Lightning Platform Enterprise App
A Lightning Platform Enterprise App license is a Salesforce user license aimed at people who work mainly in custom apps built on the platform, without needing the standard Sales or Service Cloud features.
Definition
A Lightning Platform Enterprise App license is a Salesforce user license aimed at people who work mainly in custom apps built on the platform, without needing the standard Sales or Service Cloud features. It gives a user the platform itself (custom objects, custom apps, Flow, Lightning App Builder, reports, and a defined set of standard objects) at a lower price than a full Sales or Service license. In current Salesforce packaging this license sits under the Lightning Platform Plus product and maps to the underlying Salesforce Platform user license.
The name "Enterprise App" comes from older Salesforce price lists, where Platform editions were sold as "One App" and "Enterprise App" tiers. Salesforce has since renamed the packaging to Lightning Platform Starter and Lightning Platform Plus, but the older labels still appear in contracts and admin conversations. The license is for internal employees or contractors only, not for external community or portal users.
How the Enterprise App license fits Salesforce platform licensing
Where the name comes from
Salesforce has sold platform-only licenses under several names over the years. Early price lists used "Force.com" branding, then "Lightning Platform," with tiers called One App and Enterprise App. The One App tier was capped at a single custom app and read-only Account and Contact access. The Enterprise App tier was the broader option, with many more custom objects and full read-write on the allowed standard objects. Today the official documentation packages these as Lightning Platform Starter (the lighter tier) and Lightning Platform Plus (the broader tier), and both contain the Salesforce Platform user license under the hood. When someone says "Enterprise App license," they almost always mean a Lightning Platform Plus seat or its Salesforce Platform equivalent. The label you see depends on when the contract was signed and which price book the account team used. The capabilities, not the name, are what matter when you assign the license, so always confirm the actual user license value on the user record in Setup rather than trusting the marketing label.
What the license includes
An Enterprise App user can build and use custom apps, custom objects, and custom tabs, and can work with the platform tools that sit on top of them. That covers Flow, the Lightning App Builder, Lightning Web Components, reports, dashboards, list views, Chatter, and sharing rules. The license also grants access to a fixed list of standard objects. Accounts, Contacts, Assets, Cases, Tasks, Events, Files, Documents, Notes, and Work Orders are all on that list and are usable read-write when a profile or permission set grants it. The Lightning Platform Plus tier allows up to 110 custom objects per license, while the lighter Starter tier allows 10. API access comes from the org-level allocation rather than a special per-user grant. The practical takeaway is that an Enterprise App user gets a real platform seat. They can run automation, write Apex where the org allows it, and own a full custom data model. What they do not get is the Sales and Service Cloud feature set layered on top.
What the license cannot access
The license is defined by what it excludes as much as by what it includes. Opportunities, Leads, Campaigns, Quotes, Orders, Price Books, Products, Contracts, Entitlements, Service Appointments, and Territory Management are all off limits. Forecasting is not available either. These restrictions live at the license level, not the permission level. That distinction trips up admins. You cannot hand an Enterprise App user a permission set that grants Opportunity access and expect it to work. The object is simply not part of the license, so the grant has no effect and the user hits errors when something tries to reference it. If a user genuinely needs Opportunity or Case-routing features, the answer is a different license, usually Sales Cloud or Service Cloud, not a clever permission set. Note that Cases themselves are allowed on the platform license, which surprises people, but the surrounding Service Cloud routing, entitlements, and milestones are not. Plan the data model around the allowed object list before you commit users to this license.
Pricing and why teams choose it
The reason this license exists is cost. A full Sales or Service Cloud seat carries the price of the CRM feature set, and many users never touch that feature set. An employee who lives in a custom HR portal, an asset-tracking app, or an internal project tracker does not need Opportunity pipelines or Case routing. Paying a full CRM price for that person overspends. The platform license is sold at a fraction of a full Sales or Service license, so moving the right users onto it can cut a large org's license bill noticeably. The exact discount depends on the contract, the edition, and the volume negotiated with the account team. Salesforce structures these tiers as bundles at contract time, so the cleanest way to get the right mix is to plan it during the order, not to swap users mid-term. The savings only hold if you actually audit who needs CRM features and who does not, then assign accordingly.
Starter versus Plus, and editions
The two current platform tiers differ mainly in scale. Lightning Platform Starter is the lighter option, capped at 10 custom objects per license, with 20 MB of data storage and 2 GB of file storage per user. Lightning Platform Plus is the broader option, with 110 custom objects per license. File storage stays at 2 GB per user, and data storage is 20 MB per user on Enterprise Edition or 120 MB per user on Unlimited Edition. Both tiers support Chatter, sharing rules, and workflow or approval processes. The right tier depends on how many custom objects your app needs and how much per-user storage the use case demands. Most internal departmental apps fit comfortably inside the Plus limits. A small, single-purpose tool can live on Starter. Beyond these, Salesforce also offers the Salesforce Platform Login license for users who sign in occasionally rather than daily, which is billed on a login basis instead of a named-user basis.
Mixing license types across an org
Most large Salesforce orgs do not run on a single license type. A common pattern gives sales reps full Sales Cloud seats, support agents Service Cloud seats, and internal-app users platform licenses like Enterprise App. Light-touch users who only need a single app or read-only data can sit on the Starter tier or a login-based license. This mix is where the cost savings come from, but it adds design work. Each license type sees a different slice of the org, so profiles and permission sets have to respect those boundaries. A page layout or app that assumes Opportunity access will break for a platform user. Reports that span CRM objects will show gaps. The fix is to design custom apps for platform users around the objects their license actually allows, and to test as a platform user before rollout. Login-based access also needs monitoring, because heavy daily users can cost more on a login plan than on a named-user plan.
Assigning and verifying the license
A user license is assigned on the user record, and each user can hold exactly one. You set it when you create the user, and you can change it later, subject to having an available license of the target type in the org. Because the user license drives which permission set licenses and feature licenses you can then add, you pick it first and layer permissions on top. After assignment, confirm the actual value by opening the user in Setup and reading the User License field. Do not rely on what the contract calls the seat, since the marketing name and the technical license value can differ. If you manage many users, the Company Information page in Setup shows how many of each license type you own and how many are used, which is the number to watch before a large reassignment. When licenses run out, new assignments fail until you free seats or buy more.
How to assign a platform license to a user
You assign a Lightning Platform or Salesforce Platform license to a user on the user record. Each user holds exactly one user license, so this either happens at creation or replaces the current license. You need an available seat of the target license type in the org.
- Check available licenses
In Setup, open Company Information and review the User Licenses related list. Confirm you have an unused Salesforce Platform or Lightning Platform license before you assign one.
- Open the user record
Go to Setup, then Users, and either create a new user or edit an existing one whose role no longer needs full CRM access.
- Set the User License field
Choose the platform license in the User License picklist, then pick a Profile that is compatible with that license. The Profile list filters to match the chosen license.
- Layer permissions
Save the user, then assign permission sets and permission set licenses for the specific custom apps and objects this person needs, staying within the allowed object list.
- Verify as the user
Log in as the user or use a sandbox to confirm they see their custom app and the allowed standard objects, and that no layout references a blocked object like Opportunity.
The single license that defines baseline access. Pick the platform license here before choosing a profile.
A compatible profile is required and filters to match the license. It sets default object and field access.
Additive grants for custom apps and objects, valid only within what the license already allows.
Optional add-ons that unlock features beyond the base user license when the use case needs them.
- A permission set cannot grant access to an object the license excludes, such as Opportunity. The grant silently has no effect.
- Each user can have only one user license, so switching to a platform license replaces the previous one entirely.
- Cases are allowed on the platform license, but the surrounding Service Cloud routing and entitlements are not.
- Custom object limits are per license (10 for Starter, 110 for Plus). Heavy data models can exceed the lighter tier.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Lightning Platform Enterprise App in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Lightning Platform Enterprise App.
- User Licenses, Permission Set Licenses, and Feature LicensesSalesforce
- Licenses OverviewSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Lightning Platform Enterprise App.
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 the Lightning Platform Enterprise App license aimed at?
Q2. When should an architect choose the Lightning Platform Enterprise App tier instead of Sales or Service Cloud?
Q3. Which standard object is a Lightning Platform Enterprise App user blocked from accessing regardless of permission sets?
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