Lightning Platform Light App
A Lightning Platform Light App is the lower-cost variant of the Force.com App Subscription user license, meant for internal users who need a single custom app rather than full CRM. The license limi…
Definition
A Lightning Platform Light App is the lower-cost variant of the Force.com App Subscription user license, meant for internal users who need a single custom app rather than full CRM. The license limits each user to one custom app, defined as up to 10 custom objects and 10 custom tabs, with read-only access to the Accounts and Contacts standard objects. It excludes Sales and Service Cloud objects such as Opportunities, Leads, Cases, Quotes, and Campaigns.
The "Light App" name is older Salesforce branding. In current price books the same family appears as Lightning Platform Starter (10 custom objects) and Lightning Platform Plus (110 custom objects), with the paired Enterprise App tier adding read/write Account and Contact access plus Bulk and Streaming API. The license sets the baseline of what a user can touch, so picking the right tier per persona is one of the larger cost levers in a Salesforce contract.
How the Light App license shapes user access
What the Light App license includes
A Light App user gets one custom app, which Salesforce defines as up to 10 custom objects and 10 custom tabs. On top of that custom app, the license grants read-only access to Accounts and Contacts, plus working access to a curated set of standard objects. In the modern Lightning Platform Starter and Plus form, that set covers Activities (Tasks and Events), Documents, Notes and Attachments, List Views, Reports, Ideas, Cases as supported, Work Orders, and external objects through Salesforce Connect. Chatter and Salesforce Files are available too. The user can run custom Apex and Lightning components inside their app, so a Light App seat is a real platform license, not a read-only viewer. The key trade is scope. The license is built for a person who lives inside one internal app and occasionally references customer data, not someone who works deals or service cases all day. Because the license defines the baseline, no profile or permission set can hand a Light App user a feature the license itself does not carry.
The 10 custom object cap and read-only Accounts
Two limits define the Light App tier. The first is the 10 custom object cap. A Light App seat covers a single custom app of up to 10 custom objects, and that ceiling is set by the license, so you cannot raise it with a permission set. Custom objects that ship inside a managed package on AppExchange usually do not count against the limit, which gives some breathing room when you install vendor apps. The second limit is read-only access to Accounts and Contacts. A Light App user can view those records but cannot create or edit them. That single rule is what separates Light App from the Enterprise App tier in the same family, which grants full read/write on Accounts and Contacts and adds Bulk API and Streaming API access. If your app needs users to update customer records, or you depend on Bulk or Streaming API for those users, Light App is the wrong tier. The modern Lightning Platform Plus license lifts the object cap to 110, so a data model that outgrows 10 objects points you toward Plus rather than a workaround.
Standard objects the license leaves out
The exclusion list matters as much as the include list. A Light App license does not grant Opportunities, Leads, Campaigns, Contracts, Orders, Price Books, Products, Quotes, Entitlements, Service Appointments, or Territory Management. In short, the revenue and service engines of Sales Cloud and Service Cloud are not part of the license. This is by design. Salesforce positions the Lightning Platform family for custom internal apps, not for CRM selling or case handling. If a user needs to log a sales opportunity, they need a Sales Cloud license. If they need to own and resolve customer cases, they need a Service Cloud license, since Lightning Platform users cannot perform internal or external customer service work on their own. Trying to bolt CRM objects onto a Light App user through permission sets does not work. The platform enforces the license boundary, and the user hits an access error rather than getting silent extra access. When you map personas to licenses, list the standard objects each persona truly touches first, then match that list to the cheapest license that covers it.
From App Subscription to Lightning Platform Starter and Plus
The Light App label comes from the Force.com App Subscription era, when Salesforce sold paired Light App and Enterprise App tiers priced per app, per user. Salesforce later folded these into the Lightning Platform brand. The closest current names are Lightning Platform Starter, which keeps the 10 custom object scope, and Lightning Platform Plus, which raises it to 110 custom objects. The Starter and Plus pair sit beside the Salesforce Platform license, which is the seat-based option for broader custom-app needs, and Salesforce Platform Login, which prices the same access on a per-login basis. If you read an old contract or AppExchange listing that mentions Light App, treat it as the lower-cost, read-only-Accounts tier and map it forward to Starter or Plus when you renew. Names and exact limits shift across editions and price books, so the safe move is to confirm the current entitlements in the License Comparison help article for the edition you actually run. The intent across all of these names has stayed steady: a cheaper seat for internal custom-app users who do not need the full CRM.
Storage, API, and edition limits
Lower price comes with tighter ceilings, and you should size for them before you assign seats. In the App Subscription form, both tiers carried roughly 20 MB of data storage per subscription and a modest file storage allotment, with about 200 API calls per day per subscription. The modern Lightning Platform Starter license sets data storage at 20 MB per user and file storage at 2 GB per user. Lightning Platform Plus matches that on Enterprise Edition and raises data storage to 120 MB per user on Unlimited Edition. API limits also depend on edition. Starter allows 200 calls per member on Enterprise Edition and 1000 on Unlimited Edition, while Plus allows 5000 per member on Unlimited Edition. These numbers are per user and edition specific, so check the current help article rather than assuming. If your app drives heavy integration traffic or stores a lot of records per user, the storage and API math can push you toward Plus or a full Salesforce license, even when the object count would have fit on a Light App seat.
Mixing licenses across an org
Most orgs of any size run a deliberate license mix rather than one type for everyone. A common pattern puts Sales Cloud on the people who work deals, Service Cloud on agents who own cases, the Salesforce Platform or Lightning Platform Plus license on builders who live in larger custom apps, and a Light App or Starter seat on reference users who mostly look things up. Each license carries its own object boundary, so profile and permission set design has to respect that boundary per user. A permission set that grants Opportunity access does nothing for a Light App user, because the license never included Opportunities. The practical workflow is persona first, license second, then permissions. Define what each role actually does, choose the lowest license tier that covers it, and only then build the profile and permission sets inside that ceiling. Audit the mix on a schedule, because roles grow. A reference user who starts editing customer records or owning cases has outgrown Light App and needs an upgrade. Getting the mix right is usually the single biggest line-item saving available in a Salesforce renewal.
How to assign a Light App license to a user
You do not build a Light App license; you buy it on your contract and then assign it to a user, the same way you assign any user license in Setup. Confirm the seat is available, then set it on the user record and scope access with a fitting profile.
- Confirm the license is on your contract
In Setup, open Company Information and check the User Licenses related list. Make sure you have an available Lightning Platform Starter, Plus, or App Subscription seat before you try to assign one. If none show, the license is not on your contract and you need your Salesforce account team to add it.
- Open or create the user record
In Setup, go to Users and either edit an existing user or click New User. The User License field on the user record is where the license tier is set, and it controls which profiles you can then choose.
- Pick the license, then a compatible profile
Set User License to the Lightning Platform tier you bought, then choose a profile that belongs to that license. Profiles are tied to a license, so a Sales or Service profile will not appear for a Lightning Platform user.
- Scope object access within the license ceiling
Use the profile and permission sets to grant only the custom objects and the read access the persona needs. Remember the license already caps custom objects and makes Accounts and Contacts read-only on the Light App tier, so plan inside those limits.
On the user record, sets the base license tier and decides which profiles and features are available to that user.
Must match the chosen license; defines default object and field access plus app visibility for the user.
Layer extra access on top of the profile, but only for permissions the underlying license already allows.
Controls which single custom app and its tabs the Light App user sees, inside the 10 object and 10 tab cap.
- Permission sets cannot raise the 10 custom object cap or grant excluded objects like Opportunities; the license ceiling always wins.
- Light App is read-only on Accounts and Contacts. If users must edit those records, you need the Enterprise App or a fuller license.
- Lightning Platform users cannot do internal or external customer service work without a Service Cloud license, even with case-like custom objects.
- Changing a user license mid-contract usually needs an order change with your Salesforce account team, not just a click in Setup.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Lightning Platform Light 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 Light App.
- User Licenses OverviewSalesforce
- Standard User LicensesSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Lightning Platform Light 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 Light App license intended for?
Q2. When is a Lightning Platform Light App the right choice over an Enterprise App?
Q3. What is the most-cited limitation that pushes a user from Light App up to the Enterprise App license?
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