SaaS development built on the right architecture from day one
We design multi-tenancy strategy, billing, auth, and compliance before writing a single line of code. The engineer on your discovery call leads your build from architecture to production.
- Multi-tenancy strategy designed before sprint one
- Stripe billing — seat, metered, and usage-based
- Auth with SSO, SAML, and role-based access control
- SOC2 controls and audit logging from the start
- REST and GraphQL APIs with versioning
- CI/CD, monitoring, and disaster recovery
Every SaaS we ship includes
- Multi-tenancy strategy designed before sprint one
- Stripe billing — seat, metered, and usage-based
- Auth with SSO, SAML, and role-based access control
- SOC2 controls and audit logging from the start
- REST and GraphQL APIs with versioning
- CI/CD, monitoring, and disaster recovery
Compliance standards
Multi-tenancy: the decision that shapes everything else
The most consequential architectural choice in any B2B SaaS product. Get it wrong and you're either rewriting your data model at Series A or paying for enterprise database instances you don't need yet. We design this before sprint one — not after the first enterprise prospect asks.
Shared Database
Row-level security (RLS)
How it works
All tenants share a single database. Every table carries a tenant_id column and RLS policies enforce that queries only ever return rows belonging to the authenticated tenant. Connection pooling is straightforward and operational overhead is minimal.
Use when
Early-stage, cost-sensitive, under 100 tenants, no regulated or enterprise clients
Advantages
- +Lowest infrastructure cost at small scale
- +Simple schema migrations — one change applies to all tenants
- +Easy to manage and monitor operationally
Trade-offs
- −RLS misconfiguration is a data leak — policies must be airtight and tested
- −A noisy tenant can degrade performance for others
- −Enterprise clients with data residency requirements will push back
- −Harder to offer per-tenant backup, restore, or data export
Our verdict
Schema-per-Tenant
Isolated schemas, shared database server
How it works
Each tenant gets their own database schema within a shared PostgreSQL instance. Tables are identical in structure across schemas; queries are directed to the correct schema via search_path. Migrations must run against every schema — tooling like db-migrate or Flyway makes this manageable up to a few hundred tenants.
Use when
Growth stage, 50–500 tenants, some enterprise clients, light compliance requirements
Advantages
- +Strong logical isolation — no cross-tenant data risk from query errors
- +Per-tenant backup and restore is straightforward
- +Easier to offer data exports and audit logs per tenant
Trade-offs
- −Migration complexity grows linearly with tenant count — 500 schemas means 500 migration runs
- −Not practical above ~1,000 tenants without significant tooling investment
- −Connection pool management becomes more complex
Our verdict
Database-per-Tenant
Complete database isolation
How it works
Each tenant gets a completely separate database instance. Connection routing happens at the application layer — the app resolves a tenant identifier to a connection string and maintains a pool per tenant. Infrastructure is typically provisioned on-demand with Terraform.
Use when
Enterprise-first, regulated industries (HIPAA, GDPR residency), high-value accounts where contractual isolation is required
Advantages
- +Complete data isolation — meets contractual and regulatory requirements without negotiation
- +Per-tenant scaling, backup, and compliance posture
- +Simple to offer data residency (host tenant DB in their region)
Trade-offs
- −Significantly higher infrastructure cost — each tenant carries its own DB overhead
- −Connection pool management at scale requires careful engineering
- −Schema migrations require a coordination layer (migration orchestrator across all DBs)
Our verdict
Not sure which fits your situation?
We make this decision collaboratively in the architecture session — with your requirements, your target customer profile, and your compliance obligations on the table. You get a written recommendation with rationale before we write a line of code.
Discuss your architectureThe infrastructure every B2B SaaS needs — built right
Multi-tenancy is one decision. These are the four that come next — and the ones most agencies get wrong because they build for the demo, not for your Series A due diligence.
Billing & Subscriptions
Stripe integration designed for the model your business actually needs — seat-based, usage-metered, flat-rate, or hybrid. Upgrade/downgrade flows, trial management, dunning sequences, and invoice generation. We've implemented billing for SaaS products in all three models and know where each breaks under volume.
- Seat-based, usage-metered, and flat-rate billing
- Stripe webhooks with idempotent event handling
- Trial-to-paid conversion flows and dunning sequences
- Customer portal for self-serve subscription management
Auth, SSO & RBAC
Authentication that enterprise prospects don't need to negotiate. SSO with SAML 2.0 and OIDC, MFA enforcement, RBAC with granular permission scopes, and session management that survives your security audit. We implement with Clerk or Auth0 when it fits, or build custom when it doesn't.
- SSO with SAML 2.0 and OIDC (Google, Okta, Azure AD)
- Multi-factor authentication with enforcement policies
- Role-based access control with custom permission scopes
- Audit log of every auth event — required for SOC2
Self-Serve Onboarding
The best onboarding is one that doesn't need a sales call. Workspace creation, team invites, initial data setup, and a first-use experience that gets a new user to their 'aha moment' without intervention. We instrument every onboarding step with product analytics so you can see exactly where users drop off.
- Workspace and organisation provisioning
- Team invite flows with role assignment
- In-app onboarding checklists and guided setup
- Product analytics on every onboarding step
Feature Flags & Gradual Rollouts
No more big-bang releases. Feature flags let you ship to a percentage of tenants, gate features by plan tier, and roll back instantly if something breaks. We integrate LaunchDarkly or build a lightweight flag system depending on your needs — and we wire it into your billing so plan-gated features enforce themselves.
- Feature gating by plan tier (Starter / Growth / Enterprise)
- Percentage rollouts for testing with real users
- Kill switches for instant rollback without a deploy
- Flag evaluation logged for audit trail
From discovery call to production SaaS
Every stage has a specific deliverable. Every deliverable is approved before we move to the next. No surprises, no scope drift.
Discovery & Technical Assessment
A senior engineer reviews your requirements, competitive landscape, and any existing code. We map compliance obligations, integration dependencies, and the architectural decisions that will determine your trajectory at scale.
Deliverable: Written technical assessment + multi-tenancy recommendation with rationale
Architecture Design
We design the data model, API contracts, auth flows, billing hooks, and infrastructure blueprint. Multi-tenancy strategy, compliance controls, and performance targets are specified before any code is written. Your team reviews and approves in writing.
Deliverable: Architecture document + data model + API spec + infrastructure blueprint
MVP Build
Two-week sprints, weekly demos, production deployments from week four. Core product, billing, auth, and enough infrastructure to onboard your first paying customers. You test with real users before the end of week eight.
Deliverable: Working SaaS in production — billing live, auth live, core flows complete
Hardening & Compliance
Load testing to your projected peak. Security review and pen test. SOC2 controls evidence collection. Monitoring, alerting, and runbooks. This is where we make it enterprise-ready, not just demo-ready.
Deliverable: Security review report + compliance evidence pack + operational runbooks
Handover or Retainer
Clean handover with full documentation and recorded walkthroughs — or an ongoing engineering retainer if you want us to continue evolving the product. Your IP is yours from contract day one regardless of which path you choose.
Deliverable: Full documentation, runbooks, and onboarded in-house team — or continued retainer
Everything a production SaaS actually needs
Not aspirations. What we ship as standard on every engagement.
Core SaaS Product
- Multi-tenant data model (your chosen strategy)
- User authentication with MFA and SSO
- Subscription billing and usage metering
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Admin dashboard and user management
- REST and GraphQL APIs with versioning
- Self-serve onboarding and workspace creation
- Transactional email and notification system
Infrastructure & DevOps
- Cloud architecture on AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
- CI/CD pipelines with zero-downtime deploys
- Distributed tracing and error monitoring
- Auto-scaling and load balancing
- Database backups and disaster recovery
- API gateway, rate limiting, and WAF
- 99.9% uptime architecture target
SaaS Essentials
- Feature flags and gradual rollouts
- Product analytics and usage telemetry
- Webhook delivery infrastructure
- Compliance audit logging
- SOC2 / HIPAA / GDPR evidence collection
- OpenAPI documentation
- Architecture runbooks and incident playbooks
- Recorded handover sessions
We pick the right tool — not the one we know best
Every stack decision comes with a production rationale. We can justify any choice we make for your SaaS.
Frontend
Backend
Database
Infrastructure
SaaS Tooling
AI / ML
Compliance designed in — not audited in at the end
If you're selling to US enterprises, UK financial services, or healthcare, compliance isn't optional. We design for these standards from the first architecture session.
Security controls, access logging, change management procedures, and incident response playbooks built into the architecture from sprint one. Your SOC2 audit becomes a verification, not a scramble.
PHI handling, audit logging, Business Associate Agreement clauses, encryption at rest and in transit, and breach notification procedures — designed from the first architecture session, not retrofitted before launch.
Post-Brexit UK GDPR and EU GDPR compliance for SaaS products handling EU or UK personal data. Data residency, right-to-erasure workflows, consent management, and DPA documentation.
Level 1 and Level 2 PCI-DSS environments for SaaS products handling cardholder data. We scope the architecture to minimise the compliance surface area and reduce annual audit cost.
Three ways to work with us — one standard of engineering
All engagements use the same senior-only team. The difference is scope and duration. IP is yours from day one. You can exit at the end of any sprint.
MVP Sprint
Core user flows, billing, auth, and production deployment. Designed to get you to your first 100 paying customers — not perfection.
- Multi-tenancy architecture
- Core product features
- Stripe billing
- Auth & RBAC
- Production deployment
Full Launch
Architecture through go-to-market-ready: compliance foundation, load testing, pen test, and full documentation. Suitable for enterprise sales and regulated markets.
- Everything in MVP Sprint
- SOC2 / HIPAA / GDPR compliance foundation
- Load and penetration testing
- Admin portal and product analytics
- Full documentation and runbooks
Engineering Retainer
A dedicated senior engineer who evolves your SaaS as you grow: new features, performance work, compliance tier upgrades, and architecture changes.
- Dedicated senior engineer
- Two-week sprint cadence
- Architecture evolution
- Weekly stakeholder demos
- Exit at end of any sprint
All engagements include full IP assignment · Exit at end of any sprint · No offshore hand-offs · Senior engineers only
What founders ask us before starting a SaaS build
Which multi-tenancy model should we use?
It depends on three things: your target customer size, your compliance obligations, and how fast you need to move. For early-stage B2B SaaS with SMB customers, shared DB with RLS is almost always right — lower cost, simpler ops. For products targeting enterprise or regulated industries from the start, schema-per-tenant or DB-per-tenant is the better foundation. We'll give you a specific recommendation with rationale in the discovery call.
How long does a SaaS MVP take to build?
A focused MVP — multi-tenant architecture, core user flows, billing, auth, and production deployment — takes 8–12 weeks with our team. A full production launch with compliance foundation, load testing, and documentation is typically 14–18 weeks. We'll give you a specific timeline after a 30-minute discovery call.
Can you work with a tech stack we've already chosen?
Yes, with one condition: if the stack has a production problem we know from experience, we'll tell you upfront. If your choice is sound, we work with it. If you have no preference, we'll recommend what fits your traffic projections, team skill set, and compliance requirements.
We already have a CTO. Will that cause friction?
No — this is our most common engagement structure. Your CTO sets direction and owns decisions. We bring senior execution bandwidth they don't have to hire for. The most effective dynamic is CTO as strategy owner and SwordTechLabs as engineering execution partner.
What if we have existing code we want to build on?
We'll audit it in discovery and give you an honest written assessment. We've taken over SaaS codebases ranging from solid foundations to rewrites. If the existing code is reusable, we use it. If it's a liability, we tell you before you pay for four weeks of us trying to make it work.
Can you add AI or ML features into the SaaS?
Yes. We build LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, AI-powered product features, and predictive models that ship to production. We also won't oversell AI features — if a simpler solution does the job, we'll tell you.
What compliance standards do you build for?
SOC2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and PIPEDA (Canada). Compliance is designed into the architecture from the first session — we don't offer it as a retrofit.
Who owns the code and IP?
You do, unconditionally, from contract day one. Full IP assignment, no proprietary frameworks, no vendor lock-in. Your legal team can review our IP clause before you sign.
What's your policy on NDAs before the discovery call?
We sign mutual NDAs before any technical discussion. If you have a template you prefer, send it over. If not, we have a standard mutual NDA that covers all technical information exchanged during discovery.
What if scope changes mid-build?
Scope changes are normal. We handle them with a written change order: what's changing, what it costs, and how it affects the timeline. Nothing gets built outside the original scope without your written sign-off.
Your idea + the right architecture = a SaaS that scales
The first call is 30 minutes with a senior engineer. We'll review your requirements and give you an honest picture of the architecture decisions, timelines, and costs involved.