All termsENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE

RBAC

Role-Based Access Control

Also known as: Role Based Access Control

DEFINITION

An authorisation model where permissions are attached to roles, and users gain permissions by being assigned roles.

In depth

RBAC is the default for SaaS. Typical roles: Owner (everything), Admin (everything except billing), Member (most things), Viewer (read-only), Guest (scoped to specific resources).

Design RBAC before you need it. Retrofitting multi-tenant permissions after customers are on the system is one of the most expensive pieces of engineering work to reverse.

Related terms

Multi-Tenancy

A single application serving multiple customer organisations (tenants), with data isolation between them.

System Architecture

The high-level structure of a software system — its major components, their responsibilities, and how they communicate.

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Last reviewed 14 April 2026 by Abhi Verma.