Brokerage operations
Single-tenant or multi-tenant: choosing how your platform is hosted
When a brokerage licenses its platform rather than building it, one of the first technical decisions is whether it runs on shared infrastructure alongside other brokers or on an environment of its own. Both are legitimate. The right choice depends less on size than on what the firm needs to control.
What the terms mean
In a multi-tenant deployment, several brokers run on the same infrastructure, with their data and configuration separated logically. In a single-tenant deployment, a broker has its own environment: its own databases, its own application instances and often its own network boundary.
The case for shared
Multi-tenant hosting is faster to start and cheaper to run. Upgrades arrive for everyone at once, monitoring is shared, and the supplier's operational effort is spread across many clients. For a new brokerage proving its model, that speed and cost usually matter more than anything else.
Launch in days rather than weeks
Lower running cost, because infrastructure is shared
Upgrades and security patches applied centrally
The case for dedicated
Single-tenant hosting gives a firm control over things that eventually matter to larger or more regulated businesses: where data physically lives, when upgrades are applied, how the environment is networked to its own systems, and whether its performance can be affected by another tenant's busy day.
Data residency in a region the regulator expects
Upgrade timing aligned with the firm's own change windows
Private connectivity to liquidity providers and internal systems
Isolation from other tenants' load
Choosing, and changing later
Many firms start shared and move to a dedicated environment once volume, regulation or a large client demands it. That path is only painless if the platform is the same in both modes, so that moving is an infrastructure exercise rather than a migration between products. It is worth asking about the move before signing for the first mode.
In short
What to take away
Multi-tenant is faster and cheaper; single-tenant gives control
Data residency and upgrade timing often decide it for regulated firms
Starting shared and moving later is common and sensible
Make sure both modes run the same platform before you choose
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Work out which mode fits you
Tell us your jurisdiction, expected volume and integration needs, and we will recommend a hosting mode and explain why.