Definition
Experience Cloud (formerly Community Cloud) is a Salesforce product that lets organizations build branded digital experiences such as customer portals, partner portals, help centers, and forums. These sites give external users secure access to relevant Salesforce data and functionality without needing a full Salesforce license.
Real-World Example
NorthStar Electronics uses Experience Cloud to build a partner portal where reseller partners can log in, register new deals, access marketing materials, and track their commission statements. The portal pulls data directly from Salesforce and uses sharing rules to ensure each partner only sees their own records.
Why Experience Cloud Matters
Experience Cloud is part of the Salesforce platform layer, which provides the foundation upon which both standard and custom applications are built. The platform handles everything from data storage and user authentication to API access and deployment management, making it the backbone of every Salesforce implementation.
Understanding Experience Cloud is essential for anyone who builds on Salesforce, whether they are an admin, developer, or architect. The platform's metadata-driven architecture means that configuration changes—rather than code changes—drive most of the customization, and this feature is a key part of that model.
How Organizations Use Experience Cloud
- •Cyberdyne Co — Built a custom application on the Salesforce platform using Experience Cloud to manage their entire vendor qualification process. What used to live in spreadsheets is now a structured, auditable system with automated notifications, approval routing, and real-time dashboards.
- •Soylent Group — Used Experience Cloud to extend their Salesforce org beyond traditional CRM. They built project management capabilities directly on the platform, eliminating the need for a separate tool and giving their team a single interface for customer data and project delivery.
- •Acme Corporation — Applied Experience Cloud to create a partner portal where external distributors can log in, view their accounts, submit orders, and track shipments—all powered by Salesforce without any custom infrastructure.