For new external-facing site deployments, use Experience Cloud (formerly Community) with the right template. The workflow is the same regardless of which name appears in the documentation you are reading.
- Confirm licensing for external users
Pick the Community license type matching the user population: Customer Community (basic), Customer Community Plus (rich), Partner Community (partner-facing). Confirm available license counts.
- Open Digital Experiences (formerly Communities) in Setup
Setup, Digital Experiences, All Sites. The page lists existing sites. Click New for a new deployment.
- Pick a template
Choose Customer Service, Partner Central, Help Center, or Build Your Own. Each template seeds a base configuration.
- Configure branding and pages
Open Experience Builder. Customize the logo, colors, fonts, page layouts, and navigation. Drop Lightning components for custom UI.
- Set up self-registration if needed
Configure the Login and Registration page in Experience Builder. For custom signup logic, implement Auth.SelfRegistrationHandler in Apex.
- Configure sharing rules and data access
Decide which data external users should see. Build sharing rules tying user records to the relevant business data through the user's contact or account.
- Launch and monitor
Activate the site. Send invitations or expose the public URL. Monitor adoption through site analytics and Login History reports.
The Salesforce-provided starting point: Customer Service, Partner Central, Help Center, Build Your Own.
Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community. The licensing model persists from the pre-rebrand era.
The underlying data model for each Experience Cloud site, still named Network in the schema.
Public signup flow that creates Salesforce user records automatically through standard or custom Apex logic.
The drag-and-drop site customization tool, replacing the older Visualforce template editing.
- Community is the legacy name. New documentation uses Experience Cloud. Both terms refer to the same feature. Map mentally when reading older material.
- The Network object retains its legacy name despite the Experience Cloud rebrand. SOQL queries and Apex code reference Network and NetworkMember, not Experience or related.
- Community license types are still named Community. The license model carries over from the Community Cloud era and remains the foundation of external user identity.
- Sharing rules for external user access need to be deliberate. Over-sharing leaks data; under-sharing creates "I cannot see my record" complaints.
- Older Visualforce-based community templates still work but are in maintenance mode. New deployments should use Lightning-based templates and Lightning Web Components.