Platform Edition
A Platform Edition is a Salesforce licensing option that gives users the core Lightning Platform for building and running custom apps, without the standard CRM sales and service features.
Definition
A Platform Edition is a Salesforce licensing option that gives users the core Lightning Platform for building and running custom apps, without the standard CRM sales and service features. In Salesforce's license catalog it shows up as the Salesforce Platform user license, sold most commonly through the Lightning Platform Starter and Lightning Platform Plus tiers.
A Platform Edition user can create and use custom objects, tabs, apps, Apex, Lightning components, Flows, and the API. They do not get sales objects like Leads, Opportunities, Quotes, and Campaigns, or service features such as Cases worked under a Service Cloud license. The trade is simple. You pay less than a full Sales or Service Cloud seat, and in return you give up the prebuilt CRM that you were not going to use anyway.
How Platform Edition fits into Salesforce licensing
A user license, not a separate product
People say "Platform Edition" as if it were a distinct product you buy instead of Salesforce. It is really a user license that sits on top of the same multi-tenant platform that runs Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. Every Salesforce org assigns each user exactly one user license, and that license decides which standard objects and core features the person can touch. The Salesforce Platform user license is the one that unlocks the development platform while leaving the CRM apps locked. Salesforce packages this license under two main names you will see on order forms and in Setup. Lightning Platform Starter is the smaller tier, and Lightning Platform Plus is the larger one. There is also a Salesforce Platform Login license for users who sign in only occasionally, billed per login rather than per named user. Because it is a user license and not a feature license, you cannot bolt full Sales Cloud onto a Platform seat with a permission set later. If a Platform user needs Opportunities, you move them to a CRM license. That distinction drives most of the planning around when Platform Edition is the right call.
What you get and what you give up
The whole point of a Platform license is the development toolset. Starter and Plus users can build custom objects, custom tabs, and custom apps. They get Apex, Visualforce, Lightning Web Components, Flows, validation rules, reports and dashboards on the objects they can see, plus full API access and the AppExchange. A handful of standard objects come along too, because almost every app needs them. Accounts, Contacts, and Assets are available with full read, create, edit, and delete, and the license can manage Cases, Tasks, Events, Documents, Reports, and List Views. External objects through Salesforce Connect are also in scope. What is missing is the CRM heart. Leads, Opportunities, Contracts, Orders, Products, Price Books, Quotes, Service Appointments, Forecasts, and Campaigns are not available on a Platform license. So Platform Edition is a strong fit for an internal operations app or a partner system. It is the wrong fit for a sales team that lives in Opportunities, or a support team that needs the full case console.
Starter versus Plus: where the limits diverge
The two tiers share the same shape and differ mainly in how much you can build. The headline number is custom objects. Lightning Platform Starter allows ten custom objects per license, and Lightning Platform Plus raises that to one hundred and ten per license. The Salesforce Platform Login license matches Starter at ten. Plus also carries higher API call allowances and more data storage per user in the larger editions, which matters once an app starts pushing real volume through integrations. Starter suits a small, focused app with a tight data model. Plus is for a richer application with many related objects, more automation, and heavier API traffic. Worth knowing: a custom object limit tied to the license is per license, but the org still has its own ceilings, and orders are negotiated with Salesforce. If you outgrow Starter, the usual path is to upgrade users to Plus rather than to keep raising limits on the smaller tier. Map your object count and integration load to the tier before you sign, because moving users between licenses later is more work than picking right the first time.
Who is allowed to hold a Platform license
Salesforce restricts these licenses to internal use. Lightning Platform Starter, Lightning Platform Plus, and Salesforce Platform Login users must be employees or contractors of your company. They cannot be used to give external customers or unmanaged community members access, and they cannot perform customer service work that would otherwise require a Service Cloud license. If your audience is partners, resellers, or end customers, the right tool is Experience Cloud with its own external licenses, not a Platform seat. This matters for licensing compliance, not just cost. Provisioning an external-facing app on internal Platform licenses can put you out of step with your contract. Keep the line clear in your head. Platform Edition is for the staff who run and use your internal custom apps. External audiences get a different license family designed for that purpose. When you plan a new build, the first question is who will log in, because the answer rules certain licenses in or out before you ever look at price.
When Platform Edition saves money, and when it does not
The reason teams reach for Platform Edition is cost. A Platform seat is meaningfully cheaper than a full Sales or Service Cloud seat, so for an app that never touches Opportunities or the case console, you are not paying for shelves you leave empty. Classic wins are an employee onboarding app, an asset tracking system, a grants or compliance workflow, an internal request tool, or an industry operational app that lives entirely in custom objects. The savings are real when the app genuinely needs none of the CRM. The math turns against you when even a few users need a single CRM feature. If part of the team must work Opportunities, splitting them across Platform and Sales Cloud licenses adds complexity, and you may find a uniform CRM edition simpler to administer. The discipline is honest scoping. List every object and feature the app requires, check it against what Platform licenses include, and only then decide. A late discovery that you need Quotes can undo the whole cost case.
Building on Platform Edition day to day
For a developer or admin, working in a Platform org feels like working in any Salesforce org, with a smaller set of standard objects on the menu. You model your data with custom objects and relationships, lay out record pages in Lightning App Builder, and bundle screens into custom apps from the App Manager. Automation is the same Flow and Apex you would write anywhere. Reports and dashboards run on the objects the license can see. Integrations use the same REST and SOAP APIs, governed by the API limits of the tier you bought. The main adjustment is mindset. You are not extending a CRM, you are building an application from the platform up, so you define the objects that would have been standard in a CRM yourself. That freedom is the appeal. You also keep the platform services that make Salesforce productive, including the security model with profiles and permission sets, sharing rules, sandboxes for safe development, and the AppExchange for installed packages. The toolbox is full. The CRM data model is simply yours to design.
How to assign a Platform license to a user
You do not "turn on" Platform Edition. The Salesforce Platform license arrives in your org once it is on your contract, and an admin assigns it to a user, then grants object access through a profile or permission set. Here is the path in Setup.
- Confirm the license is in your org
In Setup, open Company Information and check Salesforce Platform appears under user licenses with seats available. If it is not there, it is not yet on your contract.
- Create or edit the user
Go to Setup, then Users, and open or create the user. Set the User License field to Salesforce Platform, which then filters the profiles you can choose.
- Assign a compatible profile
Choose a profile built for the Platform license. Clone the standard Platform profile if you need custom defaults rather than editing the original.
- Grant custom object and app access
Use a permission set to give read, create, edit, and delete on your custom objects, plus access to the custom app, then assign that permission set to the user.
On the user record, set User License to Salesforce Platform. This is the value behind Lightning Platform Starter and Plus, and it gates which standard objects the user can ever see.
Pick a profile compatible with the Platform license, for example a cloned Standard Platform User profile, to set the baseline object and field permissions.
Layer a permission set to grant access to your custom objects, Apex classes, and apps without editing the profile for everyone.
Within the profile or permission set, enable read, create, edit, and delete on the custom objects the user needs, staying inside the license object limit.
- You cannot grant a Platform user access to Opportunities, Leads, or Quotes through any profile or permission set. Those objects are excluded at the license level.
- Starter caps custom objects at ten per license and Plus at one hundred and ten. Assigning the wrong tier shows up as a hard wall when you try to deploy more.
- Platform licenses are for internal employees and contractors only. Do not use them to give partners or customers access. Use Experience Cloud licenses for external audiences.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Platform Edition in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Platform Edition.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Platform Edition.
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.
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