The differences between multi-user and multi-tenant systems are pointed out in this section. While user and tenant terms may be replaceable in some cases.
What is Multi-User Software
A multi-user software of system allows the permission of multiple users for accessing the data at a time. All different users can access that software and use that software’s features at the same time while all other users are using that too.
Example of Multi-User Software
Operating systems are the best example of multi-user software. A multi-user operating system is an operating system that allows multiple users to access and operate a single OS. The users engage with it through terminals or computers that provided them access to the device via a network or devices such as printers. The operating system should have to fulfill the requirements of all its users in a balanced manner so that if any issue would occur with one user, it does not affect any other user in the chain.
There is another example of multi-user software is like mainframe/servers. It is mainly used in big industries with high intensity of input and output. Banking, air travel business are the example of it.
What is Multi-Tenant Software
Nowadays, we will talk about Multi-Tenant software. The meaning of tenant is particularly used to designate a customer in the overall scheme of SaaS delivery models. So, in essence, when we say Multi-Tenant, we say Multi-Customer SaaS. Multi-tenancy is the place where multiple clients or tenants serve a single instance of the software that is running on a SaaS platform. Some examples of multi-tenant systems are:
- Zendesk
- ICTBroadcast
- Netflix
A software program and a single database are shared by each client, but the data of each tenant is separated and remains invisible to other tenants.
The tenants may also be given the opportunity to customize any component of the application. It is easy to change options such as theme colors, specific notification settings, or other internal business-specific policies, but tenants would not be able to change the core code of the application.