When building scalable and maintainable applications, choosing the right architectural pattern is crucial. Clean Architecture, MVVM, and MVI are three popular approaches — each with its strengths and trade-offs. Here’s a quick comparison to help you decide which one suits your project best.

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Clean Architecture
Clean Architecture, popularized by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), is all about separation of concerns. It divides your app into layers — typically Entities, Use Cases, Interface Adapters, and Frameworks/Drivers — with dependencies flowing inward.

Pros:

Highly testable and maintainable
Framework-agnostic
Encourages long-term scalability
Cons:

More boilerplate and complexity
Steeper learning curve
Best For: Large-scale applications that need strict separation and long-term maintainability.

MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel)
MVVM is widely used in platforms like Android and .NET. It separates UI logic (View), business logic (ViewModel), and data (Model), promoting a clean UI architecture with reactive data binding.

Pros:

Simple and easy to adopt
Great for UI-driven applications
Supported by many frameworks and tools
Cons:

Can get messy with large ViewModels
Binding logic can become complex
Best For: Medium to large apps with a strong focus on user interface responsiveness.

MVI (Model-View-Intent)
MVI is a unidirectional data flow pattern. The View emits Intents, which are processed by a Reducer to update the Model, which then updates the View. It’s common in reactive and functional programming environments.

Pros:

Predictable state management
Encourages immutability and testability
Great for complex UI interactions
Cons:

Verbose and boilerplate-heavy
Not beginner-friendly
Best For: Apps requiring consistent and traceable state changes, like chat apps or real-time dashboards.

Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Use Clean Architecture for long-term, layered systems. Go with MVVM for clean, maintainable UI apps. Choose MVI when you need robust state management. Understanding your app’s needs and your team’s expertise will guide you to the right choice.