Architecture
You don't need to be a developer to run the platform, but understanding how it keeps tenants apart makes everything else — plans, custom domains, the cross-tenant views — make sense. This page explains the model in plain terms.
What you'll learn
- How one installation serves many tenants
- How each tenant's data stays private
- How the super admin sees across all tenants
One platform, many tenants
There is a single Krayin installation. Every business on it is a tenant (internally, a "company"), and every tenant shares that one installation — you don't run a separate copy of Krayin per customer.
What makes each tenant feel like they have their own CRM is two things: a web address of their own, and strict data separation.
Addresses: subdomains and custom domains
Each tenant is reached at their own subdomain — acme.yourplatform.com, northwind.yourplatform.com, and so on. The subdomain is the tenant's username, chosen when they register. The platform reads the address on every request and serves that tenant's CRM.
A tenant can also point their own domain at the platform — crm.acmeconsulting.com instead of acme.yourplatform.com. That's covered on Custom Domains.
TIP
This is why usernames must be unique and URL-safe: the username is the address. Two tenants can't share one, just as two websites can't share a domain.
Data separation: how tenants stay private
All tenants' data lives in one shared database, but each record is stamped with the tenant it belongs to. When someone is signed in to a tenant's CRM, the platform automatically limits every query to that tenant's own records — a tenant simply cannot see, or reach, another tenant's leads, contacts or quotes. The separation is enforced for them at the data layer, so there's nothing a tenant can do to step outside their own CRM.
A handful of genuinely shared reference tables — the list of countries and states, and the directory of tenants itself — sit outside this scoping, because they're common to everyone.
Another way to separate tenants
This is the single-database edition, where separation is enforced in software. Krayin also offers a multi-database edition that gives each tenant a database of its own — see Multi-Database for how the two compare.
The super admin sees everything
You, signed in to the super-admin panel, are the exception. The per-tenant limit doesn't apply to you: that's precisely why you can see all tenants on the dashboard, and browse Leads and Quotes from every tenant in one list.
So there are two vantage points, by design:
| A tenant's admin | The super admin | |
|---|---|---|
| Signs in at | tenant.yourplatform.com/admin/login | yourplatform.com/super/login |
| Sees | Only their own CRM | Every tenant |
| Manages | Their leads, quotes, contacts, team | Tenants, plans, subscriptions, invoices |
Where to go next
- Stand the platform up → Installation
- See the operator's view of all tenants → Tenant Management
- Set a tenant up on their own domain → Custom Domains