Keeping track of all the possible user licenses Salesforce offers is tricky because they change often. It’s usually best that Salesforce manages the commercial agreement with the client.
However, it’s important to be aware of what kind of user licenses exist and to sometimes provide guidance. Also, a fellow reader also request for this information
So let’s focus on the main ones. Keep in mind all licenses include access to Activities, Files, Reports, Flow, Apex and packages.
Sales
This license is the most popular, as it allows users to leverage the main properties of Salesforce. Access includes Accounts, Contacts, Campaigns, Leads, Opportunities, Cases, and Orders as well as Forecast Management.
Service
This license provides access to the main objects such as Accounts, Contacts, and Cases, as well as service-specific functionality such as Knowledge Base, Service Contracts, Entitlements, and Omni-Channel Routing. They don’t provide access to Campaigns, Leads, or Opportunities.
These licenses are generally less expensive than Sales, so they can be a good fit if your users don’t need sales-y objects.
Platform Licenses
When Sales or Service licenses provide too much functionality, consider Platform Licenses. These licenses provide access to Accounts and Contacts, but not to Campaigns, Leads, Opportunities, or Cases.
The intention is to mostly access custom objects. There are actually two types of Platform Licenses:
- Platform Starter: access to 10 custom objects.
- Platform Plus: access to 110 custom objects.
Restriction Use Licenses (RUL)
These are the secret licenses Salesforce doesn’t really want you to know about. They are not published in any official document.
Basically, these are a type of Sales or Service license, with a contractual agreement that users with them will not access certain objects.
For example, let’s say some users need access to everything except Campaigns. Salesforce can create a custom RUL for your organization that allows for that.
The important thing here is even though the user technically has access to everything, you are contractual bound not to. And you don’t want to cross that line.
The takeaway
These 4 user licenses are most common. There are dozens of others that appear, disappear, or get renamed on a periodic basis. Again, the best approach to have a conversation with your Salesforce Account Executive to know which ones are fit for purpose.