Digital Experience
Digital Experience in Salesforce is the modern name for what was previously called Community Cloud and is now formally Experience Cloud.
Definition
Digital Experience in Salesforce is the modern name for what was previously called Community Cloud and is now formally Experience Cloud. The platform lets you build branded portals, customer help centers, partner communities, learning sites, and embedded customer experiences without writing the underlying infrastructure. Each site is a configured collection of Lightning Web Runtime (LWR) or Aura templates wrapped around Salesforce data, with its own URL, theme, navigation, content, and access model.
The rebrand from Community Cloud to Experience Cloud (Spring '21) reflected a broader scope: not just internal communities, but any customer-facing digital touchpoint that consumes Salesforce data. A 2026 Digital Experience site can be a help center on help.example.com, a partner portal on partners.example.com, a learning portal with branded content, an embedded chat experience inside another web app, or a microsite for a campaign. All run on the same platform and share infrastructure with the core Salesforce org.
What Salesforce Digital Experience builds
From Community Cloud to Experience Cloud
Salesforce launched Community Cloud in 2013 as the platform for self-service portals and partner communities. In 2021 (Spring release), Salesforce rebranded it as Experience Cloud and broadened the marketing to cover any digital customer-facing surface. The underlying capabilities expanded with the rebrand: faster LWR template, better headless API access (Experience Builder API), and tighter integration with Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud.
LWR versus Aura templates
Experience Cloud sites can be built on two template platforms: Lightning Web Runtime (LWR, the modern default) and Aura (the legacy option). LWR sites are faster, support modern Lightning Web Components, and have a clearer separation between presentation and Salesforce data. Aura sites are still supported but are the legacy path; new sites should use LWR unless a specific feature requires Aura (a few legacy templates still depend on it).
The personas an Experience Cloud site serves
Customer-facing sites: help centers (Knowledge articles, chat, case submission), customer portals (account management, order history), and marketing microsites. Partner-facing sites: partner relationship management, deal registration, lead distribution. Employee-facing sites: internal learning, HR self-service, internal knowledge base. Salesforce licenses each persona differently (Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community, Employee Community), and the license determines what data the user can see.
Site URLs, domains, and custom branding
Every Experience Cloud site gets a default URL on force.com (or experience.cloud, depending on the org), and most production sites map a custom domain (help.example.com). Custom domains require DNS configuration and an SSL certificate. The site's branding (logo, colors, fonts) is configured in Experience Builder and applies consistently across every page in the site.
Audience targeting and personalization
Experience Cloud supports audience targeting on page components: show the Premium Members box only to users in the Premium audience, hide internal links from external users. The audience is defined as a list of criteria (user fields, custom fields, profile, locale). Combine with conditional component visibility for fine-grained personalization without writing code.
Headless API and the Experience Builder API
Modern Experience Cloud sites can be consumed headlessly: the data and authentication are exposed through the Connect REST API and the Experience Builder API, letting you build the front-end in React, Next.js, or any framework. This is how Salesforce-powered help centers can be embedded inside non-Salesforce apps without rewriting the data layer. The Lightning Web Runtime templates also let you author the UI in standard LWC and deploy through Salesforce DX.
Performance, caching, and CDN delivery
Experience Cloud sites run on a Salesforce-hosted CDN with regional edge caching. Pages are pre-rendered when possible; dynamic data fetches through the standard Lightning Data Service. Compared to the Aura era, LWR sites typically render two to three times faster, primarily because the LWC framework avoids the Aura framework's startup cost. Site performance is monitored in Setup, then Digital Experiences, then Performance.
How to create a new Digital Experience site
Spinning up a new Experience Cloud site takes about 30 minutes for the basic configuration. The work continues for days or weeks as you add content, configure permissions, and brand the site.
- Enable Digital Experiences
Setup, then Digital Experiences, then Settings. Enable Digital Experiences if not already on. Pick a domain prefix (the URL stem for all your sites).
- Create a new site
Setup, then Digital Experiences, then All Sites, then New. Pick a template (Customer Service, Partner Central, Build Your Own LWR, or a Salesforce-curated template). Name the site and give it a URL slug.
- Configure site permissions and access
In the site''s Workspaces, set the Profile-level access (which user profiles can access the site) and the Sharing settings (which records flow into the site). Each license type unlocks different data access patterns.
- Build pages and navigation in Experience Builder
Open Experience Builder. Drag components onto pages (Header, Footer, Content, Login). Edit the navigation menu. Set the homepage. Brand the theme with your logo, fonts, and colors.
- Activate the site
In Workspaces, click Activate. The site goes live at its assigned URL. Until activated, the site is in draft mode and only accessible to internal users.
- Configure a custom domain (optional)
For production sites, add a custom domain (help.example.com) in Setup, then Domains. Configure DNS to point to the Salesforce CDN. Salesforce provisions an SSL certificate; the site is reachable at the custom URL.
Pre-built site for help centers, case submission, and Knowledge browsing. Most common starting point.
Pre-built site for partner portals, deal registration, and lead distribution.
Blank LWR template. Use when no pre-built template fits your design.
Older template family. Still supported but no longer recommended for new sites.
- Experience Cloud licenses cost extra. Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, and Partner Community licenses have separate per-user pricing. Plan licensing before designing the site.
- Profile-based access is the gating layer. Even with the right license, users need a profile that grants them access to the site and the underlying objects.
- Custom domain DNS changes can take hours to propagate. Schedule the cutover during low-traffic windows.
- Site activation is reversible but causes visible downtime. Deactivating mid-day takes the site offline for all users; coordinate with stakeholders.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Digital Experience.
- Experience Cloud Sites OverviewSalesforce Help
- Experience BuilderSalesforce Help
- Lightning Web Runtime DocumentationSalesforce Developers
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Digital Experience?
Q2. What older Salesforce concepts does Digital Experience replace?
Q3. What's a common Digital Experience use case?
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