vue')
}
];
? Scoped State Management with Pinia

Use Pinia with modular stores for each feature:

// modules/finance/store/financeStore.ts
import { defineStore } from 'pinia';

export const useFinanceStore = defineStore('finance', {
state: () => ({
balance: 0,
invoices: []
}),
actions: {
async fetchFinanceData() {
const res = await fetch('/api/finance');
this.invoices = await res.json();
}
}
});

This avoids global state bloat and keeps logic where it belongs.

? Composables for Reusable Logic

Use Vue 3’s setup() and extract logic into composables:

// composables/useChartData.ts
import { ref, onMounted } from 'vue';

export function useChartData(apiUrl: string) {
const chartData = ref([]);

onMounted(async () => {
const res = await fetch(apiUrl);
chartData.value = await res.json();
});

return { chartData };
}

Now reuse this in any dashboard chart component without duplication.

? Tools to Enhance Modularity

Vite: Fast dev server with module-based structure
VueUse: Composables for debounce, watch, etc.
ApexCharts / Chart.js: Component-based data charts
Vitest or Cypress: For testing your modules in isolation
ESLint + Prettier: Keep code clean and maintainable

? Example Use Case: Finance Module

You can easily build out a finance module like this:

modules/finance/
├── views/
│ └── FinanceDashboard.vue
├── components/
│ ├── BalanceCard.vue
│ └── InvoiceTable.vue
├── store/
│ └── financeStore.ts
└── router.js

FinanceDashboard.vue

<template>
<BalanceCard :balance="store.balance" />
<InvoiceTable :invoices="store.invoices" />
</template>

<script setup>
import { useFinanceStore } from '../store/financeStore'
const store = useFinanceStore()
store.fetchFinanceData()
</script>

This keeps everything self-contained, testable, and scalable.

? Final Thoughts

A modular dashboard architecture in Vue 3:

Keeps your app clean as it grows
Allows teams to work in parallel
Improves maintainability and performance
Aligns with domain-driven design principles

Whether you’re building internal tools, admin panels, or SaaS dashboards — modular Vue apps are easier to debug, scale, and extend.

Call to Action

Are you building a Vue 3 dashboard or modernizing your architecture?

? Let’s connect — I help companies design scalable Vue + Node.js systems with best practices from the start.

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