External User
A Salesforce user who accesses the platform through an Experience Cloud site (portal or community), typically a customer, partner, or other non-employee with a limited license such as Customer Community or Partner Community.
Definition
A Salesforce user who accesses the platform through an Experience Cloud site (portal or community), typically a customer, partner, or other non-employee with a limited license such as Customer Community or Partner Community.
In plain English
“An External User is someone who logs into Salesforce through an Experience Cloud site, like a customer or partner. They're not employees of your company; they have a special license type like Customer Community or Partner Community that gives them limited access.”
Worked example
Lichen Logistics maintains an Experience Cloud partner portal for the 80 shipping carriers it works with. Each carrier-side dispatcher logs in as an External User on a Partner Community license - they can see only their own work orders, accept jobs, update statuses, and upload PODs (proof of delivery) into the shared system. The Lichen ops team using full Salesforce licenses sees all 80 carriers' activity through standard reports. Sharing rules ensure carrier A can never see carrier B's records; the External User license is what makes the per-tenant isolation possible without provisioning each carrier their own Salesforce org.
Why External User matters
An External User is a Salesforce user who accesses the platform through an Experience Cloud site, typically a customer, partner, or other non-employee. External users have a different license type than internal employees: Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community, or other external user license types depending on their use case. These licenses are typically less expensive than internal user licenses and have different feature scopes.
External user licensing is one of the most important planning considerations for any Experience Cloud deployment because it directly affects cost and capability. Different license types support different volumes (per-login or member-based pricing) and different features (Partner Community supports more sales features than Customer Community). Choosing the wrong license type early can be expensive to fix later. Mature deployments plan their external user model carefully, often using different license types for different audiences within the same site or across sites.
How organizations use External User
Helps clients evaluate Customer Community versus Customer Community Plus based on which features external users actually need. The choice affects both cost and capability significantly.
Uses Partner Community licenses for their channel partners because partners need access to Opportunities and other sales features that basic Customer Community doesn't include.
Audits External User license usage quarterly to ensure they're using the right license tier for actual usage patterns.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is an External User?
Q2. What's a common External User license type?
Q3. Why does license choice matter?
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