SaaS Architecture Fundamentals
Building a successful SaaS application requires careful planning and the right architectural decisions from day one.
Multi-Tenancy Strategies
Database Per Tenant
Each customer gets their own database instance:
- Strong data isolation
- Easy to scale individual customers
- Higher infrastructure costs
Shared Database with Row-Level Security
All tenants share a database with isolation at the row level:
- Cost-effective
- Easier maintenance
- Requires careful security implementation
Essential Features
- Subscription and billing management
- User roles and permissions
- API rate limiting
- Analytics and reporting
- Automated backups
Scaling Considerations
Plan for growth by implementing:
- Database read replicas
- Caching layers (Redis, Memcached)
- CDN for static assets
- Horizontal scaling with load balancers
