Salesforce License Types in 2025: Cost, Features, Limitations & Optimization Tips

Publish date:

• 23rd May, 2025

How to Choose the Right Salesforce Licenses: A Complete Guide for SMBs

Did you know that nearly half of Salesforce users spend more money than necessary? It often happens because they choose the wrong licenses or fail to utilize their existing permits fully. Salesforce licenses may seem simple at first, but once you look closely at the different types and prices, it can become quite confusing.

If you get it wrong, you could pay too much or miss out on features that could help your business. That’s why this guide is here—to help you figure out how Salesforce licensing works, what kinds exist, and how to avoid common mistakes.

We’ll cover things like:

• How Salesforce’s license system works under the hood

• The key differences between license types and what they cost

• How to figure out what your small or medium-sized business might pay

• How to take a good look at the licenses you’re currently using

• What to watch out for with each permit and edition

• Some down-to-earth tips you can apply right away to save money and get more value

What Is a Salesforce License?

A Salesforce license grants a user access to specific Salesforce products and features. Think of it as a key that unlocks certain parts of the Salesforce platform, controlling what each user can view, edit, or interact with.

In any organization using Salesforce, every individual requires a license. These licenses determine the level of access and control each person has based on their role.

How Does the Salesforce Licensing Model Work?

When your company signs up for Salesforce, you need to purchase a license for every user who will use the platform. Different types of permits come with varying features and capabilities depending on the user's needs.

For example, a salesperson, a partner manager, and a custom app developer will each require different types of licenses to suit their specific responsibilities.

Types of Salesforce Licenses

Salesforce licenses can be categorized in different ways to help you understand how they work and what they cover.

By User Type

• Internal User Licenses: These are meant for employees within your organization. Examples include Salesforce CRM (Full), Salesforce Platform, and Chatter Only licenses.

• External User Licenses: Designed for users outside your company, like customers or partners. Examples are Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community, External App, and Channel Account licenses.

Understanding Salesforce Licenses by Billing Model

• Seat-Based Licenses: These are tied to individual users. You pay for each person who needs access, which usually works best for employees inside your company.

• Login-Based Licenses: Instead of paying per user, you pay based on how often someone logs in during the month. It is handy if you have external users who don’t need constant access.

• Usage-Based Licenses: Here, the cost depends on how much you use certain features — like API calls or data storage — so heavier users pay more.

• Per-Org Licenses: With these, you pay one fee that covers your entire company, no matter how many people are using Salesforce. It’s a simpler option for some organizations.

Salesforce Licenses by Functionality

• User Licenses: Basic access licenses like Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Platform, or Chatter Free fall into this group.

• Feature Licenses: These unlock specific parts of Salesforce, such as marketing tools, automated workflows, or customer service features.

• Permission Set Licenses: Think of these as add-ons — they give users extra permissions without needing to change their main license.

• Platform Licenses: Formerly known as Lightning Platform and Lightning Platform Plus, these let users access custom-built apps and platform features.

• Identity Licenses: Focused on user authentication and managing who can access what.

• Einstein Licenses: These cover AI-powered features like intelligent search, sales predictions, and personalized actions to help users work smarter.

Common Types of Salesforce Licenses: Internal vs. External

Salesforce generally splits licenses into two big groups: internal and external.

What Are Internal Salesforce Licenses?

Internal licenses are made for your company’s employees—those who work within the organization.

There are several internal license options beyond the basic user and feature licenses:

• Platform licenses: These come in two flavors, Enterprise and Unlimited editions. Examples include Salesforce Platform Login, Lightning Platform – One App, Force.com – App Subscription, Company Community User, and Developer licenses. These are perfect for users who primarily work with custom apps rather than the usual CRM tools. They allow access to key data, such as accounts, contacts, reports, and automation, through tools like Flow and Apex.

• Identity-only licenses: These let users sign in via Salesforce single sign-on (SSO) without needing a full CRM license. It is handy for organizations that want to manage access securely across different systems without giving everyone full Salesforce user rights.

• Salesforce Integration: Designed for integration users to control what data they can access, making it easier to monitor and manage data moving between different systems.

• Salesforce Einstein licenses: These bring AI-powered features to Salesforce products, including predictive analytics and automated insights, helping sales, service, and marketing teams work smarter.

• Marketing Cloud licenses: These licenses unlock Salesforce’s marketing automation tools, enabling teams to manage campaigns, analyze customer data, and boost engagement.

• MC Account Engagement: Focused on B2B marketing automation, these licenses help businesses generate and nurture leads and run targeted campaigns, especially helpful in complex sales environments.

The cost of licenses varies depending on the type and edition you choose. Monthly prices can range from low-cost starter plans to more advanced packages. Understanding these options helps you create a licensing plan that meets your business needs without overspending.

What are External Salesforce Licenses?

 

External Salesforce licenses are designed for people outside your company, like customers or partners, who need access to certain parts of Salesforce.

One popular option here is Experience Cloud (formerly called Communities). It offers community licenses that work similarly to internal Salesforce licenses but are tailored for external users.

These licenses allow external users with a member-based plan to log in and use the community as much as they want. However, they don’t get access to your company’s internal Salesforce setup, keeping things secure and separate.

Different Types of Salesforce Experience Licenses

Salesforce offers several Experience Cloud license types designed for different kinds of external users and needs.

• Customer Community Licenses: These are a good fit for external users who need limited access and mostly serve themselves. They can do things like track orders, manage support cases, or access knowledge bases without needing extensive collaboration tools.

• Customer Community Plus Licenses: These licenses open the door for more team-oriented work. Users get enhanced data sharing, collaboration features, and improved customer service capabilities.

• Partner Community Licenses: Built for managing relationships with business partners, these licenses support sharing leads and opportunities, handling partner relationships, and providing a customizable partner portal.

• Channel Account Licenses: Ideal for organizations working with multiple partners, this license lets up to 40 users per partner account access Salesforce. It’s a budget-friendly solution for managing key contacts at partner companies.

• External App Licenses: These allow external users to interact with custom apps designed specifically for customer engagement, ensuring your CRM data remains secure.

• External Identity Licenses: Designed for customers, partners, or stakeholders, these licenses let external users register, log in, update their profiles, and access connected apps and sites. However, they don’t provide access to all CRM features.

Experience Cloud licenses come with different pricing rules compared to internal user licenses. You can buy them based on the number of users or how often those users log in. For example, individual licenses become more cost-effective when users log in more than a few times per month.

Salesforce also offers two special types of site access licenses for Experience Cloud sites:

• Guest User License: Meant for public visitors who don’t log in but access public pages on your site. These licenses come included with several Salesforce editions and are generally unlimited or capped, but they can’t be purchased separately.

• Site.com Only License: This license is for internal users needing access to Site.com capabilities but not the full CRM features. It’s available in specific Salesforce editions and allows creating unlimited custom tabs in one custom app. Users also need corresponding contributor or publisher feature licenses.

Login-Based vs. Seat-Based Licenses

When it comes to Salesforce licensing, understanding the difference between login-based and seat-based licenses is crucial.

• Seat-Based Licenses: These are assigned to specific users who regularly use Salesforce, such as your internal employees who log in every day and rely heavily on the platform.

• Login-Based Licenses: These licenses charge based on the number of logins a user makes during a month. They are ideal for occasional or external users—think seasonal staff, partners, or customers who only access Salesforce sporadically.

If managing these licenses and controlling costs feels overwhelming, the Codleo team can help. They offer support to:

• Pick the proper licenses for your needs

• Effectively use permission sets and profiles

• Perform regular license audits to avoid overspending

• Build custom Salesforce reports and dashboards that track user logins and adoption rates

Salesforce Developer License vs. Platform License

Salesforce provides different licenses to meet various needs. The Developer License and Platform License have distinct purposes, features, and limitations.

Salesforce Developer License

The Developer License is mainly for individuals or teams who want to build, test, or learn Salesforce apps at no cost. It’s perfect for development environments but not suitable for actual business use.

Key points:

• Free to use via Salesforce Developer Edition.

• Full access to core Salesforce tools like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and custom app development.

• Comes with limits on users, storage, and API calls (e.g., small storage and daily API call limits).

• Used to create, test, and experiment with Salesforce apps.

• Not intended for live or production environments.

Salesforce Platform License

Platform Licenses allow organizations to give users access to custom-built apps in a real work setting, especially when they don’t need the full Salesforce CRM features.

Key points:

• Paid license for users accessing custom Salesforce apps.

• Access to standard and custom objects, reports, dashboards, and automation tools like Flow.

• Does not include core CRM features such as Leads, Opportunities, Cases, or Campaigns.

• Ideal for employees who use Salesforce for internal apps or operational dashboards but don’t require complete CRM capabilities.

There are two types of Platform Licenses:

• Platform Starter: Allows use of up to 10 custom objects, suitable for simple apps with limited data needs.

• Platform Plus: Supports up to 110 custom objects, great for complex apps managing large data sets and relationships.

Both include tools like Flow and Apex, enabling advanced app development without needing full CRM licenses.

In summary, Platform Licenses provide the foundation to build custom business apps on Salesforce without the full range of features of a complete CRM package.

both versions come with core features like:

• Process Automation,

• Lightning App Builder,

• AppExchange access,

• Identity for Employees,

• Customizable reports and dashboards.

Platform Plus gives you 11 times more custom object capacity, making it perfect for organizations with complex data structures.

Also, Salesforce offers a Platform Login & Dev Credits option at $1,000 per 10,000 credits and 200 Logins.

Salesforce Editions vs. License Types: Understanding Pricing Differences

Many organizations find it tricky to tell the difference between Salesforce editions and license types, but it’s important because this distinction affects how much you pay.

• Salesforce Editions are bundles of features that your company buys as a package. They set the basic functions your business can use in tools like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.

• License Types determine what individual users can access within those editions, based on their roles and responsibilities.

Salesforce Editions Pricing Overview

• Starter/Essentials Edition: Designed for small businesses, this edition helps manage contacts, leads, and opportunities with straightforward CRM tools. It’s priced around $25 per user per month when billed yearly.

• Professional Edition: Ideal for medium-sized teams, it adds complete CRM features along with better sales forecasting and automation, costing about $75 per user monthly with annual billing.

• Enterprise Edition: For large businesses, this edition offers extensive customization, detailed reports, and integration options. It typically costs $150 per user monthly with annual payment.

• Unlimited Edition: This is the full-featured package, including premium tools like generative AI and 24/7 support, priced around $330 per user per month on annual billing.

• Einstein 1 Sales Edition: An advanced solution packed with AI capabilities, costing approximately $500 per user monthly.

Additionally, Salesforce Foundations is a free feature set available to users on Enterprise and Unlimited editions of Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. It includes select features from Data Cloud, Marketing, Commerce, Service, Sales, and Agentforce.

While editions set the overall capabilities for the organization, user licenses are assigned to each person based on their specific job roles. Each license comes with distinct permissions and access, ensuring you only pay for the features each employee actually needs.

Understanding the Difference Between User Licenses and Feature Licenses in Salesforce

Salesforce organizes its licenses into two main types that together control what each user can do on the platform.

• User Licenses define the basic level of access a user has. Every person using Salesforce must have one of these licenses. They grant core CRM capabilities and let users work with key standard objects such as accounts, contacts, leads, and opportunities.

• Feature Licenses are add-ons that provide access to specific extra tools or functionalities beyond what the user license covers. These can be assigned to users who need specialized features without changing their main user license.

This mix of user and feature licenses allows organizations to tailor access precisely, ensuring users get exactly what they need without unnecessary cost.

Common Salesforce License Types and Their Pricing

Here’s a quick look at some popular Salesforce licenses and their typical costs:

• Salesforce CRM Licenses: The basic Starter Suite is priced around $25 per user each month, while the more advanced Pro Suite costs about $100 per user monthly.

• Salesforce Platform Licenses: The Platform Starter license is roughly $25 per user monthly, and the Platform Plus license is closer to $100 per user each month.

• Identity Licenses: These include Identity Only, External Identity, and Identity Verification Add-Ons. Some Salesforce editions, like Enterprise and Unlimited, provide these licenses for free. However, standalone Identity licenses cost approximately $5 per user per month.

• Salesforce Integration Licenses: Organizations using Enterprise, Unlimited, or Performance editions receive five integration licenses for free, while Developer Edition users get one free license. Additional integration licenses are about $10 per user per month.

• Usage-Based Licenses: These vary depending on usage. For example, Experience Cloud offers login-based licenses costing around $2 per login for customer communities and $10 per login for partner communities.

• Extra Data Storage: Additional storage is available in 500 MB blocks at roughly $125 each month.

• Advanced AI Features: Solutions like Agentforce AI agents are priced based on usage, costing around $2 per conversation.

Keep in mind that each license type comes with API usage limits, and exceeding them could lead to extra fees or require a license upgrade.

How Salesforce User and Feature Licenses Work Together

Every Salesforce user starts with a core user license, which provides basic functionality needed to work on the platform. Beyond this, permission sets can be added to give users extra access that goes beyond their standard license.

Feature licenses act as add-ons that unlock specific capabilities not included in the basic user licenses. Users can have multiple feature licenses at the same time, depending on what they need. Some common examples include:

• Marketing User license

• Flow User license

• Salesforce CRM Content user license

• Knowledge Only User license

• Service Cloud User license

Here’s how it all fits together:

• Your organization buys a Salesforce edition.

• Admins choose and purchase the right types of licenses.

• Core user licenses are assigned to people based on their roles.

• Feature licenses are added selectively to unlock special functions as needed.

This approach helps keep costs down by tailoring access precisely—so users only get the features they actually require instead of paying for full licenses for everyone.

Estimating Salesforce License Costs for an SMB: A Case Study

Let’s look at Innovative Technologies Solutions, a small tech consulting firm with 25 employees. They use Salesforce to manage customer relationships, run their operations, and connect with people outside the company.

Here’s how their user profiles and licensing needs break down:

• Internal Employees (20 users):

  • Sales & Marketing team (8 users) needs full CRM access with Sales Cloud.

  • Operations & Admin team (6 users) requires access to custom apps but not core CRM features like Leads or Opportunities.

  • IT & Developers (2 users) primarily use integration licenses to manage API connections.

  • HR & Executives (4 users) only need Identity licenses for single sign-on to access internal portals.

• External Users (Login-based licenses):

  • Partners and resellers log in about 100 times per month to the Partner Community.

  • Around 200 customers log in monthly to the support Customer Community.

Cost Breakdown

• Internal Licenses:

  • Sales Cloud Pro Suite for Sales & Marketing: 8 users × $100 = $800 per month

  • Platform Starter License for Operations/Admin: 6 users × $25 = $150 per month

  • Integration Licenses for IT/Developers: Included (5 free licenses; no extra cost)

  • Identity Only License for HR & Executives: 4 users × $5 = $20 per month

  • Total Internal Licenses: $970 per month

External Licenses:

• Partner Community (login-based): 100 logins × $10 = $1,000 per month

• Customer Community (login-based): 200 logins × $2 = $400 per month

• Total External Licenses: $1,400 per month

This adds up to monthly Salesforce licensing costs of $2,370, which equals an annual total of $28,440.

Additional Costs (Optional):

• Extra Data Storage or API usage: $125/month for each additional 500MB

• Agentforce AI Agents: $2 per AI conversation (optional)

This text explains what a small business may pay for Salesforce licenses.

The costs can vary based on the edition you choose, how you negotiate, any additional needs, your contract, and any available discounts or promotions.

Nonprofit Cloud License Types and Pricing

Salesforce knows that nonprofits have special challenges and play an essential role in their communities. To help these organizations succeed, Salesforce provides customized licenses through its Nonprofit Cloud. These options are built to support the unique ways nonprofits manage donors, raise funds, track grants, and run programs.

These licenses are designed to help nonprofits efficiently manage donor relationships, fundraising efforts, grant tracking, program management, and reporting — all essential for driving success and transparency.

Let’s take a closer look at the main licenses, offerings, and programs Salesforce provides specifically for nonprofit organizations.

How Salesforce Supports Nonprofits with the Power of Us Program

Salesforce offers exceptional help to nonprofits through its Power of Us Program. This program gives eligible nonprofits a chance to start using Salesforce for free and access discounts as they grow. Nonprofits get ten free licenses for Nonprofit Cloud or Sales/Service Cloud Enterprise Edition and can buy more licenses or upgrades at discounted rates. The idea is to provide nonprofits with powerful tools without the high costs, so they can focus their energy on making a difference.

Different Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Editions and What They Offer

Salesforce designs editions for nonprofits of all sizes—from small and growing organizations to large, complex ones.

• Enterprise Edition costs $60 per user per month (billed yearly). Ideal for mid-sized nonprofits, it covers fundraising, donor and program management, tracking activities, and reporting. Features include a nonprofit-specific data model, tools to ease accounting, and a helpful assistant called Nonprofit Copilot.

• Unlimited Edition runs at $100 per user per month (annually billed). It’s suited for bigger nonprofits needing more storage, extra automation, and priority support. In addition to its comprehensive features in Enterprise, it offers advanced customization and a complete testing environment.

• Einstein 1 for Sales Nonprofit Cloud costs $300 per user per month. This upgrade targets teams wanting AI-powered insights to boost fundraising and donor engagement by analyzing data smartly.

• Einstein 1 for Service Nonprofit Cloud at $300 per user monthly focuses on improving service interactions—like supporting donors or volunteers—using AI-driven insights and powerful collaboration tools.

• Grantmaking Enterprise Edition, priced at $175 per user monthly, is tailored for nonprofits handling grant applications, budgets, and evaluations, including access for external partners and grantees.

• Grantmaking Unlimited Edition costs $225 per user monthly and is built for organizations with extensive grantmaking needs, offering advanced automation, integrations, and top-tier support.

What Is the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)?

The Nonprofit Success Pack, or NPSP, was Salesforce’s initial solution tailored for nonprofits. It’s an open-source set of tools designed to help organizations manage donor relationships, track grants, and handle fundraising efforts—completely free to use.

While many nonprofits still benefit from NPSP, Salesforce has shifted its focus to the newer Nonprofit Cloud, which caters to today’s more complex nonprofit needs and includes the latest AI-driven features and updates.

Marketing Cloud and Pardot Licensing Explained

Marketing Cloud differs from typical Salesforce licensing because it charges based on the entire organization rather than individual users. The platform is modular—you choose and pay for the specific studios or builders that fit your marketing needs.

Here’s an overview of some Marketing Cloud pricing tiers:

• Marketing Cloud Engagement: Starting at around $1,250 per month per org

• Marketing Cloud Intelligence: Starting near $3,000 per month per org

• Marketing Cloud Personalization: Annual pricing beginning at $108,000 per org

• Marketing Cloud Growth Edition: From about $1,500 per month per org

• Loyalty Management: Starting at $20,000 per month per org

• Data Cloud for Marketing: Around $108,000 per year per org

Pricing varies depending on which modules you select and the size of your organization.

Similarly, Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) uses a per-organization license model that allows multiple users access under one license:

• Growth Edition: Starts at approximately $1,250 per month for small B2B marketing teams

• Plus Edition: Mid-tier features at about $2,500 per month

• Advanced Edition: Full marketing capabilities for roughly $4,000 per month

• Premium Edition: Enterprise-grade tools around $15,000 per month

Pardot plans come with contact limits—usually starting at 10,000 contacts, with Premium plans supporting up to 75,000. Additional contacts can be purchased in 10,000-contact increments.

Choosing the Right Salesforce Marketing Cloud License

Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers different pricing levels depending on the features and integrations you need. Each Account Engagement tier unlocks more capabilities:

• The Growth Edition provides basic tools but limits features such as the number of forms, landing pages, and automation rules you can create.

• The Advanced and Premium Editions offer more customization options, including custom objects and dedicated IP addresses for enhanced control and branding.

Picking the proper license depends on your business size, user needs, and budget. Choosing wisely helps you get all the features you need without overspending.

Understanding Salesforce License Limitations

It’s essential to grasp the limits tied to different Salesforce licenses to manage costs effectively and stay compliant.

• Custom Object Limits:

  • The Platform Starter license, formerly known as Lightning Platform, allows users to access up to 10 custom objects.

  • The Platform Plus license, previously known as Lightning Platform Plus, allows you to create up to 110 custom objects. It gives you more space to build complex applications.

While you can assign additional custom objects through permission sets, exceeding your license's custom object limit breaks Salesforce’s agreement and could result in charges for past overuse.

Keep in mind, Salesforce prohibits using custom objects to replicate standard CRM features. For example, building a system that mimics Opportunities with custom objects is against their rules and may lead to penalties.

API-only Access in Salesforce Integration User License

The Salesforce Integration User license, launched in March 2023, is designed for system-to-system connections. These licenses only work with APIs, which means users cannot access the Salesforce interface directly.

Organizations with Performance, Enterprise, or Unlimited editions receive five free Integration User licenses.

Developer organizations receive a special license. Managing permissions for these licenses requires careful attention.

• You can only edit permissions through permission sets – not at the profile level.

• Users need at least “Modify Metadata Through Metadata API Functions” and “Customize Application” permissions.

• All interactions happen through REST, SOAP, or Bulk APIs due to the API-only restriction.

Einstein License Restrictions by Edition and Feature

Einstein features vary across Salesforce editions.

If you have the Enterprise edition or a higher version, features like Einstein Search and Opportunity Scoring are included. The Unlimited edition offers most Einstein features at no additional cost.

Enterprise and Performance editions of Salesforce come with extra costs for many Einstein features. Before choosing a Salesforce edition, organizations should think about which Einstein features they need.

Einstein’s licensing model is different from regular user licenses. Its availability usually depends on specific Salesforce products and editions rather than being offered as standalone options.

How to Audit Your Current Salesforce Licenses

A Salesforce license audit can help you save money. According to research from Gartner, you could save up to 30%. Regular audits show how your organization uses licenses and help cut unnecessary costs. 

Let’s explore some practical steps to review your current Salesforce license setup.

How to See How Many Salesforce Licenses You Have

The Company Information section is where you start any Salesforce license audit.

Here’s how to find this critical area:

• From Setup, type “Company Information” in the Quick Find box,

• Click on the resulting link to see your organization’s details.

You’ll find detailed information about your license inventory, including:

• Total licenses purchased by type,

• Number of licenses currently in use,

• Available licenses remaining for assignment,

• Expiration dates for license agreements.

This view shows your license usage right away without running complex reports.

The Feature License section lists special license types, such as Marketing User, Service Cloud User, and Flow User. These details are not found in standard reports.

Be careful with Integration User licenses. They are ideal for API-only access to third-party tools like Marketo or HubSpot when users don’t need to log in to an interface.

How to Export License Data using Salesforce Reports

Salesforce provides several ways to manage license allocation. You can create standard user reports to track how often users log in and how licenses are assigned.

Here’s how to build a report that tracks inactive users:

1. Create a report using the “Users” standard report type,

2. Add a filter for “Last Login” that is not equal to LAST 30 DAYS,

3. Include columns for “Full Name” and other relevant user data,

4. Add a row-level formula to calculate “Days Since Last Login” using: TODAY() – DATEVALUE(LAST_LOGIN)

5. Sort by “Days Since Last Login” in descending order.

Permission Set License Assignment Reports:

To see which licenses belong to specific users:

• Create a custom report type using Permission Set License Assignments as the primary object.

• Add fields like Assignee: Full Name, Permission Set License: Developer Name, and User License: Name.

• Filter by specific users as needed.

You can export these reports as CSV or Excel files to work offline or share with others. If you choose the “Formatted Report” option, your export will keep its original formatting.

How to Identify Underutilized or Inactive Licenses

Only 47% of Salesforce licenses see active use, and here’s how to spot these underused licenses:

Set clear metrics to spot underuse:

• Users who haven’t logged in for 30-60 days.

• Little or no activity with key objects (opportunities, accounts, etc.)

• Low usage of critical features that match job roles.

Look at how different departments and teams log in to find usage trends. This can show if some teams are using the system less often.

Ask users to explain why they need specific licenses before assigning them. It helps ensure licenses are appropriately allocated.

Pay attention to seasonal trends to identify opportunities to reassign licenses. Some roles only need full licenses at certain times, allowing you to optimize license use throughout the year.

You can give inactive licenses to new users or change them to cheaper types.

Consider temporarily deactivating licenses for users who haven’t logged in for 45 to 60 days.

Make license audits a regular part of your Salesforce management. Review your license distribution quarterly to keep it optimized as your organization grows.

How to Save 40% with Salesforce License Optimization Strategies

Smartly managing your Salesforce licenses can save you up to 40% on subscription costs. Many companies waste money by not allocating their licenses properly. Before buying new licenses, try these cost-cutting methods.

Tip #1: Reassign Unused Licenses to New Users

License audits show companies keep paying for inactive licenses they don’t need.

Here’s how to spot these chances:

• Run system checks for users inactive for 45-60 days,

• Check with team leaders if they still need access,

• Get clear reasons before giving out new licenses.

You can quickly turn off unused licenses without losing user data – users can be reactivated whenever needed. Start with teams that have seasonal usage, where licenses sit unused during quiet periods.

Tip #2: Switch from Full CRM to Platform Licenses for Internal Apps

Users who primarily work with custom apps instead of core CRM can use

• Platform licenses to save money:

• Platform Starter lets you use 10 custom objects at a lower cost.

• Platform Plus gives access to 110 custom objects.

These licenses are good candidates for:

• Post-sales teams that don’t use Opportunities,

• Teams mainly use Managed Packages,

• Non-standard business setups (standard in nonprofits).

Switching from full Salesforce licenses to Platform licenses will remove all permission sets. After the switch, you will need to set up new permissions.

Tip #3: Use Identity Licenses for SSO-only Users

Salesforce Identity licenses allow users to sign in easily without giving access to all the features of the CRM.

These work best for:

• Staff who need identity services,

• Account Engagement users accessing Lightning apps,

• People need login access across multiple systems.

The Salesforce Identity license includes key features like Single Sign-On, Multi-Factor Authentication, App Launcher, and Connected Apps. The Identity Plus version offers improved security and integration options.

With Account Engagement, your company gets 100 identity licenses. If you already use these tools, you can save money easily.

How Codleo Can Help with License Cost Optimization

Need to manage your Salesforce licenses within your budget? Hire Codleo, a certified Salesforce consultant, to help you save on costs and use your licenses effectively.

With over 10 years of experience, we understand how to improve how you manage Salesforce licenses.

We will help your organization maximize its Salesforce investment by ensuring you save money while gaining efficiency and productivity.

Besides that, we will help you:

• Calculate the actual cost of migrating to Salesforce, including any hidden fees.

• Selecting the right edition and licenses will lower your initial costs for Salesforce implementation. Analyze your business structure to simplify user system access.

• Make sure to use all licenses in your organization effectively and improve how you manage Salesforce licenses.

• Streamline the development process. You can cut Salesforce development costs by using the techniques we’ve learned and reducing technical debt.

• Reduce integration costs by choosing or creating the right tool to connect with your system.

• Lower the costs involved in developing and getting approval for your AppExchange app.

• Expand system functionality in the most cost-effective way and keep saving costs over time.

• With our virtual support and administration services, you can maximize your license usage with each new release and fully take advantage of Salesforce innovations.

Are you unsure about Salesforce license types, editions, or subscription costs? Do you need help understanding how Salesforce pricing works?

Get your free consultation today!