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System Architecture6 min read

Scaling Multi-Tenant SaaS with PostgreSQL Row-Level Security

How we use native database-level isolation to secure customer data without sacrificing query performance.

MI

Merchant Infotech

November 15, 2023

When building a multi-tenant SaaS application, one of the earliest and most critical decisions is how to isolate tenant data. While application-level filters work for simple apps, they introduce significant risk as the system scales.

In this post, we break down why we default to PostgreSQL's Row-Level Security (RLS) for enterprise-grade SaaS. By enforcing isolation at the database layer, we eliminate entire classes of bugs where a developer might forget a `WHERE tenant_id = ?` clause.

We also explore how to structure your migration files and test RLS policies effectively in a CI/CD pipeline to ensure zero-downtime schema updates.

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