Company
Date Published
Author
Brian Morrison II
Word count
2385
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Multi-tenancy involves supporting multiple customers within a single application, requiring careful architectural decisions regarding authentication, authorization, data storage, and performance to ensure isolation and control. Core principles include strict data isolation, often enforced by mechanisms like Postgres's Row-Level Security (RLS), and role-based access control to manage user permissions across tenants. Various database models, such as shared databases with isolated schemas or fully isolated databases per tenant, offer different levels of data separation and scalability, with hybrid models providing flexibility based on customer needs. Authentication strategies ensure tenant-specific access controls, while tools like Clerk provide comprehensive user management solutions, integrating seamlessly with multi-tenant apps to support roles, permissions, and advanced authentication flows. Database providers like Supabase and Neon offer options for implementing tenant isolation at the data layer, while cloud services like AWS and GCP enable automated per-tenant infrastructure provisioning, enhancing scalability and compliance. The design of a multi-tenant architecture is crucial for maintaining trust, flexibility, and scalability as a SaaS product grows, with the right strategies and tools helping to manage these complexities effectively.