How to Architect Scalable Dashboards in Vue 3 with Modular Components

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.

Here’s a revised version of that line with your contact links added:

💬 Reach out on Dev.to, message me on WhatsApp, connect via Facebook, or explore educationgate.org to dive deeper into modular full-stack design.