Does using multiple databases in Rails 3 affect performance?

Depending on your other requirements this seems like it might be a good use for Heroku's Postgres "follow" feature which creates a read-only instance that shadows your primary DB. More info here: Heroku Postgres Follow.

No, having more than one database connection shouldn't affect performance. It might use slightly more memory per worker process, but probably not by enough to be a concern.

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