Should I use a single or multiple database setup for a multi-client application?

Question

I am working on a PHP application that intends to ease company workflow and project management, let\'s say something like Basecamp and GoPlan.

I am not sure on what

Answer 1

• DEVELOPMENT For rapid development, use a database per customer. Think how easy it will be to backup, restore, or delete a customer's data. Or to measure/monitor/bill usage. You won't need to write code to do it by yourself, just use your database primitives.

• PERFORMANCE For performance, use a database for all. Think about connection pooling, shared memory, caching, etc.

• BUSINESS If your business plan is to have lots of small customers (think hotmail) you should probably work on a single DB. And have all administrative tasks such registration, deletion, data migration, etc. fully automated and exposed in a friendly interface. If you plan to have dozens or up to a few hundreds of big customers then you can work in one DB per customer and have system administration scripts in place that can be operated by your customer support staff.