Another post dedicated to the ones new to Salesforce. Have you just started with Salesforce and pondering about what are these editions in Salesforce and then again various licenses?

It has just been couple of days that I started off with our new trainee batch(all fresh out of college) and I was wondering what would be the simplest way to explain them the Editions and Licenses which at times can be really confusing.

A very simple analogy came into my mind and it played the trick. They were able to understand the basic difference at the very first go, so thought it would be worth the share.

So, here’s your secret answer –

Now, how do we join the dots?

• Salesforce editions can be compared to Houses, the bigger the house the more the features and space to add new features.
  • Developer edition is a replica of Enterprise Edition with limited size and accessible to limited number of users, however has all the features similar to Enterprise Edition. You can use to test all the features, built products but cannot use it for actual functioning. It is just a prototype and free of cost.

• Salesforce User License is like key to the house, you cannot avail the facilities(Salesforce Features) in the house unless and until you have the access to enter.
  • A user license determines the baseline of features that the user can access. Every user must have exactly one  user license. 

• Various License Types is like the access to the rooms, do you have the master key or the key only to enter the hall and kitchen. Salesforce Standard User License is like the master key which is eligible to access all the rooms within the house.

• Features Licenses – These are like additional keys to access amenities within the room. For e.g.– You would like a user to access Content, you would have to enable the feature license to access content.
  • A feature license entitles a user to access an additional feature that is  not included with his or her user license, such as Marketing or Work.com. Users can be assigned any number of feature licenses.
  • All feature licenses might not be applicable for all editions.

Some of the Key Points to Consider :

1. When we purchase an Edition, each Edition comes by default with certain number of user licenses and Feature Licenses. The cost is determined on the number of Licenses purchased.
2. All editions include a minimum of 1 GB of data and 11 GB of storage shared by all users.
3. The cost of each license varies as per the edition. The cost of Standard Salesforce License is 150 USD for Enterprise whereas it is double the cost i.e. 300 USD for Unlimited. Definitely the features available are more for Unlimited just like you pay a higher maintenance for staying in a bigger house.
4. You can easily upgrade to a higher edition
5. Certain features which are part of a higher edition can also be purchased at an additional cost in a lower edition.

This blog is not intended to explain the various features that each license is entitled but just to understand how Salesforce uses Editions and various Licenses.

References :

To learn more about the features available for each License Type and feature licenses, refer the following links

https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=users_understanding_license_types.htm&language=en_US

https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=users_feature_licenses_available.htm&language=en_US

Edition Features – refer the below link

http://www2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_SalesCloud_EdCompare.pdf