Licenses Overview

License provide the specific Salesforce functionality to the user. User must associate with one user license. When creating or editing a Salesforce User, there is a picklist field that lets you assign a specific User License. Profile is dependent on license. To enable additional functionality, you can assign permission set licenses and feature licenses to your users or purchase usage-based entitlements for your organization.

To view a list of the active user licenses in your Salesforce org, click Your Name | Setup | Company Profile | Company Information

 

Salesforce provides the following types of licenses and usage-based entitlements.

1. User License
2. Permission Set License
3. Feature License
4. Usage based entitlement

1. User License:

A user license determines the baseline of features that the user can access. Every user must have exactly one user license.

Salesforce

Salesforce licenses are designed for users who require full access to standard CRM and Force.com AppExchange apps. CRM apps are anything that requires access to Standard Objects like Leads, Opportunities, Forecasts, Cases, and Solutions.

Salesforce Platform

Salesforce Platform licenses are designed for users who only need access to custom apps, and NOT the standard CRM functionality. Salesforce Platform users DO have access to the "core" Salesforce Standard Objects and functionality, like Accounts, Contacts, Reports, Dashboards, Documents, Custom Tabs. Salesforce licenses have much more administrative permissions than Salesforce Platform licenses. If User license is Salesforce, then we can get System Admin as profile.

Chatter Free

Access standard Chatter people, profiles, groups, and files without a Salesforce license at no additional cost.

Chatter External

Allows your clients access to chatter groups at no additional cost.

Communities User Licenses:

There are three Communities licenses for external users: Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, and Partner Community. 

2. Feature Licenses

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.

3.Permission Set Licenses

A permission set is a convenient way to assign users specific settings and permissions to use various tools and functions.

4. Usage-based Entitlements Overview

A usage-based entitlement is a limited resource that your organization can use on a periodic basis—such as the allowed number of monthly logins to a Partner Community or the record limit for Data.com list users.