Databases

PayLink has one platform database and one database per tenant. Each can be SQLite, MySQL 8.0+ or PostgreSQL 13+, independently.

	SQLite	MySQL	PostgreSQL
Platform database	Default; a file in the data folder	A database you run, or one created by auto-provisioning	A database you run
Tenant database	Default; one file per tenant in tenants/	The tenant's own, or auto-provisioned	The tenant's own
Good for	Getting started, small and medium installations	Shared hosting, panels (Plesk, cPanel), CrudApi	Teams already running PostgreSQL

Admin → Platform settings → Database engines in this version lists what this build supports.

Schema and migrations

The SQL scripts ship next to the app (db/{sqlite,mysql,postgresql}/{platform,tenant}/) and are applied automatically at startup, in order, each once. PayLink records which have run. A tenant whose database can't be migrated at startup is listed on the admin dashboard and keeps its last schema until it's fixed.

For a DBA who prefers to create the MySQL database and user by hand, db/mysql/provisioning/create-paylink-database.sql has the statements.

Connection details

Wherever a database is asked for, you can give fields (host, port, database, user, password, SSL mode) or a full connection string. The password is stored encrypted and shown masked afterwards. Every connection is tested before it's saved: a tenant's own database must be empty.

Tenant database options at signup

Admin → Platform settings → Tenant database options chooses what businesses see at /signup:

Option
SQLite, managed by PayLink	A file in the data folder. Easiest to start with.
Their own MySQL or PostgreSQL	The tenant enters a connection to an empty database they run.
Auto-provisioned MySQL	Created on the platform's hosting, for organizations the auto-provisioning rules allow.

Platform admins can always use any option from Tenants → New tenant.

Moving later

A tenant's data, or the platform database, can move between engines at any time. See backup and moving.