Multi-Tenancy in Laravel: Single DB vs Multiple DBs — A Practical Guide for Founders
Introduction Choosing how to store customer data is one of the first big technical decisions for any SaaS built with Laravel. The choice — keep all tenants in one database or give each tenant their own — affects cost, security, onboarding speed, and your ability to scale. This short guide helps founders and small business owners decide the most practical path for their stage. Why this decision matters This is more than a developer debate. Your tenancy model impacts: - Compliance and customer trust (GDPR, audits). - Pricing tiers and the ability to sell premium isolation. - How fast you can add features and onboard customers. Start by listing business needs (isolation, backup RTO/RPO, compliance, billing) before picking a model. The two core options explained Single DB (shared) - All tenant records live in the same database and are separated by a tenant_id column. - Cheaper to run, easier to manage, and faster for onboarding and migrations. - Risk: a mis-scoped query or bug can ...