Brand vs. Business

A business is your account — a physically isolated database and storage bucket. A brand is a logical partition inside it. Learn when to add a brand vs.

What you'll learn

  • The difference between a business (your account) and a brand (a partition inside it).
  • Why one is physically isolated and the other is logical.
  • When to add a brand versus stand up a whole new account.

Most SaaS tools bundle your login, your billing, and your workspace data into one box. Want a second project? You either mix it into one workspace or pay for a second account. m18t splits those concerns into two layers, and knowing which is which saves you from setting up your workspace the wrong way.

The two layers are the business (your account — your workspace) and the brand (a partition inside it). One is heavy and physically separate; the other is light and instant.

The business (your account)

A business is the hard boundary. It's the top of the isolation model, and the separation is physical:

  1. Its own database. Each business gets its own isolated database. One business's data never sits in another's. There are no shared tables across businesses.
  2. Its own storage. Each business gets its own isolated storage bucket for media.
  3. Its own billing. Your subscription is tied to the business.

Because the isolation is physical, businesses are heavy — they involve provisioning — and you cannot query across two of them. (In m18t this is also called your workspace — the whole account container.)

The brand

A brand is a logical partition inside one business's database. It's lightweight:

  1. Shared infrastructure. Every brand in a business lives in the same database file and the same storage bucket. Isolation between brands is enforced by the application's brand-scoping, not by separate files.
  2. Instant context switching. The Brand Switcher filters the studio to the active brand — switch and the content, assets, integrations, and specs all re-shard.
  3. Shared vault, if you want it. Brands in the same business can point at the same encrypted API keys. Five brands can route their AI calls through one OpenAI key in the vault — or each can have its own.

Brands are free and instant to create.

When to use which

The solo operator

You run a tech blog, a portfolio, and a side project. One business, three brands. One subscription, one set of shared AI keys if you like, and the switcher jumps you between them instantly. (More on going solo →)

The agency

You manage social and content for five external clients who don't log in themselves. One business, five brands — this is Agency Mode. One billing relationship with m18t, every client managed from one place, and per-brand integrations so each client's posts go to that client's own accounts while sharing your AI key. (More for agencies →)

The strict-isolation client

A client demands their data never share a database file with anyone else's, for compliance or contractual reasons. A new business. Adding them as a brand inside your existing account wouldn't give them physical separation. A separate business gives them their own database file and their own storage bucket.

The flippable project

You're building a niche site you plan to sell. A new business. When you sell, you hand over a whole account cleanly, rather than trying to untangle one brand's rows out of a shared database.

A note on pricing

Pricing isn't locked during beta, but the working assumption is that m18t meters on brands per account, not seats and not AI tokens — because that's the dimension that scales naturally from a solo operator with three side projects to an agency with thirty client brands. So "just add another brand" may carry a cost as your account grows; "add another teammate" is not the axis. Treat this as the direction, not a committed price.

FAQ

Is a brand the same as a workspace? No. A workspace (the business / your account) is one physical database and bucket. A brand is one logical partition inside it. A workspace can hold many brands.

Can two brands share an API key? Yes. Brands in the same business can point at the same key in the vault, which is how agencies centralize AI billing. Each brand can also have its own.

Can I move a brand to a different business later? Not through a built-in tool today. Because a brand's rows live inside one business's database, splitting it out is a data operation, not a button. Plan the boundary up front — that's exactly why the "flippable project" case argues for a separate business.

Do I get charged for adding a brand? The metering axis is expected to be brands per account, so additional brands are the thing that scales your plan. Pricing isn't finalized in beta — see the pricing note above.

Which should I pick for client work? Almost always one business with a brand per client — that's Agency Mode. Reach for a separate business only when a client needs physical data isolation.

What's next

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