Re: large database versus many databases

Uwe Maiwald <u(dot)maiwald(at)kiss-net(dot)de> writes:
> we are currently planning a very large installation of a web-application
> using PostgreSQL. The application can be configured to handle 1 database
> per customer, or all customers in one large database.

> We plan to start with e.g. 500 customers, each of which can have 200 MB or
> more in the database. And we want the system to be expandable as needed
> (thousands of customers, using lots of memory).

The one-big-database approach would scale better, but is performance
your only consideration? Separate databases would enforce strict
separation between customers, which might be either a good thing or
a bad thing depending on your needs.

regards, tom lane