dedicated and shared; this page uses the corresponding PostgreSQL concepts DATABASE and SCHEMA.
Choose DATABASE (dedicated) when isolation dominates
Use a dedicated PostgreSQL database per tenant when the tenant needs a strong infrastructure boundary, independent database maintenance windows, or a recovery plan designed around a dedicated database. Typical examples include a highly regulated institution, a high-volume tenant, or a tenant whose workload must not share a PostgreSQL instance with other tenants. This choice increases infrastructure and operational cost, so validate the product’s connection, backup, and migration design first.
Choose SCHEMA (shared) when density dominates
Use a dedicated schema per tenant in a shared PostgreSQL database when the supported product can operate in
shared mode and your operating model values density and lower per-tenant infrastructure cost.
A database-level incident or maintenance action can affect tenants on the shared instance. Plan capacity, backups, recovery, and maintenance around that shared blast radius.
Treat migration as a product operation
Do not rely on a generic automatic promotion from
SCHEMA to DATABASE. Moving a tenant to dedicated storage requires an operator-planned migration that the target product supports.
Before changing a registration, establish:
- the target product’s supported migration procedure;
- a tested backup, consistency, and rollback plan;
- a maintenance window and communication plan; and
- post-migration checks for authentication, routing, and tenant data.
Decision checklist
Related pages
Multi-tenancy
Product support, request scoping, and storage concepts.
Automatic provisioning
How tenant-service registrations provision supported resources.

