Why do we need Module Federation for Microfrontends?

In the multi-SPA approach to microfrontends, you may have noticed that we end up duplicating some of the common dependencies across the different micro apps. In the grand scheme of things, when the primary goal is to keep things simple, this would be an acceptable trade-off. However, when the number of dependencies being duplicated and the number of apps being built are high, you need to optimize things and minimize duplication. Trying to achieve this before Webpack 5 would have led to having to deal with complex dependency management. It would also have made it difficult to maintain and evolve microfrontend applications. Module Federation helps us solve these challenges.

In the next sections, we will learn more about what Module Federation is and how it helps with building microfrontends.